Instructions

you end up screwing up another number there. Take my thirty-five years of experience in

dealing with CNC and accept this cutter offset stuff as a fact.

I can’t help anyone who isn’t willing to work hard

Back in ancient times the great mathematician Euclid told a Pharaoh who wanted to learn

geometry the easy way that Pharaohs had to walk down the same road as scholars to

education. In a sense I’m also stating to you that you will have to learn programming the

same way as I’m about to, and at this time I’m only a couple of pages ahead of you. I am

certain that if I sat by the phone and answered questions twenty-four hours a day, and I

don’t plan to, I couldn’t help those who aren’t willing to put forth the effort it takes on

their own to learn to work with these marvelous tools.

Route EMC

This road that you are beginning to travel can become one of the most interesting roads

you have every traveled; however, you must take the time to gather the facts that can

make a trip so interesting. Instead of seeing great ancient cites on this road we’ll be

gaining the knowledge that will make our next stop even more interesting and more

complex. We’ll study a little and then apply these rules to your machine. We will first

make simple moves that become more and more complex and at the same time more

interesting as we travel on. Eventually we will reach Martinsville, a city on this road,

where you will have so many choices as to the direction to travel that you’ll be leaving

me and heading out on your own to design and build things that you never thought

possible in the past. The rules and facts that you will learn on this road will allow you to

have a machine at your control that home machinists a few short years ago couldn’t

dream of. Take the time to enjoy this trip because you’re on a road with no end if you

have set your goals correctly.

Operating Instructions

Instructions: Mill vs. Lathe

These instructions were written primarily for using the CNC system with a mill. A CNC-

ready Sherline lathe can also be controlled using the same computer and driver system.

You would simply plug the crosslide stepper motor to the X-axis cable and the leadscrew

stepper motor to the Y- or Z-axis cable. Writing a program for the lathe is a little different

in that you must remember that when you program a distance for the X-axis travel, the

part diameter will be reduced by twice that amount. This is because you are taking that

dimension off the radius of the part, which is one half of the diameter. Other than that, a

little logic on your part should be able to accommodate the differences between the

spinning cutting tool/moving part on a mill and a spinning part/moving cutting tool on a

lathe. Because of the extra mass of a spinning chuck and part, extra caution should be

taken to make sure your program is not going to cause any interference between crosslide

or toolpost and the spinning chuck/part once it is running.

The Ubuntu/EMC2 version we now distribute does have a lathe-specific program that can

be accessed by selecting the appropriate icon on your desktop. They are identified as

“Sherline Lathe Inch” or “Sherline Lathe MM.” Specific instructions for use of the lathe

portion of the program can be found by accessing the EMC2 User Manual on your