Warco GH Universal mill help

I've recently acquired a Warco GH Universal mill and it's a great mill but the method for raising the head is rather laborious and long winded!!! I tried a 3nm stepper motor but it couldn't touch it, so I then tried my 18v drill and it did move it once fully up and down but now the ratchet in drill mode has kicked in and no longer works.

Has anyone done this 'upgrade' or got any suggestions?

Cheers

Roger

I did it to mine when I had it. Used a high voltage 12nm stepper through a worm gearbox. Used a little cheap controller from ebay for up/down and speed control signals to the stepper driver. Worked really well and was far easier than cranking that handle.

The first thing I'd do would be to measure how much torque is required to move it with the aid of a lever and spring balance. Then I'd look at what options there are to achive this torque. What size gear box might be needed in order to use a smaller motor? Then it might depend on how much you want to spend.

Cheers

John

Counterbalance might help. Unless you need to use a stepper for a cnc application it is a terribly inefficient motor for this application. A traditional solution would be a windscreen wiper with as much reduction gearing as needed. Also perhaps a mobility scooter motor which seem to crop up a lot. Problem then is big enough PSU.

I like Bazyle’s suggestions.  No real problem with PSU - drive the buggy motor from a (smaller than the buggy required!) battery and recharge with a trickle/float charger?

Maybe a small three phase motor with a VFD though a suitable gearbox, as a further possibility?

The counterbalance, if possible, is certainly the key to the power required.

Edited By not done it yet on 22/09/2021 21:19:49

There's no easy way for a counter balance and I think it would need to offset about a 100kgs to work. I don't need variable speed just need it to go up and down at a suitable rate, I have a couple of leisure batteries left over from my touring days so a buggy motor would be worth looking into.

I use portable drills all the time as power feeds, very useful

Even if not “an easy way”, counterbalancing must reduce the load required. Machine only weighs 320kg, so I doubt it needs 100kg offsetting - the head still needs some downwards force. Any reduction in effective weight will make a difference.

The common ‘assisters’ are pneumatic struts similar to the boot and bonnet props in many modern cars.

I also have a GH Universal and have looked at the same problem. The motorised version uses a 120W geared motor driving the screw from the top of the column. Not sure what the ratio is on the gearbox but various versions are available on Amazon. When I designed vertical slides they where mostly balanced by a hydraulic cylinder fixed directly to the slide but these catered for full safety on failure, so in our case a gas strut would be ok. One day I will get round to doing it but at the moment I can live with the handle.

The mill actually weighs in at 360kgs and the head is the heaviest part of the mill so while it's an estimate I don't think I'm that far off. If the mill had a rack for the head I would go with a counterbalance but it has a screw in the column and takes 3 1/2 turns of the handle to move 10 mm! The effort to move the head down is appreciable while not as much as going up.

A freshly charge battery in my drill will move the head up but is on the cusp of the ratchet triggering to avoid motor burnout etc.

I think I'll look for a mobility motor or similar and build on from there, meanwhile I'll use the cordless drill as I have 3 batteries so always have fresh ones available.

Cheers

Roger