Another feature of the PATRIOT machine that you cannot find on ANY other 3 in 1 machine at ANY price.  This exclusive SHOPMASTER design is further enhanced by the fact that with the addition of BALL SCREWS, DRO or CNC options it remains fully functional for all your manual work. Other  combination machines offer 1 or 2 axes power feeds, but often with a lot of limitations.  Most of them require stopping and reversing the drive motor to reverse the power feed and if you try to add CNC or Ball screws the power feed must be totally removed, costing you all your manual functions.  The PATRIOT design offers full function in forward and reverse on all 3 axes AND all three axes can operate simultaneously!

The PATRIOT design is the result of many years of machine use by ourselves and thousands of customers.  This has led to the installation of all the power feed operating levers being located in convenient parts of the machine.  With minimal motion of the hand, the operator can switch from High to low or stop the lathe spindle, switch the power feed gearbox from high to low output, switch the X axis carriage from left to right travel and engage the Y axis table to drive forward or reverse.   After a few hours of use, all the levers will come naturally to your hand- no fumbling around for the proper engagement.

As an added bonus to our power feed functions, we incorporated the manual drive handle for X at the front and Y axis at the end of the machine.  This allows the operator to use both hands while remaining in a comfortable " center oriented" position.  Designed ergonomically, the handles always move your cutter in the direction of your hand movement.  No need to stop and think about each motion.

The Z axis power feed mechanism is also the result of years of testing and searching for the ideal function.  The Z mechanism has a gearbox that is driven by the mill spindle and has a lever for power feed.  Simply pull the lever down and your quill is driven down, push it up and it drives back up, or put it in neutral at the detent point and it is free wheeling.  In addition, we have a crank handle so you can move the quill up and down for manual and fine positioning.  Hidden behind the steel shield is the CNC drive mount, which when installed remains fully independent of the manual and power feeds, so you retain all your functions in CNC, Power feed and manual modes.  Unlike other combination machines which use a drill press style drive with tons of backlash, we drive our quill directly with an acme screw for near zero lash. The acme screw can be replaced by a ball screw for even more enhanced CNC operations.  Our quill drive bracket also incorporates the mill/drill depth stop as well as the DRO mounting bracket.  All of these functions are conveniently located in the operator's " vision zone" so there is no need to reach or search for the drives.
An auto stop device is pre-set at the factory to stop the power feed before it reaches its maximum travel in up and down directions.  The operator can adjust this stop mechanism to achieve pre-set depths in his mill/drill operations.