Power Feed.

[gus]

DIY SANDER
Sander done with a few instrument casing done and sander fine tuned.Gus now not too bad a carpenter with mitred corner joints.

POWER FEED FOR MINI MILL

Been drooling at a ''Made in Taiwan'' Power Feed for years but nobody makes one of these small enough to fit my Sakai Mini Mills. Power feed cost $300 from Sieg and $600 from Vertex. ''71'' young man not too happy to hand crank feed to mill long pieces.

 

[goldstar31]

Greetings Gus! I'm in the same difficulty as you about this particular machine. Frankly, there has been so much in the way of bad reports and requests for repair information that I am keeping away from wasting my money. Probably the cheapest way to twiddle nobs is by usuing a scrap windscreen or rear screen wipe motor with a rheostat.

Again, there is a lot of write up on using a scrap battery drill motor- where the battery has failed.

Clearly, these are my conclusions but others may differ. If I knew more about stepper motors- and boy oh, boy do these people wander off topic- may be the way to go.




My thoughts but they do come from extensive reading up.


Cheers

Norman

 

[bazmak]

I am also looking at power feed.Only one i can find local to fit the 400lg table
for the sieg,can you let me have any info you have regards spec,price,supplier etc.Regards barry

 

[goldstar31]

For info, I Googled Align Power Feed problems. Enough to put my wallet spanner back into the safe deposit.

Cheers

N

 

[gus]

No worries. Will be as simple as the Sander. The DIY Power Feed will some how look nearly like the M,I,T. step brother. Some months back bought the 60 rpm step down d.c. motor and electronic speed controller. Will be fun.
Been surfing the threads on DIY Mill Table Power Feed. Mine will deviate from the trend. The Control Panel will have speed control and forward/off/reverse functions. Plan to make a test model with on/clutch so as to retain manual cranking before moving on to maul/wreck the expensive Japanese Sakai Mini Mill.

 

[bazmak]

All too complicated for me Gus i would rather spend money and buy off the shelf.Too many other projects Regards Barry

 

[SmithDoor]

I saw post some where using a cordless drill motor and a belt drive it look good and simple to make and better very low cost. I have one on bench mill but it cost more than the mill did.

Dave

All too complicated for me Gus i would rather spend money and buy off the shelf.Too many other projects Regards Barry

 

[RonGinger]

I just completed a power feed for the Z axis of my Grizzly G0704 mill. I decided to use a stepper motor and an arduino to run it. One neat feature is that I have electronic limit switches- I can run the Z down to a point, press the limit button and the control will remember that point. If I go back up, to change a tool, or clear chips, I can just press the down button and it will stop at the limit position.

I have a pot to set the speed so I can use it in a feed rate move, or a rapid move.

I have not posted anything about it because I was going to write it up as an article for DIGITAL MACHINIST magazine. I want to make a PC board for the buttons, as an arduino shield, but I have been unable to get any of the PCB software to work for me. If anyone is good with one of the PCB programs that would like to help me maybe we could make up a PCB and get a batch built. Send me a PM if you would like to help.

 

[Lathejack]

Hello.

I am surprised that there appears to be plenty of problems with the Align type power feed units, I will have to google it myself and take a look.

I bought and fitted a new 'Vertex Align Super Power' unit over twelve years ago, Taiwanese made I think, and it is mounted on my Taiwanese made VMC mill. Most of the ones on offer since then appear to be made in China.

It has been totally trouble free, although it is used in my home workshop and not in an industrial environment.

At work we have a Bridgeport mill and this was originally fitted with the genuine Bridgeport feed unit from which the Align type units are copied. This original power feed packed up four or five years ago and was replaced with one of the Far Eastern copies identical to the one pictured in the above post.

This one is used in an industrial environment and has also given trouble free service with regular change of direction and rapid feed use.

One of the machine shop men did make a complete mess of fitting it initially however, getting lots of swarf in the bevel gears. He must have tipped the well packaged and spotlessly clean components on the floor to get them in such a mess, luckily I spotted what he had done straightaway and it was all corrected.

The two units that I have fitted were extremely well made, and they come with a spare Zytel main helical gear in the bottom cover.

As well as cleanliness during assembly it is also important to first eliminate any end float of the feedscrew relative to the table, often overlooked. If this is not done then, because of the way they are mounted, the carefully adjusted meshing of the bronze and steel bevel drive gears constantly alters as the table direction changes from left to right, which can lead to too tight and too slack meshing. All required shims for this adjustment of the gears, and for the adjustment of the handwheel dial are included.

I wonder if most of the problems are electrical, I better take a look. Anyway, I quite like em.

 

[gus]

Way back in the 90s, my BridgePort came fitted with Power Feed,Heidenhahn DRO and worked very well. Just cannot recall the Make. Bridgeport, 2 Leblondes, 1 OkaMoto Grinder etc gone to the rag and bone man when plant closed 2001.
Time to moved on.
Work starts tomorrow on DIY Power Feed. Will use a Lever Drag Clutch to engage feed travel.
Thanks for contributing to my thread.

 

[goldstar31]

Very sensible Gus! Planning for power and still manual feeds makes for sound practice.

Look forward to your work and success

Norman

 

[Brian40]

Hi Gus.
You may find something useful info in a PDF on my web site ( Power feed for a mini mill) in the mill mods page. see link at bottom of page.
feel free to down load it Brian.

 

[goldstar31]

Brian,
I hope Gus will forgive me but perhaps I can add something to your sine bar idea.
Morse tapers have always bugged most of us. One of my white water kayak and sailing mates( in the days of yore)sent me a mod that he and his son had fabricated to attach to the Myford ML7 which he- kept under the bed.

It was utilising a 10" bar as the sine and if he disconnected the saddle feed screw to slide on the round bar and set it off by 1/4" one got( near as dammit) a No2 MT.

OK, Gus?

Norman

 

[gus]

Been working. Surprisingly, done a pretty lot of work today.
DIY Worm Wheel, adapter shaft and mounting bracket done. Will figure out the rest tomorrow. No drawings. Just some comic sketches.
Did not count the number of teeth on the worm wheel. Reckon I get away speeding up D.C. motor to get the desired feed.
Other than the purchased 60 rpm d.c. motor and speed control,the rest came from scrap bin. Gus's cheap/expensive labour not costed in.

 

[gus]

Gear box done except for the cover up. Using Shimano Fishing Reel Technology for engaging/dis-engaging power feed with Star-Drag Clutch. Powered dry spin proved system works.Will be next week to install and test power feed on mill.Suspect feed will be bit slow but for now will do. Gear Box size seems just good for mini mill.
Its weekend fissssssshing.

 

[chucketn]

Good luck fishing, Gus.
When you get back, how about more detail on the Shimano Star Drag, please?

Chuck

 

[gus]

Power Feed Gear Box done. Will drill and tap into mill table to mount Power Feed and hopefully a trial run with the Electronic Speed Controller tomorrow. Control Box housing has yet to imagined and dream of. Will play by ear. Forward--Off----Advance control will be put in.
Will try to cover up the ugly wires stick out from d.c. motor. For now its 100 rpm good for very slow table travel for fly-cutting on mini mill. Now looking at 200/300 rpm motor for faster feed.
Power Feed is about ideal size to match Mini Mill and Table.

 

[SmithDoor]

Looks great
Like how you made the worm gear

Dave

th_wav

Power Feed Gear Box done. Will drill and tap into mill table to mount Power Feed and hopefully a trial run with the Electronic Speed Controller tomorrow. Control Box housing has yet to imagined and dream of. Will play by ear. Forward--Off----Advance control will be put in.
Will try to cover up the ugly wires stick out from d.c. motor. For now its 100 rpm good for very slow table travel for fly-cutting on mini mill. Now looking at 200/300 rpm motor for faster feed.
Power Feed is about ideal size to match Mini Mill and Table.

 

[gus]

No big deal or trade secret. The worm thread was cut with M12 x 1.5 Die but it went slightly of centre but still usable. If it gets to be irritating, will make replacement. Wheel and worm was bit too close meshing.Ran in and lap with 800 grit compound. Now very smooth and easy to turn worm.
Today will drill and mount Power Feed and run table feed and take a mill cut too.

 

[chucketn]

Using Shimano Fishing Reel Technology for engaging/dis-engaging power feed with Star-Drag Clutch.

I hope you will post some details of the Shimano Technology and how you will apply it.

Chuck