Info and parts needed for Emco Unimat-PC

A friend left a Emco Unimat-PC lathe with me to see if I wanted to buy it or fix it. It has a milling head and power feeds for all the axis. I guess it can be connected to a computer and run like a CNC machine, hence the "PC" in the name. It looked to be new or at least unused 8 years ago when he got it from a guy he works with and he has used it about 5 hours total since. Its just dirty from sitting unused in the garage all this time. When he did use it, the lathe kept blowing the fuse under heavy cuts, so the genius put foil around the fuse and soon after that it quite running and then the magic smoke came out of it. It wouldn't power up so I took it apart. The main power board is fried. I can see several diodes, resistors or whatever they are called are burnt to a crisp. This is the main circuit board that powers all the drive motors for On/Off forward/reverse and speed control. Although it wouldn't take much elbow grease to make this little machine look new again, but a new board is needed before it will ever run again. I have done several searches on the net and all I get are the older Unimats. The only thing that looks like it might be a model designation is wrote on the back it reads as follows
"EMCO UNIMAT-PC
FABR. NR .:A4A E4E6 226
Made in Austria.
Any parts suppliers or other information on this machine would be appreciated.

After more extensive searching I did find a little info, but I didn't find a circuit board. Still looking.

Rob, there is a Yahoo Unimat group and you might try there, if you haven't already.

Marc Nowakowski

Rob, is the board itself badly damaged? If not, you likely could repair or rebuild the power board.

I'm not unfamiliar with that type of technology and from the era this thing comes from (mid 80s I'm assuming).

Likely what's happened is the input power bits and the motor driver got fried - not impossible to repair even with minimal tooling. Finding a new board may not be an easy thing to do - I don;t even think Emco-Maier are trading in such things anymore.

Find a good techie - or post pics here and a few of the electron pushers can offer opinions.

Alan

Rob,
Try EmcoMaier in Hallein, Salzburg.

Norm

You could also PM or e-mail Wrench on this board. He does some board repairs for other Emco's.

Also, Emco is still in business north of ya in Columbus Oh. Call and ask for Steve Lukebaugh. Hwe is the Service Manager now and was the guy that work on the educational line ( your machine ) in the past.

Dave

Emco M//Cs are still being sold in the U.K.by PRO Machine Tools Ltd. e-mail [email protected] or web-www.emcomachinetools.co.uk. From the current Emco advert they often use a variable speed motor controller, so the speed controller board should still be availlable.
Frank

is the board itself badly damaged? If not, you likely could repair or rebuild the power board

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Yes, about 2/5 of the parts are cooked. I fear that if I do repair just those parts that more will die soon after using it again. I found several of the small parts that need replacing at Radio Shack for $0.99. It's the small parts that look like a computer chip that concerns me. I don't know the correct names of the parts, so I won't guess at them and confuse anyone trying to help by posting the wrong name for the part. If reasonable/possible I would like to replace almost all of the parts that are soldered in. There are some parts that are burnt so badly that I cannot distinguish what colors were on them to buy replacement parts, but I found a guy that is in the same boat as I, he's trying to figure out what colors were there before the BBQ. I'm waiting on him to contact me for an exchange of info. From what I read, there is just one piece that either of us cannot distinguish. Even If I do get the power circuit board fixed I still need the software and the board that connects to the PC to control the axis. I'm beginning to think it might be more useful as spare parts, but its in such good condition it has probably been used a total of 4 or 5 hours at the most. If I had any feedback form selling stuff on ebay I would be tempted to auction it off, but I don't and without it I wouldn't get crap for it. I e-mailed EMCO in the US and haven't heard from them. I doubt I ever will. At this point I may try to fix the board myself and try to get the other parts from the places listed above. Thanks to everyone who gave me information and if anyone else has any input I'd like to hear it.

If you can determine what sort of motor is used some other form of speed control could be used. Also if the motor is faulty it will "cook" any repaired board. Do you have a VOM of any sort? I would guess that for a smallish motor, it will be a universal (brush type) motor with some form of tacho to feedback to the controller to stabilise the speed. Thses form of controllers are used on wachine machines. But one of these won't have the input for PC speed control
Frank

This may be a start:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page11.html

Apart from giving the co-ordinates of the ticket office for the Mozart Bi-Centenary concerts and the Von Crapp family,I sent you enough details of the main factory in nearby Hallein. There is a little one near Mayrhofen but I ignored that.

Have my efforts on your behalf been constructive?

Norman Atkinson