Thread: power feed on mill/drill

Hi Dean,

24V and 36V DC supplies are by the dozen on ebay if you were to find such a motor:
24V 16.6A 400W DC Regulated Switching LED Power Supply CNC WITH CE | eBay
36V 10A 360W DC Regulated Switching LED Power Supply CNC WITH CE | eBay

So if you were to find a 24V or 36V DC motor, it may be an option.

Either way, I don't think you would want to pay anymore than maybe $150 for a home made power feed. and for $150 I think it would want to work pretty good otherwise it's very marginal between this and purchasing a commercially available power feed unit.

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by pipeclay

Good luck to you.at the end of the day why not suck it up and buy the correct thing rather than frigg1ing around xchasing bull####.

Thats why i bough the HM50. I was set on a 46 size machine until i added up the cost of powerfeed, coolant, light and it came with an collet set, vice and drill chuck back then. Plus no messing about setting it up. It hurt the hip pocket at the time but i am glad i went as big as i did.

Originally Posted by simonl

Hi Dean,

24V and 36V DC supplies are by the dozen on ebay if you were to find such a motor:
24V 16.6A 400W DC Regulated Switching LED Power Supply CNC WITH CE | eBay
36V 10A 360W DC Regulated Switching LED Power Supply CNC WITH CE | eBay

So if you were to find a 24V or 36V DC motor, it may be an option.

Either way, I don't think you would want to pay anymore than maybe $150 for a home made power feed. and for $150 I think it would want to work pretty good otherwise it's very marginal between this and purchasing a commercially available power feed unit.

Cheers,

Simon

You are bang on the money with that price. The motor is not such a problem except price. It is the power supply that is hard to find. Lots of pages of results for "power supply" on EBay but when I changed it to "power supply 24v", three results and none of them big enough. I know that search term filters out a lot of suitable voltage units such as 30v but was a quick check to test the water. There were thousands of 12v supplies. Given the huge difference and it becomes clear that except for that "lucky find" 24v will be expensive.

I am looking for a "geared motor" that will give me the correct speed without a lot of messing around. I searched EBay again. Not one result for DC. The motor from Oatley's is $109. That is a big chunk off the $150, add $50 for the controller and the budget is blown before a supply is found.

How cheap are you thinking with commercially made units? I have not seen anything yet below $500 but I have not done a lot of looking.

Dean

Originally Posted by pipeclay

Good luck to you.at the end of the day why not suck it up and buy the correct thing rather than frigg1ing around xchasing bull####.

I'll ask Santa for a power feed for my Emco FB-2.

Jordan

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

Chris what size PSU have you got? They are available in quite large capacities. (I just checked EBay) ie 980w for $68 including postage from Melbourne. The rated 12v capacity is 45A. That would easily cover the requirements. I just picked a big one to ensure it would be capable. Obviously a smaller one would be quite suitable.

Dean,
mine is only 145W. I just wanted to point out that the power rating of a computer power supply only tells part of the story. As they have multiple output voltages you need to know how much power it will provide at the voltage you want. It seems you've already worked that out. 12V @ 45A is pretty impressive!
Chris

I just had a look on ebay and everyone seems to have taken there listings down for Christmas. I remember seeing them not that long ago for $420 to fit the mill drill.
A lot of people have adapted the standard power feed to these mills and they only cost around $280-$300 posted.
Doing it this way you would still have to design the mounting so if you want to do it yourself this would be the way to go.

Dave

I concur with Dave. I remember many more sellers on ebay of the popular type of power feed, same as what H&F sell but for about $280 - $350 delivered. I had a quick search last night and being late, I figured I must have done an incorrect search but as Dave says, they are not listed ATM.

Too hot for the shed today, so I'm indoors making Margaritas instead!

Simon

Same heat here, but I have to go to the water front for my grandsons birthday. A few beers in the sun while bring on the effects quicker, LOL

Back on topic the real power feeds are set up and forget. Rarely do you ever have a problem once they are set up. There was a bad batch of pots around a few years ago but the problem seems to have gone away.

Dave

I found this on a yahoo group , the gearing is external, no need to buy a geared head motor

I just ducked out to have a look at mine. I have an AL310S and I am very happy with it. I have never stressed it or ever used it's maximum feed rate and it's only rated at 90 Watts.

I don't know how big your mill is but are you sure you need a power feed with 400 Watts? Maybe a motor with 150 Watts would make your design much cheaper and easier to source parts.

Just a thought.

Simon

I'd seriously look at something like this:
Oatley Electronics

and then power it with something like this:
24V 5A DC Brand New CNC Servo Stepper Motor Driver Power Supply CCTV Security | eBay

Obviously you would need to adapt the throttle or replace it with a POT or something and rig up a way of adapting the motor to the mill. But the whole lot is less than $70.


Just a thought....

Simon

You would also need to add a gearbox to that motor Simon. It's rated at 3600RPM.

I like the cordless drill motors.. the 2nd one is rather crude though

Diy Mill Table Power Feed - Home Model Engine Machinist

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist....er-feed-18441/

Originally Posted by jack620

You would also need to add a gearbox to that motor Simon. It's rated at 3600RPM.

I detail I conveniently forgot in my haste to find a solution.

Simon