I received my Align 500X power feed yesterday and attempted to install it. Unfortunately I ran into a snag. Not with the Align unit, but rather with the machine itself. When I got the machine some 20 years ago it was missing the bearing, housing, scale and crank handle on the right side of the table. It was originally fitted with a Bridgeport F8 table drive that had long since disappeared.
I measured the gap and machined a shaft and coupling to extend the leadscrew through a new bearing plate and mount a new scale and crank handle. All has worked fine, but here comes the rub (literally). Although the shaft I made works fine with the manual handle is a bit too short to install the new power feed. The crank handle will literally rub on the face of the power feed box. It's oh so close, but not quite long enough.
I've seen adds for replacement shafts, but most are in the $75.00 to $100.00 range. That seems like a bit more than I want to spend at this stage. I'm wondering if anyone here has run into the same problem, and if so did you make your own extension shaft, or were you able to find one at a more reasonable price? I'm not averse to making a new slightly longer shaft, but would like to know how others (if any) have addressed the problem.
The other slightly disturbing problem is that the only installation instructions for the X drive appear to be a single picture in the included manual, and a video with Chinese narrative, and English sub titles. That wouldn't be so bad IF the parts in the kit matched the parts in the video and/or instructions. The kit includes a number of shims not addressed in either the manual or the video, and is missing a spacer ring shown in the video. It also has an extended hex nut not addressed in either place.
Maybe I missed more recent videos, a newer manual, or maybe old age has just caught up with me. In any case for those of you that have installed the X feed kit are there videos or instructions out there that actually match the parts that come in the kit?
