# My improvements to an ENCO mill/drilling machine



## Philipintexas (May 22, 2012)

I can't find if this subject has been covered before, If so, I apologize. I use my Enco mill/drill extensively and found a couple things to speed up the process.

1. The draw-bar. I'm always misplacing the wrench & hammer, so I made an extention to the draw-bar that is essentially an in-place sliding hammer. These photos should explain how it works. In use I loosen the nut, lift the captive weight and drop it, this loosens the collet. The shaft has a milled out slot and a tension pin retains the sliding weight. The lower hex section allows me to tighten & loosen the bar even when fully lowered.










2. I can't take credit for the basic idea, but I added my own improvement based on lots of screw-ups. I'd get everything aligned, turn on the power and the torque of the motor would move the head because I forgot to tighten the bolts. So, I added the switch and a "finger", a piece of vacuum hose plug, to turn off power when the head is loosened and then turn it on only if the bolts are tightened by the swing arm. I added the hex heads to the securing "nuts" so I could torque both equally and then mark & drill for the two arms that actually secure the head.
I've used this gadget for about 15 years and it has saved countless hours in use.

HEAD SECURE, POWER ON:
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




HEAD LOOSE, POWER OFF:





FINGER ABOUT TO TURN POWER ON AFTER ADJUSTMENT:


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