ML 7 DC motor powered leadscrew ?

Hello everyone. I recently bought a mostly complete ML7 and I'd like to power the leadscrew with a DC motor for fine feed. I don't have any requirement for threadcutting so it'll likely be a permanent fitting.

The question is, what kind of DC motor and speed controller should I buy ?
Ebay is chock full of Chinese DC motor controllers, but I am heartily suspicious of the quality and sometimes the safety of electronic products coming from that corner of the world.
I can follow schematics well enough to build my own controller, if someone has an idea of what might be suitable.
Also what sort of motor should I consider ?

Hi Sid

"Also what sort of motor should I consider".

A 12 or 24 volt DC wind screen wiper motor is a good place to start and a PWM DC Speed Control from that corner of the world.

My limited experience is using them for the power feed on A lathe and a Mill drill plus the oil pump on the lathe.

http://www.kbelectronics.com

http://www.surpluscenter.com/Electric-Motors/DC-Gearmotors/ May be useful place to start.

Eric

Sid,

If it's seriously going to be permanent fit and frequent use ... you might consider something from the Parvalux range: **LINK**

http://www.parvalux.com/products/dc-motors-and-geared-motors

Not cheap ... but excellent quality; and they do turn up second-hand, if your wallet is cringing at the thought.

MichaelG.

In this day and age you could even consider a stepper motor using elements of http://www.jeffree.co.uk/pages/ml7-cnc/part-1-files/myfordcncpt1.htm

Ta very much.

I wish that there was a company like Surpluscenter in the UK. Maybe there is ?

The motor will be a permanent fixture, but even allowing for the fact that I bought the ML7 for much less than the going rate I have to add the leadscrew motor on a budget, unless I want to continue eating beans on toast for the next few months

I've seen the Tony Jeffree CNC link. It looks great, but I know nothing about stepper motors. I'd like a minimum of complication. Just a switch that does Forward\Off\Reverse and a speed control would be fine.

Edit - just found a brand new Parvalux 10w 24DC motor with 139 rpm planetary gearbox on Ebay for £25 - does that sound like it'll work OK ?

Edited By Sid Wittmann on 31/01/2017 20:08:56

There are plenty of u-toob videos on the topic. Enough to give you some inspiration, I would think. Just avoid the downright dangerous examples (open gears rotating is not the best idea!).

That motor sounds reasonable. You can buy an MFA speed controller from Maplin, it's rated at 15 volts but I think you can run the motor output through the motor to a 24 volt supply but supply the electronics with 12 volts as it uses a simple MOSFET output stage. The Maplin part number is rn41u.

That should get me going then....thanks

If it's the one I think it is I use one as the feed motor on this machine:-

Edited By JasonB on 01/02/2017 17:45:07

I see they supply brushless motors, which clearly require a controller / drive to make them work. Indeed, they talk of "the controllers we supply", yet on their website there doesn't appear to be any mention of such products. Is it just me or is this one of these annoying companies that can't organise a simple website to describe their fairly limited product line?

Murray

Controllers from page 14 of catalogue

Where did they hide that? There was me expecting to find it in the "Products" heading rather than in the footnotes under "catalogues". As I said, rather a bizarre way of "selling" your products!

Hi there, all,

Reverting to windscreen wiper motors for a moment, adapting one of those to a continuous rotation function means disposing of the wiper blade waggling linkage.

I've never actually held one in my hands but I've wondered whether a side window raising/lowering motor might be simpler to adapt. They're obviously reversible. How do they compare, power-wise and mechanically?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

What was the reason for editing this and creating the false impression that it hadn't embeded properly JasonB?

Col.

It was just showing as a black box not as it should, I tried getting the Embed code direct from youtube and same problem, it usually comes up about 3 lines long but I could only get one and a bit lines.

No false impression, it did not embed.

I have the power!

(It takes ages to load, but does start eventually)

Ok, thanks JasonB, I had played it back immediately after posting to verify it though so I've no idea what the cause could be.

Col.

ESAB did a lot of testing in the 80s and found the most reliable DC motors available were Volvo wiper motors and used them to drive the wire in their MIG welding equipment, if you think about the job they do on a rainy day and how many years they last I'd say you've made the right decision

Door window motors are similar but smaller and not designed for 100% duty cycle applications.

- Nick

Edited By Nick Hulme on 14/03/2017 19:46:57

I use an old Lucas wiper motor on my milling machine table. You can knock the origonal spindle out of the worm wheel, and fit an extended spindle, on this you can fit your drive system, mine is a sprocket for a bike chain.

Ian S C