Motorise z axis mini mill

Hi looking for a bit of help. I am modifying my Chester Champion 16 mill as the Z axis hand wheel is at the back of the column and only 5 feet tall I struggle to reach it. I have bought a ball screw and a pair of bevel gears to move the handwheel to the right hand side at 90 degrees in a new housing so as I have the room I would like to fit a DC motor to traverse with a variable speed controle. But the motor I would need can traverse at slow speed and have a maximum speed of only 200 rpm and 80 mm x 80mm square would fit the top plate but that could be changed. Where can I get a motor and controler from and has anyone done a similar mod.

David

David

Have you considered a Stepper motor controlled by an Arduino ?

Size will be determined by the power required to raise the head and you may need to use a gear/belt arrangement to provide desired feeds/speeds.
Control would be similar to the rotary table described on this forum a few months ago, adapted to suit your application, or if you search the net/youtube there are numerous articles showing how to achieve your goal.

Emgee

My mill is basically the same as a chester lux with the crank handle on the side of the column , i origianally used an 18 volt drill but ended up just buying a dirt cheap mains power drill with the built in speed control and using it to raise ./ lower the head. I can buy the proper motor / gearbox unit for this but the price was unbelievable !

It depends on how much torque you need to turn the handle ,if it is easily turned then a big stepper motoer will do it If you want finer control . The other issue i found using DC motors is they can draw a lot of current and getting a power supply that can handle 40 or 50 amps + wasn't easy or cheap !

A simple solution for driving a stepper with Enable/Disable, Forward/Reverse and 3 speed ranges is an MKS OSC V1.0 board, stepper driver, PSU and stepper motor.

Hi Dave, I have done that mod on my Champion 16, if you look on the Chester forum you will see how I did it, it is much easier to raise and lower the head now. I also motorised the table wit a windscreen wiper motor which suits my needs but a stepper would probably be better. Keep us posted, regards Pat