power drive for mill table.

[wheeltapper]

Hi
I've been messing around making (bodging) a drive for the x axis on my mini mill ( Chester Conquest).
I had an ancient cordless drill, I got it for a pound at a boot sale yonks ago , it had one battery and no charger.
I got it working and used it for years before the battery gave up.

So I chopped it about and fitted it to the mill table with a coupling.


Not very pretty but it works
the variable speed control blew up long ago.

I also have an old ( really old) computer power supply that seems to drive it OK. As you can see I removed the three million wires that came from the back and replaced them with a twin lead for 12 volts and ground. the other lead is the remote on/off switch.


I'm now waiting for this from E-Bay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271195544065?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

stuff it all in a box and I should be good to go.

watch this space for future developments.

cheers
Roy.

[Skyrocket]

Nice job Roy,good old car boots eh!
I had a bash at something similar myself, it's a bit rough around the edges like me lol

[wheeltapper]

Hi
It shows how old my power supply is, it hasn't got any control wires, just switch it on and away you go.
I'm still waiting for the speed control from China but I have fitted a box on the drive motor in anticipation.


Iv'e also found a place to hide the power supply.


And while I have 12 volts handy I fixed a computer fan on top of the mill motor.
I was making a long slow speed cut with a slitting saw and the motor got quite hot.


More news when the controller arrives.

cheers
Roy.

[tom osselton]

I am going to put one on my mill but am still working on a design. I will be using a power window motor it is 12 volts,  and runs at 60 rev's a minute. The holdup right now is I don't know what cutter I need to make the other gears I took it down to a cutter supply shop and they had no clue maybe I'll try my hand at grinding one for a flycutter.

[Bigbadbugga]

Nice job Roy,good old car boots eh!
I had a bash at something similar myself, it's a bit rough around the edges like me lol

I really like that solution.

 

[Fredbare]

Here is another Roy. Power and PWM bought on Ebay and placed in old ATX psu case.

[raynerd]

Are these on the sieg x2 size mills? Does anyone have any homebrew feeds on the x3?

[Fredbare]

The mill I have is similar to this one. http://www.spgtools.com/viewtool.php?pid=32

John

[Fredbare]

This one Roy, is on my Z axis, as I have a weak right arm, and is the simplest, as the wiper motor works off a 12v battery ( as used in burglar alarms) and is kept topped up by a cheap solar panel (£9 on ebay) Never let me down in 9 months. I have a momentary up/down switch suspended on a chain.

John

[wheeltapper]

Hi
I finally received the speed control module this morning.
I quickly connected it up to test and it worked ok so time to wire it all up and stuff it in the box.

this is all the bits wired up but flapping about.


this is everything in the box, the l/h switch is left and right drive under speed control, the r/h switch is left and right drive under full power for rapid traverse and the centre switch selects between them. the speed control knob is on the l/h side.


and here its all buttoned up and ready to go.


If anyone is wondering, the relay is to completely disconnect the control module input and output when the rapid traverse is being used,I didn't know what would happen if I fed power into the output terminals of the module, knowing my luck I'd let all the magic smoke out.

The advantage of using this cordless drill is it has a two speed gearbox with a large space between gears so I have a neutral position for hand winding.

I'll try to do a video tomorrow to show it working.

thanks for looking.
Roy.

[tom osselton]

Looking good so far.