EMCO PC MILL 155 - reliable production mill?

Hi,

I'm looking for a used mill with auto tool changer for ~£5,000, and found a 10 year old EMCO PC MILL 155. I have searched for information online but have found very little.

Does anyone here have experience with this mill?

Specific questions I'm trying to answer:
Assuming the machine is in good working order, do you think that it would be suited for production work (~6 hours runtime per day, 5 days a week, milling drilling and tapping brass)?
Is this mill easy/affordable to maintain?
Is there decent support / community guidance available online?

To put in context, I am comparing this to a used Tormach PC1100 with ATC for the same price. The EMCO has decent specs but just very little info available.

Fingers crossed one of you can help!

Thanks

that machine is a perfect cnc .

just you have to check all its electronics and mechanics for sure there is no problem on that.

it has complicated tool change mechanism .

what is its controller ?

Did you check the tool change on that ?

Thanks Matt. I'll check everything out as you suggest.

It has a 10 station turret changer. Have you ever had issues with your ATC?
Have you ever had to repair your mill?
For control it has Fanuc 21 CNC - I'm planning to use this with fusion360 CAM, or failing that, mastercam.

Hi,

the atc mechanism of that machine is perfect.

Also the quaility and design is perfect .

if everything works fine without any problem and you test a gcode from fusion on that
,this machine is much better than tormach.


Dont think about changing the controller or retrofit , because it is very complicated process for that mill


On that machine tool change turret rotate with same spindle motor.

Did you see this machine on Craigslist? https://london.craigslist.co.uk/bfs/...378398921.html Make sure it's real. Ask for a photo of the serial number so you can contact Emco about specifics.

There seems to be a lot of scams on small mills. That image came from: CNC VERTICALS: EMCO MAIER PC MILL 155, FANUC 21M CNC, 30 x 20 x 20, 6000 RPM, '02 (2412) FAM and was sold ages ago.

The only thing to consider is tooling availability and the scarcity of this machine. They were something like 60kUSD new and replacing anything will reflect that, but normally the mechanics are very good. The tool holder are unique to Emco Mill155 and they are the only source. Very little info because few of these machines exist. Is it a PC Mill or Concept Mill? Concept (2003 and newer?) have the newer ACC PLC and any modern PC will run it. The older PC machines have the AC95 PLC which is unsupported (at least in the US) and is very specific about PC motherboard which can be used and is limited to Win98. PC machines work fine, but if the PC, or AC95 fails you'd have a hard time keeping it running. If only 10 years old it should be a Concept control.

Retrofit would be a possibility, I almost bought one without a control. The tool change procedure would take a little effort, but many Emco turret type mills have now been converted to LinuxCNC or Mach.

Good morning everyone,

I bought emco pc mill 155 (10000 rpm / Control Fanuc 21 mb series / year 2001) one year ago for my personal project, I think that it's a great small machine, reliable and compact. I love this machine, your electronics and mechanical components are first level. I had been testing and you can machining diferentes materials aluminium, steel, stainless steel, etc...

Only a problem, you must buy tool holder to Emco, and it's very expensive. I ask to my commercial Emco in Spain, for each one, 250 €.

I hope I have helped.

Good luck!

reliable and compact

You can buy regular BT30 holders, but you need the right pull stud. Best chances are to make them yourself.

How do you use standard BT30 in the turret? Any pictures of how you're doing it? I'm curious because this would be the main reason I avoid this machine, if one was available.