Here is a full description of what I did for mine:
I was trolling around Amazon back in November and came across a power feed unit on sale super cheap - $110 CAD, shipping included, so I jumped on it. Nothing but the best brand name for me – “Wen Ding”. They are usually more like $250-$300 USD plus shipping whenever I’ve looked. It works well, although it is not super smooth at very low speeds.
Here is the almost finished result. I haven’t tied up the wiring or installed the limit switches yet in this picture.
It is meant to fit a Bridgeport, so it took a bit of manufacturing to make it fit on my mill. On a Bridgeport, I’m sure it would have taken less than an hour to install.
I had to extend the shaft, machine the end of the existing bracket, build the large aluminum spacer, then add a few smaller spacers on the end of the shaft. One of the reasons for the long spacer is so the power feed does not hit the base of the mill when the tables is all the way over to the left. It is also mounted at an angle so it is a few inches off the bench so it does not easily get something caught between the power feed unit and the base of the mill.
Here is the original end of the table with the bearing block removed. The bearing bracket on the end was originally held in by two bolts and positioned by two pins. I added a third bolt at the top (drilled and threaded into the end of the table) since I would be hanging a bunch of weight off the end with the new power feed. Probably over-kill, but it won’t hurt.
The large aluminum spacer bolts to the original bracket that is on the end of the table. I took the bracket off, mounted it in the 4-jaw on the lathe, then machined a good mating surface on it (it was a raw casting), and drilled and threaded some holes that the spacer mounts on to back on the mill (which I had to use without an X table feed since that part of the mill was dis-assembled).
The shaft extender attaches to the original shaft with 5 set screws. I used a bunch since the pressure on the x-axis will tend to push this spacer off. The shaft extender is made from some 1.5” bar stock. I put a few angled flat spots on the original shaft with a grinder so the set screws had a good place to tighten on to and any axial pressure will try to push the screws up a ramp, so they shouldn’t move. The medium sized diameter on the shaft extender is where the power feed fits over. It has a bearing that goes there. The good news is there is now a lot less end-play in the X-axis since I got a much tighter fit on the axial bearings than the original.
Here is what the large spacer looks like. It started out as a 4” long piece of 3” diameter aluminum stock. The power feed attaches to it with 4-bolts and two pins and it attaches to the original shaft bearing block with 4 bolts on the inside.
I had to modify the drive gear to fit my setup. The original looked something like the one on the right. RHS is from an old broken power feed I had in my junk pile. I used the gear that came with the kit (LHS).
Here is how it mounts. It clears the mill table, and is a couple of inches above the bench top so stuff sitting on the bench top (law of occupied horizontal surfaces) does not easily get pinched between the feed and the base of the mill. The bench top is made up of some stainless printing plates I got once upon a time.
Add the drive gear and a dust cover made out the plastic cover the brass gear shipped with to protect the teeth. It was exactly the right size and just needed a larger hole in the middle.
The gear drives the shaft with just the two set screws (no pins). If nothing else, it gives it a slip point if the x-shaft ever jams for some reason. It has worked fine to date. It even worked fine a couple of times when I has the X-gibs somewhat locked and I noticed that the x-feed was working hard for some reason,
And then I made another spacer and found a wavy spring washer and the original dial and hand crank fits on the end. I haven’t built a new pointer for the hand crank dial, but it does not really matter since there is one on the other end of the table, and I never use it anyway since I have a DRO on the mill.
Because my DRO sensor is already mounted where the limit switches from this unit would go, I made up two different limit switches. These mount on each end of the table on top of the DRO sensor. It is necessary to still have a bit of travel available when the switch is tripped since if the feed is running at full speed, it takes most of an inch to actually come to a stop when the power is removed. The limit switches are adjusted via the slots in the mounting holes. The feed stops pretty much instantly when it is switched off with the lever since that dis-engages the motor, and the motor spins down while in neutral.
So . . . the bottom line is I now have a nice x-feed on my mill. It works great and is a lot easier than lots of wheel turning. I've been using it for a little over a year and it is still working properly.
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
so it only ran in high speed). Oh well, mill is now cnc and running.