I'm assuming that you want to power the Z axis for the sake of raising and lowering the head rather than powering the head for machining purposes. With that being said you can use an AC or DC gear motor. You will have to build an adapter plate to mount it to your machine inline with the hand crank shaft. Add a coupling and the necessary electrical circuitry and you should be good to go. Here's a couple of pictures of my RF-30 powered Z axis. The gear motor is for a RV slideout. Probably overkill but I had it on the shelf.
I'm using a Ford Windstar (or whatever) wipe motor, 12 volt, coupled to the Z axis crank. Works a charm, If I were to do it over, I'd put a dog clutch in the circuit and use a crank for fine tuning.
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