A bit of advice needed please CNC machine Emach 3200 work with vectric software

hello sorry I don't know whether I am posting in the right place here for this question but here goes.

I have seen a really cheap cnc machine, thats complete called an Emach 3200, it says that its working and I can find out that the company making these went bust a few years back, it says it uses usbcnc or something language.

we use vectric software with a small 4x4 cnc machine, that we love but we need something more robust, thats why for the price we are thinking of getting this, it only for cutting plastics and aluminium composites for signage.

what I want to ask is will vectric, work with usbcnc language, or work with the machine. and does anyone have any information about this. particular cnc machine.

the machine itself is £1500, am I going to end up with an expensive paperweight.

While I'm not familiar with that particular machine, I did find a USBCNC manual online: http://www.edingcnc.com/upload/files..._man_v4.00.pdf It seems to be a CNC control program that utilizes the USB port for I/O and uses more or less standard G-code, not any special "language" of its own (although it does appear to have a built-in translator to convert DXF files to HPGL). So Aspire should be able to provide basic code for it, although if you're going to use some of the more exotic functions of G-code, like canned cycles, you might have to do some hand-editing or find an appropriate post-processor.

If that machine currently runs, it doesn't seem like a bad deal - that giant vacuum pump alone is probably worth the price right there.

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Originally Posted by awerby

While I'm not familiar with that particular machine, I did find a USBCNC manual online: http://www.edingcnc.com/upload/files..._man_v4.00.pdf It seems to be a CNC control program that utilizes the USB port for I/O and uses more or less standard G-code, not any special "language" of its own (although it does appear to have a built-in translator to convert DXF files to HPGL). So Aspire should be able to provide basic code for it, although if you're going to use some of the more exotic functions of G-code, like canned cycles, you might have to do some hand-editing or find an appropriate post-processor.

If that machine currently runs, it doesn't seem like a bad deal - that giant vacuum pump alone is probably worth the price right there.

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thanks for the reply, i was supposed to be gonig seein gth emachine today at 1pm but got a message last night that he had sold it to someone else, who came first even though 1pm today was the only time it was available to be viewed.


a few epletives later to myself, and i will have to keep a look out for another one.

Alan

Don't be too sad.My late boss ordered a machine from the company in what turned out to be their last months of existence and it took forever to arrive,in spite of vague promises that it was progressing.In the meantime he bought an AXYZ and became quite enamoured of it.Eventually,a machine turned up and was parked in a corner pending the arrival of an engineer to commission it.At around this time the boss literally dropped dead,I believe that the stress of dealing with a shyster contributed to his demise.When we had a problem with the AXYZ it fell to me to get the Emach running.I liked the usbcnc software a lot more than the clunky toolpath software on the AXYZ and the spindle was nicely quiet.That was the limit of it's good points.To make the electrical connections we had to open the controller door and such was the design that the controller would fall over unless a chock was placed beneath the door.Once connected the first task was to skim the spoilboard.

It was not a success as the process showed that the tracks were dished and had a 3mm sag along their length.The cut also wasn't square to the table and left a ridged surface and then much worse than that the cutter was digging in on the positive moves and raising on the negative moves leaving the surface like a castle's battlements.Either the gantry beam was flexing or the tracks were sloppy.I tried to get the supplier to come and fix it and have never encountered a more devious or evasive outfit in my life.

The machine has never moved since and is collecting cobwebs as far as I know.One of the company technicians joined this site and had a screen name of Wombilly although it was a few years ago you may be able to find his posts about the company and its practices.It may be that machines made while they were slightly more prosperous were acceptable.

thanks a lot for that Routalot, i know buying a machine secondhand can have its problems, and i did email wombilly yesterday just in case but havent had a reply yet. I am in the sign game and up to now i have a ooznest 1500mm x 1500mm machine that i built myself, that we use with vectric vcarve, and send to a post gbrl processor, it does its job albeit slowly and cuts letters out of acrylic and composites, but i would just love something bigger to take full sheets, and a bit more accurate for rebating the edges of acrylic etc .

I would love an axyz but havent got the funds to allow me getting one so just looking for second hand ones at the moment.

tia
Alan