As some of you may know, I built my own power drawbar a while back. It was one of the first upgrades that I wanted to make for my mill. I didn’t see this video at the time but if I had, I’m quite sure this is what I would’ve built. In fact I’m considering actually rebuilding mine to work this way. It’s is a fantastic design in it’s simplicity and it actually has a significant advantage that none of the other drawbars that I have seen has actually solved.
As the head is pushed down by pneumatic pressure the socket is also beginning to spin. This can lead to the wear if the socket doesn’t positively engage quick enough. Optimally, it would be best if the socket were pushed down onto the drawbar nut before pneumatic rotation begins which is, in fact, the advantage this design has as he’s decoupled the down movement from the socket pneumatic rotation.
Most of the commercial solutions i’ve seen use a spline socket which also requires a new drawbar as part of the overall solution. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great. It’s the $600-1000 that I struggle with.
Anyway, just thought I would share as I appreciated the design.