# First project on the mill a  pneumatic drawbar



## killswitch505 (Sep 1, 2017)

Soooooo...... I'm a newer member to the forum. I've a lot of time on my lathe but only used my enco RF clone as a glorified drillpress. I picked up a BP clone a couple weeks back I've been crazy busy at work so I've just been buying tooling. The damn thing was 3 phase being that I converted my lathe to 3 phase and already had a drive I had to build a box allowing the drive to control both machines with just a flip of a switch. tonight I actually got some time on the new to me machine. All I've got to say is any of y'all doing any milling work without a dro my hat is off to you!!!!!!! I honestly couldn't imagine doing any milling without a dro. I won't lie I was super intimidated by the milling machine. My other machine wouldn't tram to save a life. I broke a million end mills and basically said screw this and pushed it in a corner. I figure if I'm gonna have a fancy mill with a fancy dro I may as well have a  pneumatic draw bar. I watched a million YouTube videos picked and chose little things I liked from all of them. It's super nice having a machine that doesn't chatter and break things. I hope this project turns out well for me this has been a super enjoyable evening.


----------



## Ulma Doctor (Sep 2, 2017)

Looks great killswitch!
glad to hear that you are enjoying your new girlfriend!
it's always best to start with crap (tools) and make stuff.
that way when you get something new(er) and everything works as it should, you appreciate the newer/better machine tenfold


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 2, 2017)

Ulma, thanks for the kind words I really wanted to build a phase convert (like the one you provided the link to) for the mill as I project to show the hands at work, time constatant didn't allow for it I was able to pick up parts and and have this built in a few hours. One of the guys has a super nice 3 phase table saw that he's never been able to use due the the cost of a typical roto phase (I tried to explain it could be converted to single phase easily years ago). Once I showed him your post he wants to dig the table saw out of his barn (back corner with about 10 years and 15' of crap on top and around it) hopefully he'll get it out soon.


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 3, 2017)

Get a lot done tonight!!! I got to use a boring head for the first time. That was pretty neat.


----------



## Silverbullet (Sep 3, 2017)

Have question why two sets of bars ?? Last picture .


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 3, 2017)

Silver, those are the spring return air cylinders


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 17, 2017)

Got some time in the shop I cleaned up the whole mess I wasn't happy with the looks of it and I started on the switch


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 20, 2017)

Got my switch done works great I was a bit worried


----------



## aliva (Sep 21, 2017)

This is what I use , with pneumatic push buttons


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 21, 2017)

aliva said:


> This is what I use , with pneumatic push buttons
> View attachment 242217
> View attachment 242218


Aliva, that looks super clean!!! I've a deep socket on mine thinking it would engage more of the drawbar but from what I'm seeing most are running a standard depth socket I could lower my legs and inch or so if I went that direction. How many PSI are you running


----------



## aliva (Sep 22, 2017)

My compressor is on at 80 psi and off at  125 psi


----------



## killswitch505 (Sep 22, 2017)

aliva said:


> My compressor is on at 80 psi and off at  125 psi


Pulled my regular of my paint set up and mine seems to work best at 80 psi with the lazy man's  torque test


----------

