Bridgeport ez-trak stupid question

Hello everyone
I have just purchased 1997 ez trak 2 axis mill.
Sorry to ask silly question but being only 2 axis how do you add cut in z if
say milling a pocket out.Do you write the program and just wind the table
up while program is running or wind table up first into the job then start program.
Seems a bit stupid to me having a cnc that doesnt do z axis.But before anyone
says why did you buy it then.Its because the condition is suburb and was alot cheaper
than buying a manual one in the uk.Prices seem very high at the moment.
Thankyou for any comments
Neal

A simplified answer is to bring the part up relatively close to the tool with the table. Set the tool Z to zero on the part surface where the pocket will go by moving the spindle quill down. After creating the pocket program, the machine will prompt you to manually lower the tool to the Z setting by watching the Z depth on the monitor. If the pocket was programed in steps the machine will prompt for each new Z depth before proceeding.
Similarly, when drilling holes the machine will move to the XY coordinates and prompt "Drill hole here" or some such.
This is just from memory as I have added a Z just after purchase.

Thanks for the reply.
Thats what i wanted to know that you can program in step mode.Just out of interest.where did you source
the z axis parts from to convert to 3 axis.Is it much of a problem to convert

Many thanks again
Neal

I have an EZTrak almost exactly like yours. Depending on what you're doing a 2-axis can be more useful than you might think. For simple parts it is very fast to setup because there are no work or tool offsets to deal with. Just pull down the quill until the tool touches the part, set z=0 and go. If you're doing a lot of true 3D work (not just 2D cutting at different Z levels) it's not the best machine to use. It's quite slow and has very limited program memory. I think you can drip feed it but I've never tried it.

C|

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Originally Posted by nealg

Thanks for the reply.
Thats what i wanted to know that you can program in step mode.Just out of interest.where did you source
the z axis parts from to convert to 3 axis.Is it much of a problem to convert

Many thanks again
Neal

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Originally, I talked to Elrod Machine since he made the 3rd axis for Bridgeport for the later EZ-Trak's. He was going to sell me the mechanical parts to do the conversion. Unfortunately, at least at the time, (2007) he did not sell the electric bits for the conversion. EMI had the whole kit but would not sell the boards, software, and electric bits separately. As a result I bought everything from them for somewhere around $6000.00-$6500.00 US; something like that if I remember correctly. It turned out to be a good thing in the end as they gave support for the installation which I needed.

Thanks for help
But paid a lot less than that for the complete machine,so think i will leave it 2 axis for now and have a play
to see how i get on.

Hello Nealg - I have exactly the same machine as yours, a UK spec one.
But I'm in trouble with mine, I was wondering if you could give me some pointers
Mine isn't homing, and the Estop seems to be working in reverse - when OUT the spidle controls are active, but I have an alarm on screen, where as when IN, the spindle controls are disabled, but the error is cleared.
I see yours has a cable going into the cabinet over the reset button there, I'm curious to know what thats connected to, I have those 4 pins in that connector jumped out, red to red and blue to blue - my machine had guards and all the but it was all removed before I got it.
Mine was decommisioned because it failed to boot one day, and the company didn't need the machine anyway so got rid. So I got a new disk and SW from EMI in the US, but then I had to install the CE variant of the sw because its a UK machine,, but that still didn't cure my woes. Do you happen to have a verios on EzTrak for yours I could try?
Also, what position does the keyswitch on the console need to be in to home the machine?
Sorry for all the questions, but I'm running out of ideas with this one.
Thanks!
Seamus