z axis power feed

[Earl]

Thanks for the info. I am so used to not having a power feed on the z axis, I never considered boring or drilling with it. My thoughts were for using it for initial setup. Now i am leaning toward the variable speed unit from cdco or enco, both about the same price when on sale.

 

[KMoffett]

Thanks for the responses. .....
I may give the cordless drill a try. Where does one go to find an adapter?
.......
Earl

Got my adapter from: http://www.snrmachine.com/cybp.htm
There are dimensioned drawings and 3D CAD models out there for them too. Google: Z knee adapter

I need to add that this is on my CNC mill. I just use the drill knee drive to position the table. On my old South Bend manual mill I would have gone for the commercial knee drive because I used the knee for the Z-axis feed (with a Z DRO) a lot.

Ken

 

[markknx]

Thanks for the responses. I had a x axis power feed on my 1991 grizzly mill (dont remember the model) It had a plastic/nylon/synthetic gear that was driven by a metal worm, bronze, I believe. That plastic gear was sacrificial. I remember the machine jamming while I was talking on the phone. Tore up the plastic gear. Cost more for the shipping than the gear. 15 minutes after receiving the gear, the machine was back in operation. I may give the cordless drill a try. Where does one go to find an adapter? My mill (g0695) does not have a y power feed. Does anyone feel that a y power feed is all that usefull?Earl

Earl, I would look in a block of steel. I have found many parts in there. LOL

 

[Earl]

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Earl if you are still interested in a Z axis power feed, I built one for my RungFu table mill that works great. I too got tired of hand cranking when boring a hole or when using a fly for cutter for cutting a radius. It's made up of a Dayton 90volt gearmotor with 71 rpm final output rpm. I remove the plastic chrome bearing retainer behind the hand wheel and made a new one from aluminum to which I attached a 2" timing belt pulley. The gearbox has a .875 pulley so there is another reduction in speed along with the worn drive built into the hand wheel assembly. I can a slow spindle feed rate at to where you cannot tell the spindle is feeding downward or fast enough to use it when doing a drilling operation. The plastic knob on the end of the spider is a friction clutch, tighten to feed and loosen to stop the feed and return to the up position. If I get back into it, I plan on replacing the drive pulley with a bidirectional over running sprage so I can still feed the spindle down by hand without having to loosen the drive belt. Between the motor and DC power supply I used molex connectors so I can unplug the motor from the power supply if I need to remove the unit for some reason. The finish obtained while boring is better than I ever expected. Attached are a few pictures showing what the unit looks like.

Pat

Patrick, I really like your implementation of a power downfeed. Very few of the smaller mills have that feature. I believe that somewhere in my "valuable archives" I may just have a small gear reduction motor that could become useful again.

 

[DanLins]

The fact that they sell a replacement plastic ring gear for it on the same page makes you wonder about its quality.

Like bpratl, I use a 1/2" cordless drill with a castellated adapter (~$30) for my mill's knee, and it works great. No installation or modifications necessary.

Ken

One of the popular names in feeds is Servo, and they sell replacement parts for every part of most of their units, so this might not really mean much....

Just sayin'.....

Dan