- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 23
Around Christmas 2023 I was looking online, and an ad for a power crossfeed attachment came up, so I had a gander at it. According to the specs on it, it was SUPPOSED to fit on my King mill drill. I have been looking at these for about 3 years but didn’t have the spare cash; this was on sale for a GREAT price so I sprang for it. Well, no…it didn’t come close to fitting. Now to be clear and honest, I’m no machinist; if you want to learn how to ruin cutters and wreck stuff, I’m the one to show you, lol. But, I decided to have a go at it. I had to pull the lead screw, turn it down to fit the drive gear, make a new mount, move the thrust bearing assembly to the opposite side of the table, and cut a 3mm key way in the lead screw, about 4” long. Everything was pretty straight-forward until I got to the keyway; the question was, HOW do I cut a keyway with my mill table torn down? After a lot of thought, I mounted it in the tool holder on my lathe, then shimmed the tool post holder up until the shaft was entered to the chuck. Next was to install the 3mm end mill in the chuck; one problem… the closest I had was 1/8”, and a 3mm was two weeks away. So. I cut it 1/8’, then hand cut the key way in the gears to 1/8’ by hand. Alls well that ends well, I put it all back together and mounted the drive; hmm; it had about .140” backlash…had to make shims on the shaft on the thrust bearing end of the shaft. Then had to modify the hand wheel to fit with the driver; this entailed cutting about 1/2” off the drive gear body. At the end, I had to make a 3“ spacer to raise the mill high enough to allow the driver to clear the chip tray, so I decided to build a new stand with some storage drawers in it as well. I made the stand 2” shorter than the original; with the spacer 3” deep, this sat my table 1” higher than previously; much nicer to work at.Now it works great; very happy with it, I managed to learn a few things, and in the end I managed to succeed in spite of myself…lol.
