[EricBear]

Is a cordless drill suitable to be modified for use as power feed on a Hafco HM46 drill mill.
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Pr...stockCode=M123

[aka9950202]

That depends on teh cordless drill. I used a Black and Decker on my X2. The controller is my own design using PWM and the power supply is a computer power supply.

As I had a "spare" 5 volt rail it is used to drive a light ring positioned around the spindle to light the work-piece.

Cheers,

Andrew

[EricBear]

That depends on teh cordless drill. I used a Black and Decker on my X2. The controller is my own design using PWM and the power supply is a computer power supply.

As I had a "spare" 5 volt rail it is used to drive a light ring positioned around the spindle to light the work-piece.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi Andrew thanks for the help i ended up with 4 stepper motors that runs on 12-300 volts so i am madly trying to work out how to get them to work?

Eric

[Ashley Cobb]

combine it with a 3 axis stepper driver, breakout board, power supply and pc and you've got yourself a CNC mill...

[handlewanker]

Hi, a 12 volt cordless drill is just a 12 volt Dc motor with reduction gearbox to get the torque, and a trigger control to vary the speed, and if'n you're lucky a 2 speed setting to get high and low torque settings for screw driving/drilling.

If'n you go on Ebay you can get 12 volt controllers on a small circuit board to control a 12 volt motor (windscreen wiper motor?) up to 10 amps for about $20 post free, and this gives you an infinitely variable speed control, but you'll need a primary reduction to get the torque up as the motors won't rotate slowly under load without overheating.
Ian.

[EricBear]

Hi, a 12 volt cordless drill is just a 12 volt Dc motor with reduction gearbox to get the torque, and a trigger control to vary the speed, and if'n you're lucky a 2 speed setting to get high and low torque settings for screw driving/drilling.

If'n you go on Ebay you can get 12 volt controllers on a small circuit board to control a 12 volt motor (windscreen wiper motor?) up to 10 amps for about $20 post free, and this gives you an infinitely variable speed control, but you'll need a primary reduction to get the torque up as the motors won't rotate slowly under load without overheating.
Ian.

So Ian, Can I still use the drill motor ans reduction box on power feed with the 12volt speed controller?
Eric

[handlewanker]

Hi Eric, I expect so, the drill is just a 12 volt DC motor, but you'll have to cannabalize it and seperate the innards to make a bolt on "box" that you can attach underneath the mill table to the screw.

The biggest problem is connecting it to the screw on the mill, as you will want to disconnect it both mechanically and electrically for manual operating.

I would suggest that you connect the motor output to the screw with a vee belt and pulley, pivoted on a hinge etc to allow the belt to go slack as a "disconnect" mechanism when you stop the drive.....making a mechanical clutch interface might be a steep uphill redesign exercise.

Also I'd look at an old computer ATX power supply as a replacement for the battery.

Most milldrill add on feed drives bolt on at the end of the feed screw, and are designed to just bolt on without major rework......at least the ones for the Bridgeport type mills do.
Ian.

[EricBear]

Hi Eric, I expect so, the drill is just a 12 volt DC motor, but you'll have to cannabalize it and seperate the innards to make a bolt on "box" that you can attach underneath the mill table to the screw.

The biggest problem is connecting it to the screw on the mill, as you will want to disconnect it both mechanically and electrically for manual operating.

I would suggest that you connect the motor output to the screw with a vee belt and pulley, pivoted on a hinge etc to allow the belt to go slack as a "disconnect" mechanism when you stop the drive.....making a mechanical clutch interface might be a steep uphill redesign exercise.

Also I'd look at an old computer ATX power supply as a replacement for the battery.

Most milldrill add on feed drives bolt on at the end of the feed screw, and are designed to just bolt on without major rework......at least the ones for the Bridgeport type mills do.
Ian.

I had a spring clean the other day and one of the items I kept, as I thought it would come in handy one day Is a power supply from a old com tower, lucky keep by the looks of it. I have 3 old GMC cordless drills that I am sure will do the job. I also have a new Lathe AL-320G
L141 | AL-320G Bench Lathe | machineryhouse.com.au
I am going to see if I can use one of the drills to power the lead screw as I have to manually change gears to get different feed speeds which has been a pain to date.
Eric

[handlewanker]

Just giving your drill motor idea a think, and I'd go mechanical if'n all you want is to have an adjustable feed rate which doesn't have to be any particular precise rate like screw cutting.

You could have two variable pulleys with an "O" ring to act as a drive belt, like the vari speed drive they have on the Bridgeport heads, only much simpler.

The drive would just be two sets of pulleys, maybe even in place of the screw cutting gears, for when you're not actually doing screw cutting, that could be pressed together to make the "O" ring ride high or low in the drive pulley and vice a versa the driven pulley, not much power required to turn the lead screw for feeding.....a regular small section vee belt doesn't give you enough movement in the pulley vees to go from top to bottom due to the sharper angle of the belt sides.....you need a wide section but thin belt to allow the pulleys to squeeze together, but also not to collapse sideways.

Come to think of it, that's just what I need for the lathe I built, as I've been hand feeding it for years via a handle on the right hand end of the leadscrew.
Ian.

[EricBear]

Hi Ian.
Love it when members realize that the help and advice thew are giving is actually something they could use or do them selves. I was wondering if i could use the exiting speed controller on the drill? It has a forward and reverse already.

Eric

[handlewanker]

Hi Eric, you'll probably want to strip the guts out of the drill to get at the module that does the controlling, the electronic bit, which is probably SCR based, then you can customise the movement to convert it to a rotary control instead of the springloaded short travel trigger control so that it can be calibrated and preset and hold a position as required.....but you might only have a sealed unit so a bit of ingenuity is called for.

If you really want to get sophisticated and spend a bob or two, go on Ebay and google the range of small 12 volt geared motors that will run on the speed control (with a DC power supply) I mentioned earlier......motor/gearbox ratios go from output 3 rpm up to about 1000 rpm, different motor packages, and cost about $10 each thereabouts.

You might find coupling the drill innards to the lathe a bit of a challenge, especially if'n you don't have a reliable battery for the drill, but any 12 volt small lead acid battery used in security sustems would also do the trick if'n you wanted a seperate power source, but I'd personally prefer to go to a 12 volt transformer/rectifier in place of a battery, intercoupled to the drive motor so that the feed motor only runs when the lathe runs, or if you have one, you could use a battery charger to supply the power.

Have you thought about how you're going to couple the motor to the leadscrew so that you can get manual control too when the feed is off.....some form of dog clutch is required like a simple sliding sleeve on the shaft and a pin to engage in a slot etc.
Ian.

[EricBear]

Thanks for that Ian I hope to use a metal/rubber coupling for the clutching system.
The motors on eBay sound good I think the speed controllers can be found on eBay as well. I am very handy with my hands however its the mathematical side of what size motor I need and what thing-a-me-jig to control the speed if I go looking on eBay. not sure if i mentioned I am hoping to use a similar motor and make a power feed for my mill table. as well as the vertical feed up and down on the dovetail. I am currently using a cordless drill to raise and lower the head I only have a temp setup for this (socket on drill onto crank handle shaft ) works fairly well however I will need to set up something better. I did a refit at a factory just after the Brisbane floods and ended up getting a lot of I hope useable stuff Like Gear Belt pulleys,bearings, shafts, controllers, power packs.
Please keep the Ideas coming Its all extremely helpful to me. It is Just about Xmas here, So a Merry one to you and all. and a enjoyable new Year.


Eric
:cheers:

[handlewanker]

Hi Eric, the controller I bought will handle 12 volts at up to 10 amps and cost $20 post free.......you could probably get more power handling by using a light dimmer as they will handle about 350 watts and work on 240 volts.

So for more power, a 240/12 volt transformer with rectifier coupled to a 12 volt windscreen wiper motor would work too, and could handle at least 30 amps to the motor, which normally has a worm drive gearbox attached to drive the wiper arms, and would give you about 1/80 reduction.

The windscreen wiper motors are quite powerfull, and a mate of mine used them for the drive on a wheelchair.

In all cases of speed control by electrical means, the motor works best if'n it's initially geared down to get the torque up and keep it from overheating, so I'd advise reducing the drive initially by a factor of 1:10, assuming the top speed at this reduction is enough for your fast traverse, and vary the speed top to bottom electronically.

I think your drill solution is already there as it has all the requirements to go without adding any extras, apart from the coupling which should be able to be disconnected from the drive train.
Ian.