These are the control boxes mounted in front of the mill. (I should have moved the darn cardboard box!) The left one controls the y axis. the 2 momentary push buttons on either side apply a full 12 volts to the drill motor and allows table to move rapidly from side to side for rough positioning. The switch in the center is a DPDT center off unit. when in the center, only the push buttons work. When the switch is thrown for left or right travel, a speed control comes into play controlled by the knob on the right side of the box. This allows the table to move from a crawl to very fast depending on the material, feed rate depth of cut etc. The speed control is actually an RC model airplane electric motor speed control. I used a 555 timer and built a simple unit to deliver the correct pulse train to operate the speed control. More ways and options are certainly available for speed control if one is not familiar with using these types of controls. The box on the right is for the x axis and operated the same way except that when the switch is thrown for front or rear travel, it puts about 5 volts on the camper jack motor, and this provides a nice slow speed for most milling operations that I do. Some day I will add another speed control for this motor. 12 volt power supplies can be found at places like All Electronics, Hosfelt etc. Old computer supplies put out lots of current at 12 volts,and 5 volts but you generally must load the 5 volt line to a couple of amps in order the get them to start switching. Another way, is simply use a 12 volt car battery to supply all the 12 volt items, and put a trickle or regular charger on it... Not much rocket science here, just ways to get er done! Speed controls can be hard to come up with: some ideas: if your into electronics, then the model airplane speed controls are one way to go. Some motors will run ok on reduced voltage, but thats not a very good way to go from an efficient and torque out standpoint! here is an a way I have used because its easy and cheap! Take the speed control out of a cheap Harbor Freight variable speed battery powered drill. The blue Drill Master ones come apart with no problem, throw away the case and your left with a complete motor and a speed control. Mount the whole speed control, heat sink, trigger and all in a small mini box similar to the ones I used beneath the mill. On one end of the box, put a 1/4" thick aluminum plate with a 1/4-20 tapped hole through it. Put a 1/4-20 bolt thru there so it goes into the box and pushes against the trigger on the speed control, put a knob on the outer end, wire it up, turn on the motor and screw the bolt in and out to set the speed....hey crude, but cheap and it works ok. Most of those controls are probably good for 4 or 5 amps max im guessing. If you take apart drills and such, make a drawing of the wire connections so you can remember how to hook things up again!! DO NOT FORGET AND TRY AND USE EITHER OF THE MOTOR DRIVES WHILE YOU HAVE THE CORRESPONDING X OR Y LOCKING LEVERS TIGHT...!! --HARD ON MOTORS AND SPEED CONTROLS!!--

This thing was a fixture in our house when I was a kid and when I left home my Dad gave it to me. Of course, I've neglected in lately and now it's rusty and broken. I took it to the dump on Friday...