Power Down Feed Drilling with the PM45M-PDF

[darkzero]

Nothing much to see but I have heard at times where people say they would rarely have a use for power down feed. I guess it depends on what needs to be made. Just wanted to show how simple the power down feed makes drilling when you have to drill a lot of holes.

I have been making a little tool here & there in the past few months. So far I've drilled & tapped well over 400 holes on these things. The power down feed saves a bit of time but the Tapmatic is what was the lifesaver. The first 40 holes I tapped by hand & it sucked!

Sorry for the boring video, my first time I ever made one. This was at the start of drilling & tapping 180 blind holes. With the Tapmatic it took me only a few hours to finish them all where as the time I was tapping 40 blind holes by hand took me almost all day.

 

[12bolts]

certainly not boring.
Can you vary the down feed speed independantly?

Cheers Phil

 

[darkzero]

Thank you Phil.

Yes, it has three speeds for the down feed, .004", .007", & .010". /rev.

I wish it had a bit slower speed like .002" like for boring but that's ok.

 

[chuckorlando]

Now thats pretty slick.

 

[Ray C]

Thanks Will...

There's been a bunch of questions here about what power downfeed is and that does a great job of showing.

It's one of those things that you might not use often but when you do, it's your best friend for a couple days.

Ray

 

[darkzero]

Thanks Ray, I'm very glad it wasn't a total waste of time. hew:

 

[chuckorlando]

I would use it often. It's like power feed on the table... Nothing one has to have, but awesome if you got it.

Can you set the depth and it retracts at that depth? Or does it just run as far as the quill goes then retracts?

 

[Ray C]

I would use it often. It's like power feed on the table... Nothing one has to have, but awesome if you got it.

Can you set the depth and it retracts at that depth? Or does it just run as far as the quill goes then retracts?

Depth is adjustable and travel is very repeatable.

Ray

 

[chuckorlando]

Nice. That could make life easier for sure. Could that be used with a endmill for counter bores or such?

 

[Ray C]

Nice. That could make life easier for sure. Could that be used with a endmill for counter bores or such?

It's limited to the feed rates that Will mentioned below. If those feed-rates are suitable for the circumstances of your material and bit etc, heck yeah. I've used it before to consistently chamfer a bunch of holes. That worked-out really nice.

I found it very helpful with a boring head. First I under-bored the hole by several thou and operated the spindle manually. Then, on the final pass for the correct diameter, I set it on auto-feed and it was like a work of art. No matter how evenly you try to humanly operate a spindle, you can't do it. The machine drive speaks the truth and gives a really awesome finish.


Ray