X-axis Drive

[Hawkeye]

Even though I haven't been to work since I broke my shoulder in July, the boss sent me a good bonus with his Christmas card. When I was trying to decide what to use it for, I remembered that I would like to add a power drive to my mill/drill's X-axis. I ordered one off eBay and it arrived in only about a week. Since the eBay listing doesn't say which machines it will fit, I ended up with the wrong one. Good thing I have a machine shop.

If I adapted the drive to fit on the leadscrew, I would have lost 6 or 7 inches of travel. Here's the original arrangement.
   

I made up an extension mount to give back the travel I would have lost.
   

And a shaft extension. Trial fitting the Woodruff key after cutting the slot.
   

Almost done.
   

Then, an adapter sleeve to mount the original dial.
   

I haven't used it much yet. I'm really looking forward to not having to turn the crank on long cuts.

[Vinny]

I'm doing something similar with my mill. It's an oldie, maybe even before power feed was discovered :) It's from a bridgeport and fortunately I won't lose any travel. I picked up bridgeport dials for it so it looks better (and these old eyes can see it).

That said, when I add the DRO to it I'm going to need to extend the Y axis feed handle. I like what you did! I may have to do something similar - smaller tubing tho. That is tubing,. isn't it? The one pic makes me think you bored out a solid bar.

[EdK]

(01-05-2017, 12:24 AM)Vinny Wrote: That is tubing,. isn't it? The one pic makes me think you bored out a solid bar.

I believe that's solid. I thought the same until I took another look at it. It appears the end was mill off rather than faced off on the lathe and it looks like he's center drilling the end. I could be wrong though.

Ed

EDIT: And looking again, I think he must have welded on a solid end to the tubing.

[Hawkeye]

3" pipe. Machine end is as seen, plate welded on. Crank end is a bit different method. I welded on a 2" long piece of 3 1/2" diameter stock, then cut it off on the bandsaw. As noted, it was finished off with a 1 1/2" carbide face mill in the horizontal mill.