My Craftex Lathe/Mill combo has a power feed for the table, but if I want to use this feature with the mill, I have to have the lathe turning. And that is not safe as well as a large power consumer ( 3/4 horse motors). Also, it is time consuming to disengage for a fast return to my starting point. Thirdly, I buggered someting when using the power feed. Ran the table past the point of no return. Must have screwed up some gears. So I decided to build an electric motor controlled power feed. The motor is geared down to about 100 RPM. The rheostat is actually a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) controller. It controlls the motor speed from zero to full. I also have a second switch that bypasses the PWM , giving me full speed return.
In case you are wondering about my choice of motor, pulleys and belts. I got them for free.
The motor and pulleys:
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/a-motorandpullies4.jpg)
I love this bycicle speedometer. Got it from an E-Bay vendor for $8.00. It reads directly in RPM if you want, no need for fancy wheel diameter calculations.
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/magnetandsensor.jpg)
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/pulleysbeltsmotor.jpg)
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/controller3.jpg)
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/controller2.jpg)
And the wiring. Wish I had started with a bigger box.
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/controllerinside1.jpg)
The schematics:
![](http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g62/mithslew/Machine%20Shop/Lathe-MillMotorSpeedControllerWiringDiagram.jpg)