Sherline Gear-Driven Power Feed

I like the idea of an independant, adjustable drive for the power feed. I might have to try it on my PM1127. The only motor I have free right now is a treadmill motor with a 10,000 RPM rating. A bit much. :) I'm thinking either a nice VS DC gear motor or a mid size stepper. Have a few things to work on before I mess with it though.
 
The 1127 has a drive shaft that is tied to the gear train via a spur gear on the end of the shaft. You would need to remove the gear and make an adapter for the DC motor but it could be done. I've looked at mine so I know its possible but you have to find a way to support the gear motor. If you ever get to Oahu, come by and I'll show you how well this speed/feed thing works.
 
I wanted to show you what the feed motor does but I don't have many pics of something like that. I do, however, have a pic of my live center and I used the feed motor to machine the thing. The bearing housing and tailstock arbor are 1144 Stressproof steel and the tips are O-1 tool steel, hardened and tempered. The components you see are as they come off the lathe - no polishing, sanding or anything. The only process used aside from turning is employing a graver to soften all the edges.

LC-with-tips.jpg

Everything you see here was made on the Sherline lathe with HSS tooling and most of it employed the dc feed motor. Most harder steels, like 1144 and O-1 in particular, like to be finished at high speeds but looow feeds if you want a good finish. It is difficult, at least for me, to get a consistent finish manually. So, for harder materials you want to use low speeds with moderate feeds to rough and high speeds with fine cuts at low feeds to finish and a power feed will aid in both instances.

Imagine if your speeds and feeds were tied together via a gear train; how do you run at high speeds and low feeds if you don't have the gearing to do it? My Emco Super 11 can get close to this (I have a quick change gear box and a full change gear set) but it won't produce the finish you see here, not even on its best day. Most "machinists" consider the Sherline lathe a toy but in my view, they are naive.

It is my opinion that a Sherline lathe needs a small handful of mods to be really useful - a good live center, a rear mounted parting tool, variable power feed and really good HSS turning tools. A graver and a good knurler are icing on the cake.
 
Those look great Mike!

I think most real machinists would think your Super 11 or my 1127 are toys too, but they can do nice work. Same with the Sherline. If the projects I want to do would fit on one, I would have thought about going that way.

The gear on the end is easy to remove, leaving a keyed shaft. So I suspect I could make a little adapter without too much hassle. Mounting the motor would be a bit more work.
 
Thanks, Trav.

If you do hook up a feed motor to yours, do a thread on it and show what it can do. I bet there are a lot of guys out there who would find it interesting.
 
mikey said:
I wanted to show you what the feed motor does but I don't have many pics of something like that. I do, however, have a pic of my live center and I used the feed motor to machine the thing. The bearing housing and tailstock arbor are 1144 Stressproof steel and the tips are O-1 tool steel, hardened and tempered. The components you see are as they come off the lathe - no polishing, sanding or anything. The only process used aside from turning is employing a graver to soften all the edges.

View attachment 275431

Everything you see here was made on the Sherline lathe with HSS tooling and most of it employed the dc feed motor. Most harder steels, like 1144 and O-1 in particular, like to be finished at high speeds but looow feeds if you want a good finish. It is difficult, at least for me, to get a consistent finish manually. So, for harder materials you want to use low speeds with moderate feeds to rough and high speeds with fine cuts at low feeds to finish and a power feed will aid in both instances.

Imagine if your speeds and feeds were tied together via a gear train; how do you run at high speeds and low feeds if you don't have the gearing to do it? My Emco Super 11 can get close to this (I have a quick change gear box and a full change gear set) but it won't produce the finish you see here, not even on its best day. Most "machinists" consider the Sherline lathe a toy but in my view, they are naive.

It is my opinion that a Sherline lathe needs a small handful of mods to be really useful - a good live center, a rear mounted parting tool, variable power feed and really good HSS turning tools. A graver and a good knurler are icing on the cake.
Click to expand...
 
Impressive, Mike. I also remember your rear-mounted parting tool post which was very helpful. An Emco and a Sherline....the best of both worlds!
 
I am currently working on a power feed that I hope will do exactly what some of you have mentioned. It will be independent from the spindle, has variable speed, and is reversible. The advertised output speed of the gear motor I selected is supposed to be 300 rpm, which is about 15 times the speed of the 3001 I just sold. I don't know yet if I am wasting my time and money on this project, but if things work out as I hope, I will post information here detailing what I did to come up with a much more versatile alternative to the Sherline offering. On second thought, I suppose I should also post something if it is a failure, so others won't waste time and money trying the same thing.
By the way, I contacted Sherline about the 3001 and they replied that it is at least temporarily discontinued due to the supplier no longer producing the motors.

Russ
 
Let us know how it works out, Russ. I suspect 300 rpm might be a bit fast but you never know. As long as you can maintain torque at low speeds then it should work out.
 
My main reason for the top speed of 300 rpm was mostly to allow for a more rapid movement of the saddle when I needed to move it long distances. I don't know how many times I had to move the saddle to get room for a measurement or something and at only .05 travel for every revolution of dial, it got old very quickly.
The 3001 power feed would rotate at about 20 rpm. That is great for some situations, but not all. The other restriction, of course, is the single direction of feed. If I find that the motor I am about to use doesn't have adequate torque for low speed work, there are others of the same size that offer lower speeds of output. This really is a work in progress and may go through several changes. I just hope I guessed correctly the first time. Odds are, I didn't.

Later,
Russ
 
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