Power Quill Feed For Drilling?

Question

At work I run a Willis Microcut 10x50 vertical mill and when faced with a large run of parts or the need to drill deeper then

2"-3", I use the power quill feed (at the lowest feed rate).

This freaked out a couple of the guys I work with in the machine shop dept who claim that the power quill feed is _only_ to be used for reaming.

Yet at other shops I've worked at, it was constantly used for drilling and I was taught that's what it's for (along with reaming and boring of course).

I also pointed out to my co-workers that when a manual mill is retro-fit as a CNC mill, the Z-axis CNC drive unit powers the existing quill feed, (minus the manual controls) so it can't be a problem to use it for drill work.

So who's right here?

john · Accepted Answer

Yup, those little gears in the feed can only take a limited amount of torque.  The power feed was designed for boring.John

erik litchy · Answer

i think it depends on how large the drill is and how hard the metal is

James P Crombie · Answer

Thats why it has a clutch :-) I use the power feed on the quill for everything, drilling , boring and very seldom, reaming.

If you want to do some serious drilling then get a Z-axis feed and use it to feed the work into the drill.

James Crombie

formatting link

Roger Shoaf · Answer

If the drill is not breaking, and the machine is not complaining, and the parts are coming out right it seems to me that it would be fine. I have never worked on this particular machine but on the mills I have run it seems to work just fine.

ATP* · Answer

The power quill feed technique is effective when you have the detainee's arm strapped to the table and a large shell mill directly above the wrist. This is classified as a physical discomfort technique.

Power Quill Feed For Drilling?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?