Mill Power Feed

[chipenter]

I have made a power feed using a stepper motor controller  https://www.banggood.com/TWO-TREES-MKS-OSC-Pulse-PWM-Signal-Generate-Module-StepStick-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Controller-For-3D-Printer-p-1745906.html?cur_warehouse=CN&rmmds=search from Banggood , using stuff I had cut a GT2 pully and 1/4" ally plate to mount the nema 23 motor , I had a belt but it was to short I had to buy a longer belt and fit an idler , I loose 1/4" of travel moving to the left I can live with that , 

[Davo J]

Nice job and you will get so much enjoyment using it knowing you made it.

Amongst many other projects over the years I just finished 2x electric power drawbars, so understand work involved from the design to working model.

From the paper rough sketch with ideas and then detailed rough drawings with measurements to having something working is a great self achievement.

I call my drawings padcam, just sketches on a pad, lol
I'd love to get to know how to use a cad (free) package and design something, but then that time would cut into shed working time.

Enjoy

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[chipenter]

The controller came without a nut and the thread is 6.8 x 0.8mm I take that as 7 x 0.8 , as 1/32" is two tenths different I cut the nut 32 tpi on my imperial lathe over five threads that's one thow error , and it fitted that's the main thing .

[Davo J]

Don't little things like that bug you, it would cost them cents to include a nut with it to save the hassle.
Good to hear you got it sorted on an imperial lathe though.

I find factory metric bolt thread diameter to anywhere from around 0.15mm to 0.35mm undersized, so it probably would have been 7mm.

I have seen so many new guys over the years ask why the die won't start on a shaft they have turned down to say 6mm expecting 6mm thread to be 6mm spot on.

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[Muzzerboy]

I made something similar for my first mill (RF45) based on an electric window winder from an automotive surplus shop. That had the advantage of simply bolting directly on the end of the leadscrew.

Once you have a motor positively connected to the leadscrew and controlled with some form of electronics you have made the first steps towards CNC machinery.  That's one of the most fulfilling experiences I've taken on in the last decade or so....

[awemawson]

That's how I started!

I had an Alpine Mill / Drill from Warco - one of the Taiwanese original round column ones, and fitted a power feed using a stepper motor. To house it I needed a box with several D shaped holes for 25 pin Cannon D connectors.

While filing the holes I thought - this is silly, it could be automated if I added a second axis. So using a Z80 development board and home brewed stepper drivers I built a box that emulated a Calcomp Plotter. By drawing shapes in a graphics program I could get the table to plot it out. Backlash was an issue, and changes in direction had to be handled carefully but all in all it worked pretty well. No cutter compensation of course, that had to be incorporated in the drawing.


. . . but all that was a heck of a long time ago, and the 'workshop' was a 10 x 8 wooden shed at the bottom of the garden !

[Davo J]

I have been a long time member here but life and divorce got in the way so I stopped posting my projects as I wasn't building anything.
Happily moved on now and set back up in a new workshop.

Probably 12-14 years ago I bought all the ball screws and double nuts for my horizontal vertical knee mill to convert to a CNC including knee and quill drive, I had already fitted 3 commercial align power feeds fitted to it.

Through advice I've been given, I gave CNC a miss as most every project is a one off or maximum of 4 of something.
They are still there there brand new, well oiled wrapped in plastic, and sealed in a plastic drain tubing with caps.


After finishing my radio controlled jib crane late last year, earlier this year I combined all twin gib locks into one handle for each axis with limit lockout switches to stop power feeds working if they are locked.
It had been a plan for some 10 years.

I've then made these 2 power drawbars and the next project is sleeving the quill and adding 24v power quill downfeed. There is a video online about it but I plan to trick it up a bit.

With CNC there is not much hands on like manual machining, which I also like.



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[chipenter]

Bit of a cock up last night tried another test fit ang pot the motor in the wrong orientation and shorted the wiring , stripped the motor today and replaced the wires , the steel wires were crimped to the windings so I soldered the pairs together and changed to a four wire set up , no photo of the finished job as the camera battery died .

[Davo J]

Nothing worse than knowing it's your stuff up, good to hear you got it fixed though.
That magic smoke never goes back in, lol

I have had to dig in a few motor windings to make them do what I want them to do.

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[chipenter]

The direction is signal or zero so a simple on or off toggle switch , rigged up with stops gives automatic revise and is remarkable accurate for something so simple .

[Davo J]

Nice work

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[tom osselton]

Aw come on that’s waaay to easy!  That would be good for winding coils also.

[chipenter]

Works a treet and is so simple to set up .