The only part that matters is the IDs at the two scribe lines, everything else in the middle will be cut out once I no longer need that center hole as a reference point.
My drilled holes wandered a bit, I need to get after them with a little round file to get then back concentric with the scribed circles. No big deal.
I'm always impressed how you create ways to machine using your drill press. My cheap HF drill press is sloppy too. It takes skill to execute that your doing..
Sorry, I stand corrected! I have arthritis creeping into my hands so I should have realised the medical benefits.
Amazing use of a drill press. Would it save you some time to use a drum sanding attachment to round out to the scribed lines or is aluminium too grabby, the Dremel uses about a 3/4” x /3/4” and a smaller diameter 3/4” x 1/2” diameter one both wit quite coarse abrasive. I’m more used to working with wood than metal though.
just spit balling, but I wonder if you could fit radial or needle bearings on the spindle of that drill? Most smaller DPs have just thrust bearings. Might not be possible (but hey, if someone’s done it it’ll be on the internet somewhere) but I’d imagine it’d make a world of difference even just to the drilling accuracy and bearings that size aren’t too expensive.
Either way, looks like you’re doing just fine 
8steve88 - aluminium is a complete pain to work with as it galls, smears, rips and generally makes a mess of tools. Cutting or filing work best, abrasive cutters work ok, grinding or sanding (to remove material) work badly.
The problem with a sanding drum is that as the abrasive wears away it changes shape and you end up cutting to a different depth. And no two drums are exactly the same size - with the HSS/carbide bits I've had them go dull in the middle of a step, and gone to Lowe's, picked up a replacement, and changed tooling without having to alter the fixturing, just stuck it in and finished the cut without disturbing anything.
Oh boy, I WISH it was just bearings causing the slop. That'd be easy. This is a different beast altogether.
I've pulled it apart and looked, there's nothing in the head but a bare grey iron hole with the rough-machined (quill? what's the housing called that the spindle & bearings ride in?) whatever sliding up and down and not-so-slowly eating it away. Or maybe it's not wearing, it was pretty loose right out of the box.
Even with the slop, stuff like this is still possible. Just have to plan ahead and predict which direction the slop is gonna go.
That batch of 10 all came out with a max variation between them of less than .0015".
what are those going to be ?
Ask RMM, they're his now. :D
I like it. Go big or go the F**K home. For me unfortunately I can’t seem to get to the motivation to get the big ones going.
do you still have access to a machine shop? I remember you saying about working in/ with one at some point. If you do, I’d look into machining a brass sleeve, boring out a step in the head and giving the quill a once over with some fine grit sand paper and polish. It’s not going to solve all your problems, but if you can make the sleeve 1/2 to 1in deep and make sure you do your milling with the quill retracted (you are doing this, right?), you should be fine.
Then again, for that effort you’d be better off saving your bennies and buying a better drill press or a small bench mill
I'm buying a cheap lathe in March/April, which will take the place of a lot of what I do now with the poor drill press. It has other issues besides just the slop; max speed is only 3000rpm, minimum speed is too high for some stuff (again, spoiled by the seat & guide machine that could be geared down to a spindle speed of approximately zero, and do stuff like tapping holes, with an automatic reverse, etc.), the lock/limiter on the handle instead of direct between the quill & head, and the slack between the gear on the handle & rack on the quill. Setting a depth limit isn't really where it's going to cut to, it stops around 1/16" short when the quill is forced upwards, and setting the limiter to compensate doesn't work either as the weight of the quill/spindle will slowly cut deeper after the limiter on the handle bottoms out. The only way to reduce that backlash is to move the handle axis & quill closer together, or have a custom, thicker rack made. Or maybe it could be shimmed, I'll have to pull it apart again and check that...
edit: Yeah, I always raise the table as high as possible, depending on the job. If it can be set to a fixed depth for the whole operation I raise it (quill) fully and lock the quill down with the anti-rotation bolt on the side which makes all the slop go away, but that only works in certain situations.
I just went back and read the manual, it clearly says that it should never, ever be used for any of the things I'm using it for, lol.
im looking at a seig X3 mill and selling my mini drill press, and i found a 9x19 lathe for $300
Looking good.
what host you will use?
why not 12 xm-l?
I think 12 xm-l with the reflector of the courui 12 xm-l / ak-90 / trustfire tr20 will give you more throw (70000 lux@ 1m)and more amount of light
Why not just buy a FF4?
Why not get a TR-J18 and swap the driver & LEDs? That would give the same amount of light for less work & money.
Why bother learning to paint when photography is a clearly superior technology?
Awesome project comfychair.
