Father’s Day is coming up and the ladies don’t want to buy, “Any flashlight stuff”. I need a drill press for repairs around the house. (That’s code for flashlight modding) I am looking for something that is accurate and around $100.
I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/3320-01-120-Volt-10-Inch-Drill-Press/dp/B003LSSS0W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401257562&sr=8-1&keywords=skil+drill+press
It’s pretty decent for the price. I got it on sale though for about $75. Looks like its $129 @ Lowes. There are 10% coupons out there for Lowes though. Maybe other places have it for less. There is also always harbor freight, but their quality is kind of hit or miss sometimes.
I have that same Skil model, and mine has a ton of slop between the quill & upper housing. The quill's surface is rough machined, and the bore it rides in is bare grey iron... not a good combination. Probably works fine using it for what it was designed for, but used as a ghetto mini-mill, it's probably worth it to spend a little more on a machine that has better machining and/or some kind of bushing in the headstock.
I’d suggest that what ever you buy has a jack shaft so that it has a low min. speed. Should be about 210 rpm or so. Very useful for bigger bits or hard material. In my experience such drills are often better in quality than their higher speed brethren.
If you can examine one for runout before buying that would also be a good idea.
John
I rarely use low speed, only for drilling troublesome stuff like copper, sometimes aluminum. For any kind of end mill or carbide it has to be set to max speed or else it grabs and chatters and generally makes a total mess of things.
I do some work in metal and also in wood. Bigger holesaws and the like work better at low speed. I imagine that low speeds wouldn’t be as important for most flashlight mods. Shouldn’t cost much more however so may as well cover all eventualities?
John
I’m not sure this is heavy duty enough for you but dremel does have a drill press adaptor for the dremel
It is a bit plasticy but it does work at least for the simple things I use it for.
I think I’m leaning toward the Central Machinery press that hank posted. Thanks for the input guys.
Harbor Freight drill press on sale, with coupon 19910942 = $59.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/8-in-Bench-Mount-Drill-Press-5-Speed-60238.html
Comfy, you think it won’t be able to take the ghetto mill action that I plan for it? I looked at some others but the price quickly triples. I was also looking at Craiglist for old ones that have endured the test of time and coming up with a lot of the harbor freight, sears drill presses. I like that price with the coupon, that was a nice surprise. I guess my question is do you think that it could consistently be accurate to a 64th of an inch? I suppose I could measure a smidge bigger, then sand and buff to tolerances…
It seems like it lost a lot of it’s torque over the winter, drilling into some steel last week and the thing kept stalling out. Thought maybe it was just a dull bit, but that was not the case.
Belt is good, no slippage so it just seems like the motor is laying down.
I really have not had a ton of hours on it since I got it.
But, hey with HF you have 90 days to see if it works for you, just keep the receipt and they will take it back if you are not happy with it.
As for mine, I am going to search for an older USA made beast at some upcoming community yard sales.
A guy up the hill from me used to have a garage full of the big stand up drill presses like we had in my high school.
Wish I would have gotten one from him. He moved now and I have no way to contact him.
But they are out there and I will find one.
Good luck with your search and let us know what you got and how well it works,
Keith
There's no way to set up the fixturing to give you a specific dimension, you have to guess, make a cut, measure it, and see if you need to tap the table/vise one way or the other. Accuracy in this case is down to how precise you are on the setup and learning how the machine reacts to different cut depths (if there's a lot of slop in the spindle/quill/headstock, making a cut can pull it farther in one direction depending on the type of cut you're making).
It's kinda like asking 'what's the accuracy on that hand file?' It depends on how much metal you take off! :)
comfy, I think he was trying to ask how bad the runout / slop / etc was. You brought that up earlier in the thread and I agree that it’s a valid concern… that said, there’s really no halfway on having tight tolerances. Either you’ve got what you need or you don’t. If OP can’t spring for the best, the HF may be a great option.
The slop or runout doesn't matter. Holding the workpiece at a stable, fixed point relative to whatever space the spinning tool bit occupies is what will determine the accuracy. Even if the shaft is bent and has lots of runout it still spins the tool bit in the same size circle every time it comes around. Machining round parts, the accuracy depends on being able to rotate the workpiece in a concentric circle, not the machinery.
I see what you are saying now.
First step, the four holes are the reference point for the first cut. The accuracy of where you put the holes and their size and their concentricity will determine the accuracy of the outer circle. It's like tracing a pattern. Any flaws in the master will transfer to the copies.
The starting points for the 4 holes were in the right places, the scribed circles were not! The holes are the part that matters.
Tapping the table left or right moves the fixturing pin closer to or farther from the tool bit. There's no measuring scale like on a feed screw on a X-Y table or a lathe tool post. You just have to tap, make a cut, measure, and see how much it moved and whether you need another tap.
Now that the outer bore is the right size, and round, the center locating holes are no longer needed. The outer part of the holes will take over the job of being the master for making the rest of the cuts. (also note I replaced the previous layer of masking tape on the aluminum angle with packing tape, to reduce friction)
The flashing left over is thin enough this part was cut freehand, it was very easy to cut away the leftovers without cutting into the finished part.
Again, another step is cut, using the un-cut part as the locating point for the clamped pins. If the surface used as the reference point is round and the right size, the new cut will be as well.
It's all about the fixturing, and being able to plan out a series of operations that will give you something accurate from the previous step to use as a reference for the next one.
That is one exceptional effort CC.
I use one of these
Dremel 220-01 Rotary Tool Work Station
by Dremel
Link: http://amzn.com/B00068P48O
There's another very important point: how you set up this stuff matters. A lot.
This is correct. See how if the workpiece moves away from the pins, it will cut LESS? And by pushing it up against the pins it'll cut more?
Same here, just it's a cut on the ID instead of OD. If it moves away from the pins it cuts less.
Same here.
Now, see this? This is WRONG! WRONG WRONG WRONG DO NOT EVEN TRY THIS, it will bind up and either fling the piece across the room or break the bit or maybe both. You absolutely MUST have it set up so you can slide the workpiece away from the pins (& the bit) while you reposition your grip. If it cuts deeper when the piece moves away from the pins, you will have a very bad not good day.
