Improvement to a Mill-Drill machine

[Philipintexas]

I've owned an Enco Mill-Drill machine for over 20 years, I never liked the task of loosening/tightening the 2 bolts holding the head to the column every time I need to raise or lower the head. I saw this idea somewhere and made my own version to include an on/off switch to the motor. With one sweep of the arm it loosens the head and turns off the power. Another sweep of the arm and it's tight and power is turned on. Too many times I'd get all set, turn on the power only to have the head torque and wreck a part or tool so I added the power switch. I used Bondo to form pockets in the off side to hold the bolt heads, fabricated the extended "Nuts" with 3/4" hex heads so I could torque both to the same value, and mark for the two parallel arm holes. A rubber "finger" flips the switch in both directions as the arm swings by. In over 20 years I have not needed to tweek the torque setting, If needed thicker washers under the "nuts" can be made.

A second annoyance was the need to locate a wrench and mallet to loosen the draw-bar to change collets. I added an extended "nut" to the top end of the draw-bar with 3/4" flats, the same size wrench I use for T-nuts, with a sliding, captive weight. To operate, I loosen the nut, lift & drop the weight and the collet is loose. The extended nut allows you to get a wrench on the bar even if the quill is fully extended. Keep the parts close fitting and on the same axis so there is very little runout of the weight.

That's not my hand in the 2nd. photo, It is a professional hand model, no jewelry around power tools!

 

[dalem9]

Great idea Thanks for sharing Dale

 

[HierophantTattooMachines]

Great job.