Instructions

successful system available to all. I’m learning how to program EMC by using the
internet site put together by dedicated EMC users, so you can also fall back to their site
for help. See http://www.linuxCNC.org/ .
This is going to be easy if you do it my way
The Linux operating system works pretty much like all the others. If you can find your
way around a Mac or Windows computer, you will have no trouble navigating menus,
opening, closing and copying files or saving and deleting items in Linux. The new
Ubuntu version is the most Windows-like yet. When you turn on the computer, there will
be four icons on the desktop. Depending on whether you have a lathe or a mill, inch or
metric, choose the correct icon for your machine and double click on it. In a few seconds
you’ll get the graphical interface to the EMC2. Well, that was easy. Now, after BS-ing
you to death on how hard this was to do I’m going to show you how easy this can be, but
only if you do it my way.
Computers have the patience of a saint
If you’ve had little computer experience, the first thing you will learn is that computers
have the patience of a saint. If computers were more human they would probably like to
toss their operators out the window as much as frustrated operators want to do the same
to them. The only way you can keep a computer from giving you an error message is to
not give it errors. The tricky part is computers don’t always tell you the error to fix or
how to fix it. Computers just tell you that there is an error of a certain type. This can
become maddening, and you have to know when to take a break and walk away. Things
of this nature are the worst when, for the sake of your own sanity, they should be the best.
In many ways, learning programming is similar to learning machining. You can’t take
short cuts. If you find yourself going in the wrong direction, back up immediately.
Learn machining first
If you know little about machining and little about computers I’d suggest you first
concentrate on learning about machining. How can you expect a machine tool and a
computer to carry out your commands if you don’t know the commands to give? Above
all, don’t start with a project so complex you don’t stand a chance in hell of succeeding.
Let each simple problem solved have its own rewards in knowing you just traveled
another block further down the CNC machining super highway, route EMC.
NOTE: I have written a book called Tabletop Machining that is an introduction to
metalworking at the small end of the size scale. Details can be found at
www.sherline.com/bookplug.htm. If you are new to machining, you will find the
information in this book quite helpful.
You will be learning the CNC language of the robot world
The standard “g” code method of programming is to simply replace the manual inputs
into a machine (cranking the handles) with the commands that have become industry
standards. This is the method you should learn before learning any other method of
programming. It is the basic way that CNC machines “talk” to other CNC machines.
Even if a simpler system were available today I still wouldn’t teach it. It would be similar
to teaching a language that few citizens of the world spoke. Programs written using g-
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