Patent ID: 9539683
Date: 2017-01-10
CPC Classifications: B23Q,B25B,B25F,F16K

Claim:
1. A positive feed tool comprising: a housing that extends around an interior space; a spindle connected to the housing and movable relative to the housing along a feed path that extends through the housing; a spindle rotation mechanism positioned in the interior space of the housing and connected to the spindle to rotate the spindle; a differential feed gear positioned in the interior space of the housing and driven by the spindle rotation mechanism, the differential feed gear including gear teeth along an outer periphery; a mount position located in the interior space at the differential feed gear and the spindle; an opening in the housing that extends into the interior space; first and second spindle feed gears each configured to connect to the spindle and each including gear teeth positioned along an outer periphery to engage with the gear teeth of the differential feed gear, each of the spindle feed gears including a connector to connect to the spindle, each of the spindle feed gears being sized to fit through the opening in the housing; the mount position sized to receive just one of the first and second spindle feed gears at a time; with the first spindle feed gear mounted at the mount position and connected to the spindle and the differential feed gear, the first spindle feed gear including a first gear profile with a first number of teeth to move the spindle along the feed path at a first rate when the first spindle gear is rotated by the differential feed gear at a first speed; with the second spindle feed gear mounted at the mount position and connected to the spindle differential feed gear, the second spindle feed gear including a different second gear profile with a different second number of teeth to move the spindle along the feed path at a different second feed rate when the second spindle gear is mounted in the mount position and rotated by the differential feed gear at the first speed.