Poor man's powered drawbar on sale at Harbor Freight

[BobWarfield]

My latest Harbor Freight flyer shows their butterfly impact wrenches are once again on sale. They're $14.99, regular $29.99.

Why would you care?

I built a really neat powered drawbar from one for my mill:

That and a power feed can really improve your mill productivity.

But here's another tip: you can use the butterfly impact wrench without building the drawbar too!

Here's what I mean by a butterfly impact wrench:

It's a little fist-sized bundle of goodness for drawbars. Snap the right socket on it and you can reach up and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiippppp, DONE!

A air ratchet works too, but there's a reason the drawbar wrenches have a little hammer as well as a socket, and the impact wrench is 2 in 1.

Try it, you'll like it! And when you get around to it, build the power drawbar too!

Best,

BW

 

[tattoomike68]

That looks as good as anything you can buy, Nice work.

 

[BobWarfield]

Thanks Mike!

The powered drawbar is from a great set of plans available from Joe Vicar:

http://home.insightbb.com/~joevicar3/cheap_drawbar.htm

They're super easy to build and fun to use. My project log gives you an idea of what's involved:

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCMillDrawbar.html

Best,

BW

 

[deere_x475guy]

Bob, just wanted to let you know I will be going to HF once I can drive again and pick up the air wrench. Doc says I shouldn't be pulling or pushing anything over shoulder height anymore so I will be building one of these for my new mill when it arrives....you site will be helpfull.....

thanks

 

[kvom]

The BP mill I bought has a Kurt clone air-powered drawbar, and it's definitely a plus compared to wrenching and hammering by hand.

Mine has a filter/oiler/regulator on the air supply.

 

[Noitoen]

Speaking of powered draw bars, using the impact wrench avoids the use of the mallet to loosen the tool from the taper? :-\ I have great difficulty to remove my collet chuck and every mallet blow to remove it, hurts me as much as must hurt my poor mill. :'(

 

[John S]

As usual we get ripped off.
$14.99 converts to £10.72

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/categories/search/air-ratchets-wrenches

4th down.

£27.00 here before tax converts to $37.70 at todays rate, so nearly three times the price.

I have drawers full of this stuff

Is it any good in the States ? if so does someone want some to send me two over ?

JS.

 

[Maryak]

As usual we get ripped off.

I have drawers full of this stuff

JS.

Geez John, I aint got that much of any denomination in the bank.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[RonGinger]

I have been thinking about a power drawbar, but I dont like to have the air compressor running. I bought an electric impact wrench from one of the cheap tools places for about $30. I was going to mount it on a couple rods, with springs to hold it up. Instead of an air cylinder I was just going to reach up, pull the wrench down while holding a trigger button.

The springs and guides would hold the wrench in place, all Id be doing is pulling it against the spring load and holding the button.

I got the wrench more that a year ago, its still laying under my bench. Someday its time will come.....

 

[deere_x475guy]

I have been thinking about doing this for several years now also. Only difference is before it was a nice to have...now it's a must have.

 

[BobWarfield]

I LOVE MY DRAWBAR!

Could not live without it, even though I HATE MY COMPRESSOR. The latter is noisy!

I put on my hearing protection from the shooting range when I first fire it up. I have an alternate plan for a much quieter compressor in a completely different room, but for now, I live with the noise.

Yes, the impact wrench aspect does eliminate the need for a rubber mallet.

Yes, electric impact wrenches work too. I've talked to several guys that use them and like them.

Yes, you could make a little different powered drawbar where you pull down a handle to engage the wrench. That would be a nice way to do it, I think.

The one downside of this thing, is it will round off the cheap Asian drawbar if you forget to retract the quill and fire it up and the socket doesn't quite reach right. Over the 2 years I've been using mine, I've had to fix the rounded drawbar twice. The fix consists of facing off the end of the drawbar "nut" slightly so it is cleaned up and then shortening the spacers that hold the wrench to accomodate the shorter drawbar nut. I'd guess I'm taking off no more than 1/8 inch or so each time, and I have probably 2 1/2" of drawbar nut, so it'll last me awhile!

Nevertheless, a hardened drawbar would be nice. I talked to someone somewhere that simply welded a grade 8 bolt to the top of his in order to fix this problem. It's also possible the steel in the Asian drawbar would harden--I haven't tried. Lastly, I did buy a hardened drawbar from somewhere, thinking I would try it. But it's so easy to fix what I have, and the one I bought is radically different in length (means making new spacers), that I haven't bothered.

Forget all that, though. Make a powered drawbar, you'll love it!

Once I get my mill converted and my TB parts made, I'll be showing ya'll (great Texas word) another really cool thing I've come up with to do with one of those impact wrenches. It's a secret until then though!

Cheers,

BW