Easy mill power feed - video

[Jon]

Easy mill power feed. By Ron Covell. 4:44 video:

[rbutlerr]

Easy mill power feed. By Ron Covell. 4:44 video:

Since I do not have a welder, I opted to take the easy way out and purchase a knee crank adapter from H & W Machine Repair for $63 plus $8.30 freight. Since I am a beginner or wannabe machinist, this was an easy way out and has 9 "flutes" on it and works well. Thanks for sharing your ideas and I have so much to learn. Thank goodness there are experts with loads of experience who are willing to share.

Ron Butler
Central Point, OR

[WmRMeyers]

I don't have a Bridgeport, but I do have several smaller machines, lathes, mills, and a shaper. I'll be making drivers for all of them.

Bill

[WmRMeyers]

Since I do not have a welder, I opted to take the easy way out and purchase a knee crank adapter from H & W Machine Repair for $63 plus $8.30 freight. Since I am a beginner or wannabe machinist, this was an easy way out and has 9 "flutes" on it and works well. Thanks for sharing your ideas and I have so much to learn. Thank goodness there are experts with loads of experience who are willing to share.

Ron Butler
Central Point, OR

I'm a cheap bastrich, so the idea of buying one is one I avoid like the plague. OTH, sometimes it is the only way to go. One thing about tools, is the more you have, the more you can do. As long as you don't have so much stuff you can't get to it. I have my dad's old Craftsman stick welder, and an HF fluxcore welder, but too much other stuff piled around them to be useable at the moment. Working on getting the lathes and mills and shaper accessible and operational, at the moment.

Some years ago, I needed to get my car fixed. 77 Plymouth Volare station wagon. Had the passenger side front bearing weld itself to the spindle. It was going to cost about $1K to have it fixed. I could buy all the tools and parts to DIY it myself for $800, but it would take longer to get the thing back on the road. SWMBO asked if I'd be able to use the air compressor and such that I needed after the car was running again, and approved the purchases when I told her "Yes." That was about 20 years ago. Still have the compressor. I had to replace the 1/2" impact gun because I had a bunch of tools stolen from storage while I was cleaning out the back room to become my workshop about 5 years ago, but I still use it. Not every day, but a couple of times a month, compressed air comes in very handy. One of the near future projects is to move it outside the shop and reclaim that 3 or so square feet of floor space for other tools, and to plumb air lines into the shop, and to the front of the house where the driveway is, so I can air up tires without running hose through the kitchen, hallway, and living room to the front door.

What you paid for your driver is about half of the cost of a new flux-core welder from Harbor Freight, for the cheapest model. Sometimes it makes more sense to buy the tools you need to make something. Sometimes it makes more sense to buy what you need without digressing into more tools, and learning to use them. Your situation is different from mine. So are your skills. Just keep your mind open to the possibilities, as it is certain that YOUR MILAGE MAY VARY.

It's also quite possible that whatever you do, after it's done, there will turn out to have been a better way!

Whatever you do, have fun!

Bill

[jimfols]

No disrespect to Ron Covell but if I get too lazy to hand crank the knee, I'll hang up my apron!

[WmRMeyers]

No disrespect to Ron Covell but if I get too lazy to hand crank the knee, I'll hang up my apron!

YMMV, of course, and I am sure it could be done just a little less elaborately, but if it works, and gives you more time to do the work you want to do, that is better than cranking away at a knee, or table, or whatever. I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like running the machines, so I think a way to speed cranking is a good idea.

Bill