# Power Down Feed Drilling with the PM45M-PDF



## darkzero (Feb 23, 2014)

Nothing much to see but I have heard at times where people say they would rarely have a use for power down feed. I guess it depends on what needs to be made. Just wanted to show how simple the power down feed makes drilling when you have to drill a lot of holes.

I have been making a little tool here & there in the past few months. So far I've drilled & tapped well over 400 holes on these things. The power down feed saves a bit of time but the Tapmatic is what was the lifesaver. The first 40 holes I tapped by hand & it sucked!

Sorry for the boring video, my first time I ever made one. This was at the start of drilling & tapping 180 blind holes. With the Tapmatic it took me only a few hours to finish them all where as the time I was tapping 40 blind holes by hand took me almost all day.


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## 12bolts (Feb 23, 2014)

certainly not boring.
Can you vary the down feed speed independantly?

Cheers Phil


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## darkzero (Feb 23, 2014)

Thank you Phil.

Yes, it has three speeds for the down feed, .004", .007", & .010". /rev. 

I wish it had a bit slower speed like .002" like for boring but that's ok.


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## chuckorlando (Feb 23, 2014)

Now thats pretty slick.


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## Ray C (Feb 23, 2014)

Thanks Will...

There's been a bunch of questions here about what power downfeed is and that does a great job of showing.

It's one of those things that you might not use often but when you do, it's your best friend for a couple days.

Ray


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## darkzero (Feb 24, 2014)

Thanks Ray, I'm very glad it wasn't a total waste of time. hew:


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## chuckorlando (Feb 24, 2014)

I would use it often. It's like power feed on the table... Nothing one has to have, but awesome if you got it.

Can you set the depth and it retracts at that depth? Or does it just run as far as the quill goes then retracts?


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## Ray C (Feb 24, 2014)

chuckorlando said:


> I would use it often. It's like power feed on the table... Nothing one has to have, but awesome if you got it.
> 
> Can you set the depth and it retracts at that depth? Or does it just run as far as the quill goes then retracts?



Depth is adjustable and travel is very repeatable.

Ray


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## chuckorlando (Feb 24, 2014)

Nice. That could make life easier for sure. Could that be used with a endmill for counter bores or such?


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## Ray C (Feb 24, 2014)

chuckorlando said:


> Nice. That could make life easier for sure. Could that be used with a endmill for counter bores or such?



It's limited to the feed rates that Will mentioned below.  If those feed-rates are suitable for the circumstances of your material and bit etc, heck yeah.  I've used it before to consistently chamfer a bunch of holes.  That worked-out really nice.

I found it very helpful with a boring head.  First I under-bored the hole by several thou and operated the spindle manually.  Then, on the final pass for the correct diameter, I set it on auto-feed and it was like a work of art.  No matter how evenly you try to humanly operate a spindle, you can't do it.  The machine drive speaks the truth and gives a really awesome finish.


Ray


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## Bill C. (Feb 24, 2014)

darkzero said:


> Nothing much to see but I have heard at times where people say they would rarely have a use for power down feed. I guess it depends on what needs to be made. Just wanted to show how simple the power down feed makes drilling when you have to drill a lot of holes.
> 
> I have been making a little tool here & there in the past few months. So far I've drilled & tapped well over 400 holes on these things. The power down feed saves a bit of time but the Tapmatic is what was the lifesaver. The first 40 holes I tapped by hand & it sucked!
> 
> ...



Nice video. I don't recall using power feed to drill holes. I like to feel how the drill was cutting.  Some of old machines I used it didn't work anyway.  I used power feed for boring.  

I did use power feed on radial arm drill press and power taping as well.


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## Sean OHare (Mar 23, 2015)

Very interesting.   Do you use your tapmatic head on the mill with the power down feed?  Now that is something I could see being very useful for me if that would work.  I tap a ton of holes in titanium when making folding knives, anything to make that go more smoothly is a huge plus.

Thanks,
Sean


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## Sean OHare (Mar 23, 2015)

Oh one more thing.  Is that the vise that comes in the kit he sells?

Sean


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## Stonebriar (Mar 23, 2015)

That vice is from Glacern.


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## darkzero (Mar 23, 2015)

Sean OHare said:


> Very interesting.   Do you use your tapmatic head on the mill with the power down feed?  Now that is something I could see being very useful for me if that would work.  I tap a ton of holes in titanium when making folding knives, anything to make that go more smoothly is a huge plus.
> 
> Thanks,
> Sean



I don't use the power down feed with my Tapmatic head. The rates of travel of the power down feed is too slow to keep up with a tapping head & the rate of travel also varies depending on thread pitch. I just pull down on the quill by hand.



Sean OHare said:


> Oh one more thing.  Is that the vise that comes in the kit he sells?
> 
> Sean



As Stonebriar stated, that vise shown is from Glacern, 5", which IMO is the appropriate max size for a RF-45. Some people actually prefer a 4" but not me.

This is the vise included with the "kit" is 4", supplied with swivel base, on bottom:


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