[michaelwoodcock]

I'm going through my machines and making upgrades & doing maintenance. Found this and was intrigued: Emco 50 CNC Mill ...Increasing X and Y table travel ? | Model Engineer (model-engineer.co.uk)

While I have the PC mill 55, the casting may be identical. There's a number of EMCO mills that may be able to be modified in this way, there's no way for me to know for sure though, so do let me know!

Ok so in comparison to the PC mill 50, the 55 actually needs no physical modifications to increase the travel. Although not needed, you would benefit from moving the cable gland for that flex conduit at the right side of the table. It rubs on full travel stock, and moves it with a travel increase. I'm going to use the same technique as the link to move this. Compared to the PC mill 50 detailed in the linked website, the PC mill 55 has different sheet metal covers, removing the necessity to modify those.

Specifications on this machine indicate a 190 X 125 X 190mm travel in X,Y,Z respectively. Something had to be done.

I started by measuring the distances from the travel limits as operated by the stock controls. (NOTE: To make it easy on yourself, you also have to take note of the home positions. Just makes the math easier when you go to edit the machine config files). After this I turned the machine off and just used my fingers to turn the pulleys on the ball screws until I got to the respective travel limits. There was a good bit left on the table. See the below or attached image.



My measurements indicated that I could get right around 205mm X and 130mm Y. Haven't bothered with the Z. It isn't much but it makes it so I can fit two of my parts in the work envelope
Details on editing the machine config file to use any extra travel you find will be detailed in another post. I think you could also do it pretty painlessly with the EMCONFIG software. If I recall correctly it's very easy to edit the values in there.

Do consider changing the fuse for the axis motor controler down a few amps, or even better, supply it with a bench power supply and turn down the amps it can draw until you are sure you are not going to bang up against the machines mechanical limits because you typed in your new numbers wrong.

DISCLAIMER: this is all at your own risk and you could physically, or with the software settings, damage your machine. Do back up your entire directory for the software before making any edits. Be ready to hit that emergency stop, and do test that the control actually limits the travel to acceptable limits before you return it to service.

[michaelwoodcock]

designed a part to offset the cable gland, installed it, and tested it. It requies 8x m3 threaded inserts.

View from the back of the machine:

view from the front of the machine:

The additional clearance, you can really notice how the flex conduit would have interfered with the increased travel:

and finally, a small visual for the increased travel. The stock travel was marked in the dykem, and you can see the increase:


Also designing the machine in CAD. Already had a frame designed and built, I'm building out the machine frame to include a cord wrap, mounts for solenoids for mist cooling, etc. The files can be found here:
EMCO PC MILL 55 PARTS ACCESSORIES ETC | 3D CAD Model Library | GrabCAD