Let's See Your Shop

[John S.]

Dave,
Power drawbar wouldn't suit me, didn't build one but had one of the butterfly wrenches hanging on a bungy cord over the old one for a while to see if it would work for me.

Couple of reasons, one is my compressor fills two 45 gallon tanks as I have two compressors mounted side by side but only run one so it take a fair while to run up and I tend to only run air when I need it, like the air tapper I have. Most days i don't have air on.

Secondly as part of my job I often have to reduce motor shaft to the next frame size down, like 28 to 24, this still leaves a shallow keyway which has to be picked up and made deeper to standard size.
On the Bridgy and clones it hard to turn the small smooth part at the bottom of the spindle to get the teeth of the cutter exactly central in the groove when you load a new shaft in. In this case i need access to the drawbar to turn it with a stubby spanner.

Last reason is I often have to swap to the right angled attachment that bolts to the quill, because these need the quill extended by about 3" the drawbar has the be changed to a longer one.

[Dave J]

Hi John,
Your problems sound exactly like mine, so I will throw an idea at you to see if it will work for you as well.

I have bought a few butterfly wrenches, air cylinders and linear rails as for my H/V mill to have 2 power draw bars but with the price of power here hitting up to 35c kw I don't want to be running my compressor for the mill all the time either.

So I am now thinking of using a 240v hand held impact gun mounted on the mill with a manual control to pull it down.

I had always planed to make the unit with a base with a slot in one side to be able to swing the power draw bar out of the way for access to the draw bar as needed.
It only needs to be held by 2 bolts, so one bolt through the base plate and the other side will have a slot so there is no need to take it out to slide the unit around, only need to undo it a little. I will be making a ring to bolt to the top of the mill, so the power draw bar base will slide easy.

So that would cover the compressor part, the draw bar only has 2 posts so you could get you spanner in, or swing it away for ease of getting at it and the same with changing it over to a longer draw bar.

There is a electric power draw bar on CNC zone, they are sold by Harbor Freight over in the US, but the only ones I can find here are 12v.



This would be a good design for a control on a tall mill, and the air gun could easily be replaced with electric


Or something simpler only with electric


Just thought I would throw this up for something to think about as it will get old real quick using the step all the time.

Whats your thoughts on a set up like this?

Dave

[big job]

I have updated some photos, especially my thanks to "Dave" who told my
that my unknown drill press of 30+ yrs is an Avey. Brass plate i found says
G-DA-41 Im thinking in the 1920s used all the time and the table will drop to the floor. I got it free back in the 1970s.

[Mayhem]

Thanks for updating the pics - that is a nice little shop you have there. Always nice when you find out some information on a mystery machine you own.

[EdK]

Nicely equipped shop. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Ed

[TomG]

Love the Greaves! Wish I had more room for vintage machinery.

Thanks for the pic update.

Tom

[DaveH]

Very nice

DaveH

[RC1254]

Ok, I think I have the picture size thing down. Here's three quick shots of my shop, some of my regular use stuff is;

Grizzly G0709 14"X40" Gunsmith Lathe
PM45 Milling Machine
Clausing 4913 10"X36" Tool-room Lathe
Miller Mig 185 welder
Miller Syncrowave 180 SD Tig Welder
Victor Oxy Acetylene Set
1.5 Million Dollars, (so the better half claims), in hand, and machine tools...

   
   
   

[TomG]

Looks like a spacious and well organized shop Ray. Mine is in an unattached one bay, two car garage, but I'd be hard pressed to get a car in it.

Tom

[EdK]

Nice shop and great selection of tools, but it's too clean.

Ed