Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] how the heck to peck

Dave:

Do I understand you right that you want to "motorize" only the quill, and not
really turn the drill-press into a "CNC machine"?

If I needed to do this, I would use some Berg Min-E-pitch type
chain/sprockets and a stepper-motor, with a home-brew pulser with thumb-wheel
switches or the like, to make it possible to set the number of steps AND
step-rate DOWN, and "rapid-traverse UP" (this latter would be about 400-450
SPS).

Or, these days, surely less time to do: Use the parallel-printer port of a
"throw-away" PC (but a working one!), and write a BASIC program which would
"toggle" the bits of the port - like, bit-zero and bit-one - for driving the
stepper-driver CW and CCW. The RATE can be done with "do-nothing
delay-loops". If you are not familiar with at least GWBASIC, there is little
point in my putting an example of what I mean, here.

If this drill-press would be used for "other stuff, too", you could design
your mechanical attachment cleverly so that it could be "swapped" with the
up/down handle, rather than just REPLACING it, making this, then, a
"dedicated" machine.

Jan Rowland