It's been a couple of months now since I got my new PM-30MV. I'm on my 2nd bucket of chips, so it's time to post about some projects. 1st up is the Z-axis power feed I just completed. I had an old wheelchair power lift that came out of the back of a truck I inherited. It's been sitting in my shop for the last 15 years, so it was time to do something with it. It had a hand-held controller, a relay box, and a couple of 12 volt motors, one of which was a gear reduction unit. I hooked that motor up to a 12 volt power supply, and it rotated at about 114 rpm, which seems to be in the ball-park of recommended speeds from reading other threads on the forumn about this subject.
For now I'm using a 13.6 volt power supply that came out of a test cart that was used for testing mobile telephone equipment in the very early days of mobile phones. It puts out 30 amps, so it's way over-kill for this project, but hey, it was free.
So here's some pictures of the project:
The first picture is of the mounting bracket. The screw slots and large hole allow for adjustment up and down.
This next picture is of the motor mounted on the bracket.
Then comes the drive mechanism. I used a chain drive because I had the components laying around from a CNC router table that I junked out.
And last is a cover prototype that I worked up with the sheet metal brake I finished up as the first thing I built with my new mill. It's a little rough around the edges right now, but a little tweaking here and there and a little paint...... It just slips over the top of the mounting bracket.
Not pictured is the power supply, the relay box, and the hand held controller for running the motor forward and reverse. It all works a treat. I might mention that I shoe-horned a variable speed motor controller into the relay box, so I can change the up/down speed of the Z axis.
For now I'm using a 13.6 volt power supply that came out of a test cart that was used for testing mobile telephone equipment in the very early days of mobile phones. It puts out 30 amps, so it's way over-kill for this project, but hey, it was free.
So here's some pictures of the project:
The first picture is of the mounting bracket. The screw slots and large hole allow for adjustment up and down.
This next picture is of the motor mounted on the bracket.
Then comes the drive mechanism. I used a chain drive because I had the components laying around from a CNC router table that I junked out.
And last is a cover prototype that I worked up with the sheet metal brake I finished up as the first thing I built with my new mill. It's a little rough around the edges right now, but a little tweaking here and there and a little paint...... It just slips over the top of the mounting bracket.
Not pictured is the power supply, the relay box, and the hand held controller for running the motor forward and reverse. It all works a treat. I might mention that I shoe-horned a variable speed motor controller into the relay box, so I can change the up/down speed of the Z axis.