Easy Substitute for Power Knee Feed on a Bridgeport Mill

[Tmate]

Since a Bridgeport knee moves only one inch up or down in ten turns of the crank, moving it up or down 6 to 10 inches or more can be tedious. Small, precise movements with the crank are fine.

For those times when a power assist would be helpful, I bought the attachment shown in the photos ($45 at http://www.snrmachine.com). Just chuck it up in a 1/2" 18 volt cordless drill on low speed, and you can move the knee up or down a foot or more in seconds. Just get it to the approximate desired location, and fine tune it with the crank. It also reduces the temptation to lower the quill for milling, rather than raising the knee.

When not in use, I hang it on the back of my VFD support column.

[Tmate]

That's a PayPal link

Not sure how that happened. I think it's fixed now.

[A.K. Boomer]

That's a PayPal link

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[thin-woodsman]

What has always stopped me from making one of these cordless-drill-driven knee or compound power feeds is the worry that the battery will be dead right when I need it most. Can't leave these things plugged into the charger or they catrch fire, especially the cheap ones. Then with corded drills you have to get into cable management, and at that point you might as well make something permanent, and the whole project gets back-burnered.

You know what would be fun for the knee in particular, though - a foot pedal.

[Randy]

I turned down the head of a socket head cap screw almost to the points, and cut off the rest of the bolt. Then I pulled out the elevating shaft, bored a pocket to fit and silver brazed the bolt head into it. Short length of 3/8 hex in the drill chuck... easy peasy. I don't even have to remove the hand crank. Just disengage it. Gotta watch that it doesn't catch of course. I've gotten my forearm whacked just once.