Power Feed for Mill

[Dinkum]

Here's a couple of pictures of my half done power feed for my mill. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Any suggestions/criticisms? Please don't hesitate to do so.

It uses a windscreen wiper motor and drive gear from a photocopier. I have made the adapters and all I need is a frame now.

 

[TroyO]

You will love the powerfeed!

I like the design... I used a drill motor in mine (and it works) but I think it's asking a lot out of the small motor. A windhield wiper should be much more robust and last longer I'd think.

 

[arnoldb]

Hi Dinkum

That's a good start and way more than I've done toward making my own power feed.

Just a suggestion if I may - it might be a good idea to do a bit of extra work and make up a kind of clutch or engagement system so that you can disengage the feed for times when you'd like to work manually.

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[firebird]

Hi

Wiper motors are very good for this sort of thing. I have one fitted to the leadscrew of my lathe

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=16080.0

and I have just fitted one to the Z axis of my X1 mill

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=18270.0

Cheers

Rich

 

[Dinkum]

Thanks for the compliments. Funny how satisfying making an adapter can be. scratch.gif

And thanks for the tip Arnold. P.S. I'd like to let you know that I really liked your cross slide drill attachment. I am following your build.

 

[Dinkum]

Oops! Sorry Arnold. I meant Ramon! :hDe: I still think the other tools in your tooling thread are excellent though.

Here are pictures of the "completed" power feed. It still needs a control box and maybe a shield if I decide to fancy it up. The second one is showing the primitive clutch disengaged.

How do I control the speed of the motor? Do I need to restrict the current or the voltage?

 

[Herbiev]

Dinkum. To control the speed use a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller available on ebay for around $20. Make sure you get one rated at 10amps or higher

 

[keskeesha]

Good job
Here is a pic of how to wire a forward/reverse switch.
This is curtesy of Bogstandard if I remember correctly.

keskeesha

 

[lemelman]

A word of caution about using a windscreen motor.
I used one in a recent project to power a small winch. It worked fine at first, but after about 30-40 times it lost power.

At first I assumed the (12v) battery needed recharging, but it was OK. After stripping it I found the problem: the brushes were tangential to the commutator instead of being radial, which meant that a larger area of brush could contact the commutator - making for a smaller motor for the same power. And this is fine for a motor that runs in one direction only.

In my application (a winch) it was always run in both directions every time it was used, and this eventually wore another arc on the ends of the brushes as they moved slightly in their guides. After a while, each brush had two arcs and only half its original contact area, thus reducing the power of the motor.
If you don't need full power, then it would probably be OK, but be wary if you need full power.
By the way, the older types of windscreen motor used radial brushes, but I wasn't able to find one - and I needed the maximum power. I had to use a different source.