Now I have finished the 3 ball handle I can think about other stuff. There are a few projects I have mentioned in the past, but have not done anything about. One of these is a power feed for the X axis of my mill. I have just done some research on the forum back issues and found this.

I have started making my power feed. I will try to remember to take some pictures when I have something to look at. I have nearly all of the plans worked out now. I do most of the working out at work as we often have long periods of just monitoring jobs. I have been thinking of digital readouts lately. I cannot afford a full setup so have decided to get individual scales with a 3 axis digital readout.

I want to know how to combine the limit switches and the scales on the mill without either getting in the way of the other. I want to work out the arrangement for limit switches so I wont have to change them to fit the scales later. Pictures showing the arrangements would be useful. I would also like to know if anyone has any idea of cheaply available limit switches. At this stage I am looking at micro switches as the limit switches I have seen are too expensive. May be cheaper to make some. I have heaps of micro switches off stuff I have pulled apart.
Well I have fitted the DRO at least. I had a quick look for that bit that I started making and guess what?

I had not been able to find any of my CAD drawings from before I had the Network HDD crash. Today I had the idea of checking my old notebook which SWMBO uses now. I found a heap of drawings in the TurboCAD Backups directory. All the designs for the power feed seem to be there.

I have been thinking of ways to simplify the design. The engage/disengage clutch was one thing I wanted to improve. My original idea was to have the geared motor slide in and out to engage a slot in the output of the motor. I thought about a number of ideas and decided to investigate electromagnetic clutches. I removed the pulley, clutch and coil from my old car air conditioner today. I think it will work fine. The coil is still good as I hooked up a battery to the wire to lock the compressor so I could undo the front nut. Now I need to think about what changes I need to do to the design, and maybe draw them.

Dean