![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Smithy-300x300.jpg)
Caught the CNC Bug
I’ve always been fascinated by CNC machines. They fall pretty squarely in the middle of my interests: computers, electronics, mechanical widgets, and makin’ stuff. I was inspired…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dsc_9726-624x938.jpg)
The Eagle Has Landed
The machine arrived at the Manchester Airport UPS Freight terminal in the wee hours of the morning, and I arranged to have it held so we could…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dsc_9816-624x414.jpg)
Making Chips
Now that the machine is here, I decided to do a small project to start my way up the learning curve. For a while I’ve been planning…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/mx3_17-300x300.jpg)
CNC Kit Ordered!
So I finally pulled the trigger on ordering the CNC conversion kit for my mill. After a fair amount of internal debate trying to decide between the…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/pv_stpmtrh23079_01-300x300.jpg)
Stepper Motors
The stepper motors have arrived! I went with the same brand that ProMiCA used in their kit, but the higher torque version. Still need to order my…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_1367n__08342-300x300.jpg)
Three Cheers for Flat-Rate Postage Boxes
My linear power supply arrived today, and it’s big and heavy as I expected. After poring over data sheets and doing more research and fretting and calculating,…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/20__480x_geckos-300x300.jpg)
Gecko Infestation
The Gecko stepper motor drivers have arrived, along with my cheap and cheerful dual PCI parallel port card. There should be enough stuff here to make some…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/21__640x_firstbench-300x300.jpg)
Signs of Life
Finally had some time this weekend to hook up a stepper drive, stepper motor, power supply, and a PC to see if EMC2 would move a motor. …
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/22__640x_firstxyz-300x300.jpg)
Symphony of Steppers
I wired up all three axes today, and also hooked up the super high quality 200V DMM module that I picked up on eBay direct from China….
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/kit-300x300.jpg)
Kit Has Arrived!
The ProMiCA CNC kit has arrived! Now just the significant task of putting it all together remains… Kit quality is quite high – part fit and finish…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_0074-300x300.jpg)
Kit Installation Has Begun
Last night I finally was able to start the process of tearing down my milling machine and rebuilding it with the parts from the CNC kit. I…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_0078-300x300.jpg)
Pictures of the Conversion (so far…)
Here are some photos of the conversion so far, mostly the tear-down and building up the Z axis. In other news, the kit manufacturers have supposedly shipped…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_0127-300x300.jpg)
It’s Alive!
Well, the part hasn’t yet arrived from Australia, despite the company shipping it out with all due speed. Kudos to them for doing that, but the fact…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_0104-300x300.jpg)
More Pictures
Here’s the result of another one of the included G-Code files from EMC2. Superficially it looks pretty neat, but it exposes some of the issues I’m currently…
![](https://www.tangentaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/why.jpg)
Y Axis Debugging
Posted for the EMC2 folks on IRC. Here is a simple test with my dial indicator. Here is another test, which uses my “poor man’s DRO” to…