depth setting aid for proxxon MB200 drill stand

[Kris Avonts]

I have an MB200 drill stand from proxxon and I mostly use it for precision milling work. As a drill stand it only has a handle to do the setting of the depth that is indicated by a mm scale. For small depth settings below 1 mm it becomes difficult to adjust the depth to the wanted value.

So I decided to improve the MB200 and fit an auxiliary depth feed screw on top.

 

AS depth feed screw I use a micrometer head with 13 mm range (bought in China for 9 euro’s, but works very well). All the other parts to fix it on top of the MB200 are aluminium that I had available (piece of 40x20mm rectangular profile, 2 mm thick and some 5 mm thick flat extruded profile).

 

Here is a model of what I tried to make.

 

It is just a support (the rectangular alu profile) that needs an inside rounding at its bottom to fit the die-cast aluminium body (R=40 mm) of the MB200. On top of that there is a lid with 2 holes (20 mm apart) to mount the support with 2x M4x35 to the body. It also has 2 holes with M3 thread to fix the micrometer holder plate in 2 positions.

 

Here are the machined parts.

 

Next you see the MB200 with the 2 marks where a thread M4 is to be made and in a larger drill stand just before drilling with 3.3 mm.

 

 

Then I only need to show the end result. The micrometer head can be mounted in 2 positions. Straight for milling and at 90° for drilling.

 

 

For milling I remove the handle and after a depth adjustment you always need to lock the set screw of the dovetail again.

 

I hope anyone in need of fine milling and owner of a proxxon MB200 can find some inspiration here.

 

Best regards,

Kris Avonts

 

[tkay11]

Nice adaptation, Kris. Far more elegant than my own modification of the cheaper Proxxon MB140 stand. How accurate is the vertical feed on this stand? My stand had something like a 1 degree inaccuracy which I had to compensate for with shims.

 

Tony

[Kris Avonts]

Hi Tony,

 

The micrometer shows no play nor backlash, so it should be precise up to 0.01 mm.

I paid much attention to mounting the support very level both horizontal and vertical.

In order to make the fit between the proxxon body and the support almost perfect, I filed the

rounding by hand. But that was not perfect, a little tilting was still possible.

So I decided to use some metal epoxy glue on the edges of the support and stretched some plastic kitchen foil over the proxxon top.

After positioning the support on the plastic, I checked with a level tool and let the glue harden overnight.

That resulted in an almost perfect fit without play.

I still have to test its actual precision.

As you might know 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

 

Kris

[tkay11]

It was the fit between the rotating head and the body that was out in my case, in addition to the fact that the support in these Proxxon stands is a bit flimsy. I'd be intrigued to know how accurate the MF70 mill is in terms of verticality, feed and consistency. At the moment I get by with the modifications I've made but I keep wondering whether it would be worth the expense to buy the MF70.

 

Tony