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Asong power feeds ?

Nolan

Plastic
Joined
Dec 11, 2005
Location
Woodinville, Wa
Has anyone tried one of these? Impressions?
OR
Any of the other aftermarket units?
I know that most folks reccomend at least 150 lbs of torque.

I'm more interested in.... Yep, got one, abuse it, and it's worked as promised types of inputs.
 
Had one, was great, crashed it when I forgot to replace the stop and stripped the plastic safety gear (good idea) and to my surprise while looking to see the damage I found a spare gear inside and it was back and running in a few mins. I sold it recently as I converted the mill to CNC so didnt need it anymore, only bad point I found was the very bad fitting instructions but really its common sense so thats not a big issue.
Hood
 
So
Bought one and put it on more or less. They're pretty darn cheesy. A large hand full of shims made from old coke cans or something, very poorly stamped and you'll need every one to make it fit properly. The finished installation looks, well, very thrown to gether and improvised. It works, but if you like tools, you won't be happy with the feel, and the half assed way these mount up to the machine. I'll be taking this off and making up my own mounting kit and nut it's too short and will only get about 2.5 threads of engagement on the end of the screw.

I'd return it, but I pinched the cord and damaged it so I'll have to make the best out of a bad situation.

Reccomended? Nope, not if you like nice tools.
 
Just finished installing one about an hour ago.

I had to laugh at the shim washers stamped out of what looks like the Chinese version of a Coke can. Very poorly made, burrs on all the washers. Needs a LOT of washers. You'd think they could've gotten it a little closer than that.

I got a lot more than just two threads on the end nut.

The crank handle will smack the body of the power feed if you don't put the cheese-ball spacer washers behind the handle. They look like crap, but work.

Plastic gear ? Mine had brass bevel gear, and what assume to be steel pinion. The pinion gear was full metal chips embedded in grease. Break-in lapping compound ? ;)

It seems to run smooth, and quiet. Quality control appears lacking. We'll see how long it lasts. I am not confident.

Mike
 
The plastic gear is in the bottom of the power feed, remove the lower portion of the case (two screws) and you will see it, there should also be a spare clipped in there.
Hood
 
OK, I am looking for a power Feed for the X axis and after reading these post I think I may pass on the Asong brand,however what does anyone recomend thats under $300.
Thanks,
Dale
 
OK, I am looking for a power Feed for the X axis and after reading these post I think I may pass on the Asong brand,however what does anyone recomend thats under $300.
Thanks,
Dale
For under $300 its Chinese or hand cranking :D
Hood
 
I put these units on all 3 axis on my Bridgeport. 135's on x and y, 150 on the z.

I had to make a replacement leadscrew extension for the one provided with the y axis feed/kit, the original was over .020 out of cocentric.

Be aware there are 4 different type's of mounting the z axis feed, depending on the year of manufacture of your bridgeport. The chinglish instructions don't mention this, and are not very good. If you want good instructions, go to Servo's website, they have great instructions.

All the above apply's to real Bridgeport's, I imagine the clones will be similar. If you want real cheap asong prices, check Ebay. I bought mine on E bay for aroun 1/4 what dealers want here in Canada for the exact same feeds.

O yeah, in case I wasn't clear, you need a specific model for each axis, x,y,or z. The power units seem to be the same, but each axis requires different fittings and hardware.
 
Got some off e-bay, very cheap. They are difficult to install, took a lot of trial and error. Instructions are worse than useless. However, once they were installed they work great, never a problem. I would do it again but would not look forward to the instalation.
 
Well,I broke down and bought one of these off ebay after all.Looks good but I ended up with alot of extra washers,not the one with the key slot in them but the coke can washers,don't even know where they would go_Oh ya had to grind down the back side of the handle,it was banging the side of the power feed unit.All in All its not to bad however I have aquestion about the noise it makes,if turns real free but when in motion in low speed it sounds like its out of balance.Does anyone else expierence this?
Cheers,
Dale
 
It's been too long since I installed mine to be certain, but it sounds like you might need to use a couple of the "coke can" washers to shim the bevel gear away from the pinion just a touch. The noise could be from the load of the motor pushing the pinion up tight against a slightly out of round bevel gear. Worth a try anyway. -Mike
 
Well,I took it apart and put in a couple more shims that I made,the ones they sent did not have the slot in it to slip over the woodruff key and I could not get the key out so I made a few.Any way that was not the problem.It is not a grinding noise, matter a fact under load the noise goes away. the noise comes from the motor and as it rotates its pitch varies,where I work we have 2 ,1 is a servo brand,which runs quiet and the other is made by Asongs brother which is also noisy.At any rate it works and all I can say is that I got what I paid for.
Dale
 
I've got one on my machine now for about 8 months and today it stopped working. Rapids but won't feed at a set rate. Just does nothing till you turn the potentiometer up enough that it jumps to the rapid rate. Can't find the problem so far and now have to find somewhere to ship it for service.

I do not reccomnd these.
Spend more, get more.
 
Nolan
I would think by your description that it is the Pot that has failed, disconnect the wires and put a meter across the middle and one end and check to see if the resistance increases and decreases as you turn. If it sits at infinity then all of a sudden jumps as you turn it is the pot, a new pot wont cost much.
Hood
 
Thanks Hood
I'll take a look and see what happens. Don't know where I'd go to purchase a new one. I've been trying to find someone to service it. Contacted a guy that sells em and he offered to replace it for $150 and send it back. But I just don't think they're worth putting that into em, even though it's almost new. It's tought to take time out to try and trouble shoot something like this... Bad enough I don't have it to work with (and the work has to go out) but to stop and play with it costs production time as well. It was an experiment. Lesson learned. I'll most likey purchase a sharp or a Servo and keep going.
 
I am from the UK so cant really say where you will get one but any electronic supplier will have them. I think a big one in the US is digikey or something like that, maybe some US guys will come back and help you out.
I would also think the Sharp ones will be exactly the same as the Asong ones as I am sure most clone mills are Asian.
Just to let you know I had an Asong feed for a long time and it never gave me any problems but maybe I was lucky.

Hood
 








 
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