Subject: Re: Need help on doing a NC retrofit to a SHE

From: [email-masked] (JohnF118)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 00:24:29 -0500

Just finished this conversion on my Sherline mill and love the
results.  I bought the electronics in kit form from a place called
Camtronics Inc., 18230 130th Pl. NE, Bothell, WA 98011.  Cost was around
$175.  Assembly was easy and the instructions were step by step.  
     I had the Dancam software, and did'nt like it at all.  I bought a
program from a place in Georgia called Minitech.  That cost about $250,
but works real nice.  It uses standard G-code files so programming is real
easy.
     I made all of the mounting hardware for the motors, and the limit
switches.  This was fairly easy to do and it saved a bundle.

[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Jonathan M. Elson)
Date: 17 Mar 1995 19:52:56 GMT

Jay de Halas ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi; 

: Can anyone give me pointers on doing a NC retrofit to a Sherline milling 
: machine? 

: **** I would like to talk to anyone who has an interest in homebrew NC. ****

I have a strong interest in homebrewing NC.  I have a manual Bridgeport mill.
I have the X/Y drives (motors, encoders, leadscrews) out of an Excellon
NC drill for PC boards, and want to mount it on the bridgport.  I have
decided to use an old PC as the controller, so I can read floppies from
other CAD programs.  I will use the National Semiconductor LM628/629
controller chip to control the motor drives.  the 628 has analog output,
the 629 is PWM, which is what I will use.  I have some new digital shaft
encoders I will put on the leadscrews to replace the resolvers, because
they are too expensive to read out.  It will have .0001" resolution.
I have a field of lighted pushbutton switches from an industrial controller
that I will use for mode selections, etc.

I have a few other projects that are already started, and so I need to
finish them first.  Then it will be on to the NC project.

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From: [email-masked] (Daniel R. Mauch)
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 14:31:28 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Jonathan M. Elson) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (Jonathan M. Elson)
>Subject: Re: Need help on doing a NC retrofit to a SHERLINE mill
>Date: 17 Mar 1995 19:52:56 GMT

>finish them first.  Then it will be on to the NC project.
I have built several  (7) CNC machines. They all run on inexpensive software, 
a computer and a 3axis controller. I may be able to help