- Joined
- Mar 31, 2015
- Messages
- 184
Please add me to the list. As I have THE hook-up on UPS, I'll even send a shipping label should I win!
Announcement: I'm afraid the free power feed will have to go to someone in the USA, I have shipped stuff to other countries before, its quite expensive and can be a real hassle.
Also I plan to put names in a hat and draw someone. Those posting a funny story as to why they really need one may get their names in the hat twice. Seniors over 65 will get their names in the hat twice as will those like myself who have worn out joints and ailments.
Now let me tell you this power feed is really nice. There is a RPM knob which gives you really fine control over the feed even at very slow speeds, a rapid button that will zoom the table from end to end faster than you could hand crank it, and it has ample torque, that's a 40" table on my mill and it has no problem moving it at all.
I am a mentor for a high school robotics team near my home. I have a few "basic" machine shop tools that the kids use for their competition robot each year. They compete in the nationwide BEST program (www.bestinc.org). I have a RongFu RF30? (round column) mill. I also got them an older Southbend 9A undermount motor model lathe. I'd love to have the power feed. It would save a great deal of time with the kids. Wife says I've exceeded my donation limit to the team, after buing the lathe, and having built them a small CNC machine. It would go to a great cause.
Thanks,
Scott
Wow, coolidge- way to walk the talk, and be the example. Humbling.I purchased a 3rd power feed and had Enco ship it to you minutes ago, pretty cool videos of your kids robot I'm happy to support a good cause like that.
See, I am a geezer. I didn't see the previous post saying that there would be a drawing. I guess that is what happens when you have poor eyesight in the one eye that you have left.
I don't have a humerus story regarding my mill drill but I have a real knee slapper about my HF 9x20 lathe. About 2 years ago I was cleaning out and rearranging my shop. I had my 9x20 lathe on it's stand, which has heavy duty roller wheels to allow me to move it around. parked at the end of my driveway while I moved some other stuff around. I was working away, I think with a broom, when I heard what sounded like a skateboarder rolling by on the sidewalk in front of the house. I paused in my sweeping task and walked out of the garage to the end of the driveway (where it starts to slope down to the sidewalk and the busy street below) when to my surprise (and horror) I realized that my lathe was no longer where I had parked it. It seems that the lathe had taken up down hill skiing. That wasn't a skateboarder I had heard, it was my lathe attempting a getaway. The burgundy colored 300 lb lathe perched on it's wheeled stand had rolled down the 20 foot long slope at the end of my driveway and had headed for the great outdoors.
Luckily, as the lathe hit the street curb cut, it veered to the right and went "ass over tea kettle" as my dad would have said, and had landed in the grass strip in front of the house. If I wasn't so concerned about damage I would have started laughing. The lathe was sticking straight up in the air, having come to rest on it's end. I was amazed that it hadn't fallen over having tipped over, end wise, and was standing end up about three and a half feet with it's wheels facing the sidewalk. It took me and help from a friend to set it back on it's wheels and get it pushed back up the driveway slope. I immediately put blocks in front of the wheels to prevent a repeat of the attempted escape. The only damage was a bit of bent sheet metal on the motor and gear cover door (easily repaired). I could not believe my good fortune that the lathe hadn't rolled into the street and hit, or was hit by a speeding car. As it was, the grass strip that it landed on was soft enough to absorb the landing and although the lathe upended, it did not proceed to tip over on it's side, an event that would have surely damaged the delicate cross slide and possibly twisted the frame.
My only regret over the incident was that I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the lathe before I rescued it from it's precarious landing. As I look back on the incident, I can't help but laugh at the sight of the upended lathe. The sight instantly reminded me of my father's VW bus, which he flipped upside down in a black ice caused wreck, many years ago. I will forever remember the sight of the upside down bus, on a lonely back road, with it's little wheels twitching in the air. That is the image that crossed my mind when I first beheld my poor runaway lathe, it's little wheels waving in the wind at the bottom of my driveway. To this day, every time I use the lathe, I breath a sigh of relief that the tool gods were looking over my shoulder that day.
Sincerely,
MisterFixIt1952