I picked up the machine last night, along with all the accessories I
could find. It appears to be a 3rd gen machine, with milling attachment,
turret toolpost. It came with Milling table and vise, indexer, 3-jaw
chuck, and two collets. No sign of a collet closer.
It came with a user/student manual.

Overall in nice shape, apparently used and properly cared for.

Many thanks to Don Nichols for helping me know what to look for, and in
identifying the accessories. He took a lot of time emailing me about the
nuances of this system.

In the process of gathering this stuff, I talked to the seller, who was
liquidating the estate of his brother, Shelley Davidson. If you have an
interesting benchrest shooting you will know the name. Here's a good
article about him and what he used his machine tools for:

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek077.html

Neat guy, and a respected craftsman. I regret I did not know him.

RB wrote:
Well, that EMCO 8.6 I was asking about left my possession Sunday. Local
machinist wanted spares for his, and mine had some headstock issues, so
it went to a better home.

Now I'm looking at a EMCO COmpact5 CNC mill/lathe. It's not the F1, but
I have not determined what generation it is.

What I'd want it for is to learn basic CNC programming, and to make
things like firing pins for pistols. It looks like a fun toy.

It seems to be complete, powers up, DRO shows on the screen and the
numbers move when you bump the servos via the manual controls.
Has a chuck, maybe some collets, includes the milling head. Also a
steady rest. The machine was in use by a recently deceased benchrest
rifle builder. He also has a much larger CNC machine that looked to be
his workhorse. This little one is pretty clean. Asking price is $700

I've searched the web and found surprisingly little about these
machines. I did find this http://www.emco.co.uk/home&hobby.htm
which is most useful.

Does anyone here own and use one?

Suggestion of things to look for / at to evaluate it?

Things to watch out for?

Overall usability for the intended purpose?

Does the price seem right based on what I've mentioned?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rex