Mill Maintenance

Mill Maintenance

General Maintenance
Keep the bright metal parts of the mill clean and bright and protected by a film of oil, something like WD40, particularly if there is a risk of condensation forming on cold surfaces in winter.

Prevent oil-bound dust building up on the slideways, particularly the F1 mill: the WoodWorker variant has some slideway protection. Clean the machine after use and remove all swarf.

The slideways need to lubricated. There are oil nipples on the slideways. Only use oil, do not use grease. Apply the oil with the Emco oil gun supplied with the machine. Use proper slideway oil (Emco recommend Castrol Magna BD68 oil).

As an alternative to oil and the oil gun, two Rocol products might be considered:
1) Rocol Anti-Scuffing Spray (a dry film lubricant which does not pick up dust and dirt.)
2) or Rocol SL Spray (a "wet" lubricant for slides and bearings.)

These products are available from various outlets including Axminster Power Tool Company: See www.axminster.co.uk

Protect the tools and toolholders. Clear polythene screw-top beakers from a kitchenware shop have been found to be particularly good for this purpose. The beakers need to be 140mm to 145mm tall: Addis make one which is suitable.

The Machine Stops Working
The mill is very reliable but it is not unknown for it to stop moving because of a power supply unit failure. Isolate the mill from the electricity supply. Remove the back of the control cabinet. Check the following known causes of possible failure:

1) In the top, right-hand corner of the control cabinet there is a large ceramic 16A fuse in a screw-top fuse holder. Sometimes these just die of old age. Test the fuse and replace it if necessary. In the UK replacement fuses are available from RS Components Ltd (the RS Stock Number is 415-979 Check with their catalogue or web site before ordering.) If the replacement fuse immediately fails check item 2 following.

2) Further down the righthand side of the control cabinet, on the power supply circuit board, there are two (on some mills three) large electrolytic capacitors (about half the size of a beer can) all mounted in a row. One of these may have developed an internal short circuit. Check them and, if this is the case, replace all of them, not just the one which failed.

3) To the right of the fuse, 1) above, there is a bridge rectifier. If the mill axes do not move and the fuse, 1) above is OK, it is possible that this component has failed. Replace it, preferably with one with higher current and peak inverse voltage ratings (the original is rated at 25 amp 400 volt). Put heatsink compound of the back of the new rectifier before screwing it in place. Take great care to make the correct connections: all the wires are black and not labelled. Avoid grief by devising for yourself some infallible system! Failure of this rectifier does not always cause the fuse, 1) above, to fail. Also see 4) below.

4) Excessive heating of the rectifier, 3) above, over a long time may have made the insulation on the wires connected to it hard and brittle. The insultation may have cracked and short pieces may have fallen off. Even the copper wire itself may have oxidised and disintegrated. Some grafting-in of new, and preferably heavier gauge, wire is essential. It is not difficult to do: it just requires care to make correct connections.

Source Book
The Emco Service Instruction Compact 5CNC/F1 CNC manual (reference number EN2 023) is an invaluable, but scarce, resource which gives full details of every nut and bolt of these machines: if you have a copy, treasure it. Manuals for a huge range of machines are available from www.lathes.co.uk/manuals.htm

Machine Data