My large geared head drill stiffy

[Alistair Hosie]

I am having difficulty winding the table of my large gear headed drill up and down.I know I have things ( machinery)close together in my workshop ,but with my health problems I find myself really struggling with this as it is very stiff .Ok till I get to the bottom pushing it with my foot mostly then pulling it beyond there to pull it back up again is really hard.I am trying to think of a way to fit a direct drive slow driven high torque motor just like they use on mills to raise the knee, to drive the table up and down.Or should I try a kind of air driven impact drill with a socket head set on the head of it the same as they use in garages to fit wheel nuts. as long as it set it to slow it should work.Ideally I want an inching type of device to slowly get to my ideal height.Has anyone done this or do you have any ideas.not a brilliant picture but you can see generaly where my problem lies overcrowding doesn't help.Kindest regardsAlistair

[jkilroy]

How about a cheap air cylinder off of Ebay rigged up as a simple assist. Its lifts the table while you turn the crank. Just make sure to turn off the air when trying to lower!

[BadDog]

Can you get a drill motor to it? I take it from your description, you can't bend over to get back there (using foot and all), so it wouldn't work for you to hold it. But the 1/2 geared drills are pretty cheap. So, you could modify the drive, maybe 3 facet to help the drill chuck grip better, a rig a bracket for the drill motor. Hook to remote switch to control. Or get one of those old conversion "bench press" rigs to mount it. The only problem is reversing it as you would need to either get to the switch, or figure a way to remote that as well.

Sorry, that's all I got... Now back to the shop to continue on my over ambitious weekend project. <sigh>

[matador]

How about a windscreen wiper motor,Alistair.Cheap from a scrappy,and plenty of torque.For control,get a 10amp pwm speed control kit from an electronics store.I use that setup on my drill mill for the table traverse.works a treat.

[aboard_epsilon]

i have a feeling that the table needs tightening to the coluum ...

its the droop ...

and the angle of the sleeve that surounds the coluum.

this is causing the stiffness.

all the best....mark

[andy_b]

I am trying to think of a way to fit a direct drive slow driven high torque motor just like they use on mills to raise the knee, to drive the table up and down.Or should I try a kind of air driven impact drill with a socket head set on the head of it the same as they use in garages to fit wheel nuts. as long as it set it to slow it should work.Ideally I want an inching type of device to slowly get to my ideal height.Has anyone done this or do you have any ideas.not a brilliant picture but you can see generaly where my problem lies overcrowding doesn't help.Kindest regardsAlistair

Alistair,

i would NOT use an impact wrench. the constant short bursts of high torque stress on the mechanism to raise and lower the table will not be good for it. your idea for a slow, high-torque motor sounds like the best solution. is there a clamp to tighten the table support to the column once the table is at the desired height? will you be able to loosen and tighten it when the table is low?

andy b.