Re: Re: WHAT IS WANTED IN A CONTROLER

>    From: "stevenson_engineers" <machines@...>

<snipped bait>

>At the moment it's in the hands of people who need to be
> programmers first, operators second.

</bait>

Dangle, dangle, snap!

You should not take me to mean that JohnS is the primary target of my
broadside.

A few weeks ago I visited one of the, if not the, finest traditional
clock maker in the states. I learned that many of the engravers of very
old texts that published clock drawings were so accurate that you can
match up real parts to the drawings and build a clock that works as well
as did the original.

To give you a hint of the accuracy required here, this clock shop uses an
optical comparitor to see how acurately their CAD drawings match up to
the work of the engravers. Once satisfied, the drawings are passed
through Vector and the part is cut on one of Matt Shaver's Bridgeport
retrofits using the BDI and EMC. I've seen pictures of several
intricate parts that were created this way. Some are the masters for
castings.

There is nothing cheap about a Matt Shaver retrofit. There is nothing
shabby about one either. If the machine had a feature in it's first
life, it will have it after Matt has completed the retrofit. On this
machine Matt added a 4th axis that can be defined as C or A with accuracy
in arc seconds.

Matt is an electronics service man, machinist, manager, programmer, in
that order I think. I may have forgotten a job or two before those. He
is definitely the kind of person that you want to be able to contact when
a CNC mill or lathe goes south. Matt is also gloriously humble and will
be distressed with me for using his name as part of this post.

There are two points to this rant and this is the first one. My reason
for using Matt as an example is that he has done what he needed to make a
good application of the EMC. Many are not willing to take the effort
Many are so damned scared of the unknown that they will do and say most
any idiotic thing to avoid it. (The local school budget cutting
committee comes to mind) The effort required to apply the EMC may be
different in quantity from that required to apply an AHHA to a Bridgeport
or a Flashkut to a sherline but it is not different in essence. Apply
one of these and you will learn to install the programs, hook it up, tune
it, and run it. I've been messing with the EMC for two years now and I
don't know any C or C++. I learned a little tickle so I could mess with
the graphical user interface and IO.

The second level to this rant is that the clock maker is one hell of a
clock historian and engineer but he knows little of programming and
little of electronics. He is a GOOD machinist. He learned machining the
way I think that most should. With handles, homemade cutters, and the
proper measuring instruments. How many of us are willing to invest
several thousand in gauge blocks, pins and mics.

So why does a shop like that get involved with anything less than a new
CNC with all the bells and whistles? Beats me! They say if you don't
know the answer before you ask, you shouldn't but I have a couple of
ideas that I gathered from watching but I never got the courage to ask.
Our clock maker is networked with people in his profession from all over
the world. He groks the value of networking the way that Heinlein
intended for that word to be used. He has an extensive library of clock
texts and can get most any needed info in short order.

That's where one of the strength of the EMC is. The few EMC folk that
I've visited with or know are simply awesome. Their knowledge and
inventiveness seems nearly boundless. There willingness to share is even
better. As most have learned, the EMC is configurable to a fault. It
can do most any motion control that you can imagine. Contrary to popular
wisdom it can even do lathe threading, but not as easily as a dedicated
Mitsubishi. And the support network is in place -- emc@....

John S is correct. The EMC is for explorers more than it is for
settlers. But if you just want to make chips, you wouldn't be hanging
around this list for long anyway.

It's right about this point that I imagine Frank down there in Florida.
He's sitting in a lawn chair at the edge of the tent that holds his 3D
router. He's scanning the surf and digging his bare toes into the warm
sand. Behind him his EMC powered machine rips through foam making
another fiberglass mould at 600 ipm. Frank posted quite a bit while he
was getting the machine running. Lately he's been kinda quiet.

RayH -- U.P. Michigan