RF-31 or RF-30 Power feed

[BGHansen]

Here's a couple of photos of the power feed on a Jet JVM-830. The power feed was originally on my Grizzly RF-30/31 clone. Bought the Jet and adapted the mill/drill PF to the Jet. You "should" be able to do the opposite with a BP clone PF and adapt it to your RF-30/31.

Just be aware that the RF-30/31 (at least my Grizzly clone) had 10 tpi on the X screw, so the power feed was geared for that thread. My Jet (like BP's) are 5 tpi. My mill/drill PF moves VERY fast in rapid, double the intended rate on Rapid. The pot during normal power feeding is always on the low end. You'll have the opposite condition with a 5 tpi PF on a 10 tpi mill so your rapids won't be as fast as if it was on a 5 tpi table, but still beat the heck out of hand cranking.

Bruce

 

[stioc]

Found for about $350.00 here. Might shop around.

Shars sells the Algs 310s for mill drills. Last time I looked they were around 270$ us. Started a thread actually wondering about the quality being from China. I believe this model tops out around 25 inches / min. and the Alighn units have more torque and a possible faster feed rate. Long term I think Align for the money.

OK thanks, I was wondering if I should lower the price for mine before I post it in the for-sale section.

 

[Hawkeye]

The listing on eBay didn't say what machines the drive fit, so I ended up with the same combination. I didn't want to lose any travel, so I extended the screw shaft and made an extended mount. I still have full X-axis movement.

 

[Cmdevans]

@Hawkeye That is precisely what I was thinking. Only real difference I can see between what I was planning and what you did is I was going to use square stock. Any tricky bits making the extensions or was it pretty straight forward?

 

[Hawkeye]

The conversion goes back to January of 2017, so the details are bit foggy. I turned an extension shaft that keyed into the existing screw shaft, with a keyway to tie into the brass gear for the new drive. I also needed to make a hub to mate with the original handwheel.





Any arrangement that works with your particular machine will do the job.

 

[MarkM]

Awesome! Not only did you make it work but you also have made it a more functional design than what is out there being mounted below the table with no interferance.

 

[epanzella]

I'm late to this party but I'm ready to pull the trigger on an Align 500D. The only piece of the puzzle that I'm missing is the diameter of the lead screw for that unit. My HF 33686 is an RF30 clone with a 17mm lead screw.

 

[pontiac428]

The drive uses the tenon on the end of the lead screw that the hand wheel fixes to. Everything bolted on for me, it must be a universal dimension for the RF and her many clones.

 

[daveghil]

HI all..this is an old thread but thought I'd try...I looked at the installation manual for the Grizzly H8370 for my RF 30. Looks like a perfect match for the left side of the bed. One question though...it specified adding limit switches to the front side of the bed and this appears to perhaps interfere with a future DRO slide and pickup which would normally be mounted here. Anyone with an X power feed also able to add a DRO slide to the front of the bed? Of course I could add the slide to the rear of the bed but that would limit some Y travel but would prefer to have it in front.

 

[epanzella]

HI all..this is an old thread but thought I'd try...I looked at the installation manual for the Grizzly H8370 for my RF 30. Looks like a perfect match for the left side of the bed. One question though...it specified adding limit switches to the front side of the bed and this appears to perhaps interfere with a future DRO slide and pickup which would normally be mounted here. Anyone with an X power feed also able to add a DRO slide to the front of the bed? Of course I could add the slide to the rear of the bed but that would limit some Y travel but would prefer to have it in front.

Yeah I front mounted a DRO scale in combination with the with power feed limit switches on my RF30 knockoff. I mounted the X scale on standoffs and positioned the standoffs so they also functioned to trip the limit switches on the power feed.