Poor man's power drawbar for Bridgeport

[Tmate]

If you are tired of fumbling around with wrenches on your Bridgeport drawbar, you might want to consider this. I use a Milwaukee right angle impact driver and an additional Milwaukee right angle attachment for the job. It's easy to drop it on the drawbar with a 3/4" socket overhead without looking. The trigger of the impact driver rests against the Bridgeport head, and a bit of pressure activates it.

I keep the impact driver in a little holster on the side of the mill next to the DRO. A rubber hammer is kept on the extruded aluminum support for the VFD on the opposite side. The impact driver has plenty of torque for tightening and loosening collets. When you think about it, a regular power drawbar is nothing more than a permanently mounted impact driver. It's not great, but it does work, and is better than trying to manipulate wrenches with oily hands.

Also, you might want to consider using an attachment on a cordless drill to power the knee on your mill. The socket, for want of a better word, is available from Amazon.com. Here is the link: drill attachment. This works perfectly with a 1/2" cordless drill.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I've the same for my mill knee.

I suppose if you've already got the right angle impact it's a grand idea, but to buy the impact, batteries and adapter you could damn near import a power drawbar from the US, obviously that needs an air supply, but I'd say if you've a bridgeport you've got air.

 

[Tmate]

The $50 right angle attachment can also be used with a regular cordless impact driver. You just have to reach a bit higher.

 

[awemawson]

My 3/4" ring spanner works just fine, needs no batteries or air, and hangs on a hook by the bridgeport - been the same for the last 20 years !

 

[James1979]

My 3/4" ring spanner works just fine, needs no batteries or air, and hangs on a hook by the bridgeport - been the same for the last 20 years !

Ditto! But cool idea though.

 

[fizzy]

I use a battery drill on the knee - brilliant.
I find the biggest problem with my drawbar is that the R8 collets stick a bit so it needs a tap with a hammer to release. As a result I use ER32 collets and hardly ever change over which is a bit of a pain. I recently bought one of those butterfly air impact drivers so plan to make a decent powered drawbar although I may still have the sticking collet problem.

 

[pressbrake1]

My 3/4" ring spanner works just fine, needs no batteries or air, and hangs on a hook by the bridgeport - been the same for the last 20 years !

Multi tool production runs make spanner faffing unappealing !

Back in the dark days when I only had a Bridgeport I just used a snap on 3/8 cordless impact wench as It wasn’t too powerful. I’m still on the same drawbar 15 years later so not a problem
I’ve looked at commercial power drawbar kits as I’m using the bp more recently but they’re pneumatic which is not appealing with todays electricity prices!

 

[Munkul]

I have a commercial pneumatic drawbar on my mill, it's fantastic. I can't imagine using anything else.

@pressbrake1 don't be tight, they don't use that much air!

 

[pressbrake1]

I have a commercial pneumatic drawbar on my mill, it's fantastic. I can't imagine using anything else.

@pressbrake1 don't be tight, they don't use that much air!

I’m not running up 25kw for a drawbar!

 

[Munkul]

I’m not running up 25kw for a drawbar!

its a shot of 80psi air for 20 seconds a tool change max... a hobby compressor could do it.

 

[pressbrake1]

its a shot of 80psi air for 20 seconds a tool change max... a hobby compressor could do it.

Running up the big receiver just for that no thanks

 

[ukracer]

I use a battery drill on the knee - brilliant.
I find the biggest problem with my drawbar is that the R8 collets stick a bit so it needs a tap with a hammer to release. As a result I use ER32 collets and hardly ever change over which is a bit of a pain. I recently bought one of those butterfly air impact drivers so plan to make a decent powered drawbar although I may still have the sticking collet problem.

I did that 2 years ago......it never got finished.lol.

So I have gone halfway and use an half inch air drive currently.
So similar to the milwakee but without the 90 degree attachment.