Quote Originally Posted by Ralphxyz View Post
How much weight is hang on the spindle shaft? Seems like it needs support.

Ralph
That first mounting stand is bolted to the drill press main cast iron frame (with 4 counter sunk hex head socket bolts). And the weight of the gear box, mounting stand, power feed, and hand crank wheel and shaft are all depending on this. There is no radial loading of any of the shafts. The manual hand crank shaft is riding on a needle bearing of the power feed, with the gear box end clamped into its input gear socket.
One problem I have, (and it's there without this change) is the main rack-pinion gear of the spindle down feed, as there is nothing to take the gear lash out of this. I've thought of ways of splitting the pinion gear, and spring loading it to maintain a zero backlash, but that requires destroying the original gear, or making a new one.
Another problem is the spring return does not provide enough torque to lift the spindle weight, and back drive the 10:1 gear box, as there is some friction of the manual crank riding on the power feed bearing.
I indicated that version 0.0 had the power feed driving the pinion shaft directly, and it did not have enough torque, that instigated this massive assembly. I make sure when I move this, not to use this cantilever "appendage" as a hand hold, the 1/4-20 screws probably would strip out from the cast iron.