Milling power feed

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Much better if there's no chance of damage by manual turning of the hand wheel. Looks like I have done a bit of extra work then, as mentioned in my previous post I have already machined the parts, so I'll make do with what I have for now – served me as good exercise!

Some photos of the project so far – mechanical bits ready.

Assembled unit, nema 23 and drive module

Clutch cover off: a drive hub secured by a grub screw to the motor shaft, a keyed clutch plate sliding on the lead screw, a die spring to press the clutch to the drive hub and a release fork to release the clutch plate.

Machined a new table endplate using the original to pick up the holes.

Clutch and fork

[JonParticipant @jon]

Nice job Chris

One thing worth mentioning is there have been quite a few times where i have needed to remove left hand wheel and drop down a part to be machined.
One reason i never went for the factory style power feeds fitted to left side. Adapted a Bridgeport type to the right with extended lead screw and bracketry.

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Thanks Jon, still got a far way to go but I try my best. I think it would be possible to swap the powerfeed left to right, if I recall correctly the table end plates share the same bolt pattern. Will have to check.

[JESParticipant @jes]

How about something like this for MEW

JES

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

It's been a while, time for an update on this project. I had finalised the mechanical part of the powerfeed and got the electrics "temporarily" connected to figure out what goes where before I place everything in a control box. Unfortunately the temporary became permanent, so it been wires and boards hanging since.

Last week I finally got the ball rolling and built a little box and tucked in the power supply, frequency generator, motor driver and switches. I tried to place everything as neatly as I could and I'm quite happy how it turned out.

The hole in the fave plate is for a still missing a switch which I want to use for operating a separate stepper motor to lift and lower the head. I'm using one driver to control both stepper motors, one at a time by switching.

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Powerfeed project finally finished.

Did some changes to the clutch release mechanism which was not working as intended – rather than the two rollers mounted on the fork to release the clutch I replaced them with a bronze thrust bearing. This gave a smoother feel then turning the handwheel with the motor decoupled.

Here's a video of the powerfeed operation.

Nema23 stepper, direct drive to the lead screw.

Clutch internals, motor drive disk, clutch friction disk, thrust bearing on fork, actuating spring.

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Now that the powerfeed project is ready I got a couple of related projects I can start with.

The first should be simple enough, a powering the milling head. Will use a nema23 similar to the one used on x-axis, and rather than using a separate controller I'll use the same one for the x-axis.

The other project is the rotary table. I got a 6" table from Arc but it's without dividing plates. The plates cost around £110, to which I have to add shipping. If I could fit a stepper drive on it to somehow control the angle it would probably cost somewhere in the same range.

Have seen a couple of stepper controllers which you can set the angle but they are a bit crude and there's not much info on them.

 

I would prefer something plug and play tbh! More research is needed!

Edited By JasonB on 14/06/2020 20:12:58

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

For a fairly decent Rotary table controller, have a look at Steve Ward's controller, can be bought as a kit of parts or ready made modules just requiring a box and stepper driver + psu to complete.

I have built a couple of these and prefer them to my DivisionMaster, which is an alternative although a lot more expensive option.

Gray

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

+1 for the Ward controller. Easy to build if you get the assembled PCB, lots of nice features. Ironically, I'm currently using mine to drive my power feed (though a dedicated controller is on the stocks).

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Another +1 for the Steve Ward controller. Just finished building one and used it it anger over last week to produce graduated scales for Stent Tool and Cutter grinder I have been tidying. I bought the ready built and tested circuit board and the built and pretested keyboard. Had fun drilling the case lid for all the buttons. Have a spreadsheet with the co-ordinates for a DRO to produce if wanted.

Colin

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I was searching for a stepper motor angle controller and could not find anything which I could use in this application.

The Ward controller is just what I need, ready built PCB is even better. I could use your spreadsheet Colin thanks. Just spied in your album and saw a couple of photos of the front panel, nice work!

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Unable to view video… message says…

George.

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Posted by mechman48 on 14/06/2020 23:14:23:

Unable to view video… message says…

George.

Sorry about that, I edited the video and thought I saved it, but apparently instead I deleted it!

Here it goes again…

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

ChrisB,

PM me your email address and i will send the Excel spreadsheet to you.

Colin

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

Posted by Colin Heseltine on 15/06/2020 09:53:51:

ChrisB,

PM me your email address and i will send the Excel spreadsheet to you.

Colin

Thanks Colin, pm sent.

Did you build your own motor adapter ring? If I'm not mistaken on the Ward website I read you can get one from Arceuro but I could not find any in their shop. What they have is the whole table with motor, maybe he was referring just that?

[Author]

Posts