RAlph.
Very nice machine thanks for sharing.
IMHO this machine would not be a good candidate for CNC retrofit because of the following reasons.
The X axis is not much of an issue, stepper connected either by direct drive or flexible coupling to the feed/lead screw.
Motor bracket fixed onto the end of the table, stepper motor attached using stand offs if necessary.
Y axis you could also use a stepper with a belt drive to the lead screw and tuck the assembly under the table, IE a pulley is
attached to the front end of the screw, belt driven with a pulley on the end of the stepper, if direct drive,
it would mean the stepper sticking out the front.
I dont think you could drive the Y axis screw from the back (column end) as the table in Z moves up and down.
The Z axis ( milling machine knee) again IMHO could be a major concern for any type power feed.
Guessing you have a graduated dia on a shaft that is fitted on the other end with a bevel gear the turns the main screw to lift and or lower the table.
Adding any form of power feed may mean a huge motor and then backlash of the screws could be an issue, normally on knee type machines the
knee is locked after positioning the up/down and the quill is used in the head for cutting final Z depths, but not all the time.
Most CNC milling machines have the Z axis controlled by a fixed head or possibly driving the quill up and down.
in your case it would be the quill., again not impossible but a tremendous amount of work to retrofit.the head with some type of feedscrew.
Richard UK did a fantastic job of fitting a powered ball screw to his Sieg mini mill, and basically removed the rack and pinion?
which has always been a bone of contention.
Trying to keep this post short, 70% of milling operations ( or hand cranking) is done using the X axis.
It seems from your post you already have the X axis ( just guessing) with power feed, Consew motor, which does help the manual work some what.
Currently I cannot help much more, but I am sure we have forum members with more experience than me to offer more recommendations.
Your final goal I know is to reduce the amount of manual table movements, again IMHO CNC / Clausing are not compatible.
Thanks
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John
John Lindo