Anyone here operate the PM-45M-CNC using the manual hand control wheels?

[Chip]

Hello,

I have been looking at the PM-45M-CNC as well as the Charter Oak (CO) offering. When speaking with CO I was told that their turnkey CNC mill could only be manually controlled using an electronic control pendant. On the PM model I was told by Matt that as well as the MPG controller, I could run the VFD version as a manual mill, but with a couple caveats. Namely, I would have to incorporate some sort of switch into the wiring in order to power the VFD motor without the controller operating, there would be no DRO functionality, and one of the axis wheels would have the reverse of normal rotation.

Frankly, I could live with all that. Actually, it might be the tie breaker between my choice of these two similar CNC mills. Has anyone accomplished/documented this switch installation?

 

[Chip]

From what I've read it turns out handwhells + CNC don't play well together.

 

[tmarks11]

From what I've read it turns out handwhells + CNC don't play well together.

+++1

I don't know why you would even want to use a manual hand wheel.

1. Way more precise (and faster) control with an MPG. On my mpg, I can set it for one click =0.0005" if I want. No way to get that kind of control on a manual machine.

2. The hand wheel is just spinning around is a safety hazard.

3. Ballscrews don't have enough friction to hold the axis in position against milling forces the way a lead screw does. So you need to lock down each axis after positioning them, which is mildly inconvenient (and will probably bite you later if you forget to unlock the axis prior to running cnc). Dollares to donuts that there are no axis locks on your machine anyway.

Please don't make a decision on what cnc machine to buy based upon thinking that one machine has an advantage over the other because you can operate it as a manual machine. Fact is, you can operate any cnc machine as a manual machine... by using a MPG remote to control axis movement. Which is VERY convenient. Of course, it is also very convenient just to type something like "F20 X10 Y0" to make the machine move where you want at the right speed.