Archive through October 29, 2000

[sheldon@dingwallguitars.com]

Is anyone using a drill spindle on their second Z? Any suggestions? I have some applications where a router won't do.

[carol]

I am. What do you need to know?

[davidallen]

I've used a hand-held drill on the 2nd Z. both for drill bits and low speed accessories (ie. sanding disks).

the drill bits work fine. you can crank up the plunge speed without a problem. if your drilling deep, remember to clear the hole every 3/4 to 1", build-up still causes problems.

I haven't found a 6" sanding disk that works. the 2" ones are OK, but they take so long that I prefer to do it by hand.

when I get a rotary axis installed, I want to try one of the carbide burrs to produce a surface pattern on turnings. that'll be a while though.

da

[sheldon@dingwallguitars.com]

My question was what are people using for spindles? I'd considered a DC motor with a variable speed, but it might be hard to find one with bearings intended for endload.

I've considered an air drill, pulling apart a small drill press and using the quill and motor, didn't consider a hand drill because of too many curved surfaces on the shell. Was it hard to align David?

[Gerald D]

Sheldon, I remember you asking this question about a week ago, and noticed that you had no response. It seems obvious to Carol, David, me and probably other ShopBotters, that you simply mount a handheld (portable) drill. But surely your problem is more complicated, otherwise you wouldn't be asking?

Can you tell us why the obvious is not working for you? What is special about your application?

[davidallen]

the drill wasn't too hard to mount. I did shim it up with a short piece of 1" alum. angle and tacked it down with some hot melt glue until I got the clamps tightened. I usually run a piece of hard rubber (from a sewer pipe adapter) between the tool and the hose clamp.

most VSR drills I've seen lately have a space near the chuck that's ideal for clamping in a shaft collar. you could probably make a more elegant mount based on that but, for my needs, hot glue and hose clamps worked fine.

da

[birdsofplay]

if you get one of those 1/2" hand drills with a
"Handle" that goes on the "Collar" that david described, you ought to be able to make a
mounting for it.
I got one from Dewalt as it had the largest
collar that i could find at "that" woodshow !

I havent mounted it yet unfortunately.

I'd tried to use a Forstner type bit in the router
using the 3/8" collet but it was too fast even at
the lowest speed on a 7518 ( 10,000 )
It "burned" too much for router use.

I was gonna use it on a Second Z but my machine is older which left "not much room" for a second
axis :-(

Cest La Vie ! :-(

[Gerald D]

C:\Temp

MVC-025F.JPG

[mechtron@iafrica.com]

Sorry for me asking a question while you are already answering - notice the 2 minutes time difference. This is how I would go about it:

1. Purchase a hand-drill with a good collar behind the chuck for mounting in a drill press. The DIN (German)standard collar is about 42mm diam and about 25mm long. These drills are designed so that they need only to be clamped at this collar (nowhere else on the body is required)

However, I must admit that I searched many American websites to find a suitable picture, but your hand-drill style seems to have only a narrow collar. I seem to recall that you are drilling small holes, so the following example may be suitable:

http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/maki/ma6405.htm?L+coastest+dzsr7052ff334633+972602899 (http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/maki/ma6405.htm?L%2Bcoastest%2Bdzsr7052ff334633%2B97260 2899)

2. Purchase "hydraulic pipe clamp", from a supplier of hydraulic accessories, to fit neck of drill. See photo below:

(Sorry, photo too big, discovered that this forum only accepts up to 10K. Will e-mail direct (for anybody)if you supply address)

3. Attach to z-axis using long screws right-through. You will have to drill new holes in the z-axis. In my machine the router is attached in this way. You can see that my router is actually a "die-grinder" (var. speed):

(second photo)

[bill.young]

Gerald,

I've got plenty of room left on my ISP's server ( they give me 10 megs; I haven't filled up 3 yet!). If you want to email the image to me, I'll upload it and post a link to it.

Bill

[birdsofplay]

Um ??? er ??? why not ...

Just use the Forum's PIC display format
to show the PIC here in the discussion.


Here's a PIC of the Dewalt.

Note the ALL METAL Collar/Gear-frame
and included handle which detaches easily.


5398

[birdsofplay]

To display a PIC here in the forum ...

enter a line with a "Backslash" and the word "image" then a "curly open bracket" your description and a "curly close bracket"

NOTE I did NOT use the exact syntax here as an example because it would probably try to "ACT" on the commands.

Check the "Format a message" instructions here in
the forum.

I've used Paint Shop Pro 6.0 in Screen Capture mode to "grab" the following PIC from the Forum's HOW TO ...

This oughta explain it pretty well ...


5399

1. don't use the "actual picture's name.
just put a "slash"image in the body of the text

2. Be sure to WAIT for the BROWSE to appear AFTER
you have clicked the SUBMIT Message.
When you see it just browse for the PIC and hit upload. THIS is where your actual image name will be "gotten from" .

ALSO NOTE: !!!
the FORUM ...
WILL NOT allow PICS larger than 10K to be uploaded
so you'll have to "squeeze 'em down" a bunch in your
Raster editer ( Paint shop) program.

[mechtron@iafrica.com]

Thanks Bill, I've e-mailed photos to Bob and asked him if he can insert like his example above. Let's see if he is successful before I take up your kind offer.

Just spoke to Dudley Dix - sends his regards

[bill.young]

Gerald emailed some pictures to me and I've posted them at www.seasidesmallcraft.com/drillpix.htm (http://www.seasidesmallcraft.com/drillpix.htm). The clamps look like they could come in handy for a lot of uses, and are available from a company called Parker Hannifin at www.parker.com/ (http://www.parker.com/).

Bill

[birdsofplay]

Here is Geralds pix reduced in PaintshopPro 6.0
to something areound 10K or less.
Sorry but they get a little PIXelish
at this size.

5400

5401

Suffice it to say that Bill has a better
"Look See" for these

Thanks Bill

[donchandler]

I used a motor from a Milwaukee magnetic drill press. It has a flat base and you just bolt it on.
It works good if the hole isn't too big. If the hole is over 1/2", don't bother with a drill. Just route it out with a spiral down and flat bottom pass. This way you don't have to peck up and down to clear the swarf.

[sheldon@dingwallguitars.com]

Thanks for the advice. I will look closer at hand drills.

Has anyone tried fitting a Blackalloy unit? http://www.drillunit.com/

[mechtron@iafrica.com]

The majority of the Blackalloy units on the site are "drill spindles" which are simply shafts with bearings and mounting face. To get a complete drilling setup, you still need pulleys, belt, motor, speed controller and chuck. If you put all these "industrial" grade components together, you will have fairly large mass (plus $$$'s & manhours).

The ShopBot z-axis is balanced with springs so that the cutting tool does not drop when the z-motor is turned off. If you add too much payload, then you will have to compensate the spring force.

The heaviest item is probably the electric motor and this could be fixed to the y-car while only the spindle plunges (drill-press style). But then the z-axis rails/bearings must carry the belt loads.

Granted that the hand-drill route is not as "industrial" as the Blackalloys, but then again the Shopbot is not as "industrial" as the $20 000 options. I would think that a good hand-drill is in the right league for the ShopBot.

If reliability, durability, etc are major concerns for you, then get two drills and rotate/service them as necessary. In this case a simple mount (as discussed above) will facilitate easy change over.

[djhazeleger@mindspring.com]

Anyone have a part number for drill clamp shown from Parker?

[mechtron@iafrica.com]

At the parker.com web site, you get a poor result if you search on "pipe clamps" - because this passes you on to their affiliates in Europe. In USA they use a brand name of ParKlamp - so a search for ParKlamp produces the catalog in Acrobat form. (a Yahoo search on ParKlamp of course gives you sites for "light fittings" for autos!)

The address is:
http://www.parker.com/tfd/cat/pdffiles/parklamp.pdf

Around here we have a couple of suppliers for "hydraulic pipe clamps" - Parker is not the most common. (only used Parker as an example because I know they are a strong USA company). Really suggest you call a "hydraulic accessories (tubes & fittings)" supplier in your yellow pages and ask for a 1" (example) pipe clamp, the plastic type with the two half blocks. . . . .

Standard Parker sizes appear to be:
.25 .38 .5 .53 .63 .69 .75 .81 .84 .94 1.0 1.05 1.09 1.25 1.31 1.41 1.5 1.72 1.9 1.96 2.0 inches pipe/(drill) diameter
So, depending on your drill size, there could be quite a choice of part numbers! Shimstock will let you get a tight fit in the next size up.

[djhazeleger@mindspring.com]

Thanks for the info, I haven't run across that type of clamp before.
Dirk