Stephen Ellacott's Taig Lathe Powerfeed

Stephen Ellacott sent in pictures of his latest project. This is the first project I've seen that takes advantage of the dovetail on the front of the new extruded carriage.

"I hate lead screws...big floppy swarf magnets....there, I've said it. So I'm working on motorizing the carriage traverse to try to provide the same smooth finish as a lead screw. Here are some shots of the prototype version that I thought you might enjoy. The regular traversing handle and pinion has been replaced with the geared pinion and a block with the Geared Motor (5RPM) and drive gear attached."

"It slides onto the dovetail on the front of the carriage and is snugged against the pinion gear (whatever size you want) and tightened in place. I used two 12 tooth 24 pitch Acetal gears for the prototype - probably brass for the real thing."

"The 12V motor reversing circuit controls the carriage with three buttons- Forward, Stop and Reverse. You must hit Stop before changing direction. I'll package this up in a 1.5" x 3" swarf proof project box when I'm done. It draws about 70mA cutting .0010" in brass at a 3 inch/minute traverse with the one-to-one gear ratio (too fast, but it was easier to layout the prototype using like gears). The goal is to be able to loosen one thumb screw, slide the motor block to the left and have manual traverse back. Total cost - less than $30 (real dollars). The final pinion gear may just be the stock handle with gears cut around the perimeter....Hmmm...may have to order one.."

"A better shot of it installed using dovetail clamping (works great!) with the body cut down to size."

"Another shot of the back of the block. Just loosen the 10-32 set screw and it slides off under the cross-slide knob."

Pictures also posted on Cartertools.