Need advise on buying a drill press.

[Steve B]

"HeyBub" wrote

But that would require effort and intelligence, something he lacks.

Steve

visit my blog at

[Jules Richardson]

I've said it before on here, but a word of advice - don't buy online, and shop around at a few stores. It's perhaps not the same at the high end of the market, but lots of low/mid-range presses seem to use the same motors and headstock, with the manufacturer doing little more than changing the case and branding. Price can vary quite a lot, but the bits that are likely to fail or not do a good job are still the same.

cheers

Jules

[Jules Richardson]

Yes, I think that's the key there (that and adjusting the speed for the job) - the drill bits make the most difference, and having a good drill with crappy bits is far worse than having a crappy drill with good bits.

Yes, good advice. I'm bad about not doing it either ;-) (for small diameter holes, inserting the drill bit as far as you can is good too, so it's less likely to bend and go off-center)

cheers

Jules

[RES]

My own floor drill press came with the quill on a Morse taper shaft, but no facility for a draw bolt. Like yours, the quill would occasionally drop out. I remedied that by giving the female and male parts a squirt of brake cleaner to remove the shipping oil and any dust. When reinserted and given a tap, they never came out accidentally again, though inserting the wedge and tapping freed them when desired.

Nonny

[notbob]

Some tapers are self-locking and once you insert them with a solid tap from a lead hammer, require the same lead hammer, a flat tapered drift, and pretty hefty whack to drive them back out. My 3/4" 2 HP drill press had one and it NEVER dropped its chuck. I forget which taper, though. Look in the Machinery's Handbook.

nb

[clare]

A drill with press with a half inch chuck should be able to drill 1/2" aluminum or mild steel without any problems, and up to 2 inches of hardwood with a spade or auger bit. My useless press didn't handle 3/8" in mild steel - and before "gluing" the chuck on, it would come apart drilling 5/15" holes in

6061 aluminum.

The limits were (and still are) too low.

[clare]

I cleaned mine, i lapped it, I tapped it - nothing hepled - because the accuracy of manufacturing was so bad the tapers didn't match properly. It was after attempting to lap it with fine abrasive that I found the total actual contact area on the taper was something less than 25% - so I "glued" it on, figuring if it worked, good. If not, it was into the bin. If I was using it more, it would be in the bin and an old american or european press would be rescued and take it's place.

[krw]

Very little engineering "adds anything to the base". That's why it's called "engineering", instead of "science".

[notbob]

Depends on the base. Science is useless if you can't figure out how to utilize it.

nb

[RES]

I think of engineers as the folk who APPLY science.

Nonny

By the way, there's a place in the world for both engineers and research scientists, and they work together pretty darn well.

[Jeff Thies]

I cut some 1/2" holes in 1" copper pipe a while back. Your steel will be much harder to drill through but the technique is similar. This had to be very close as it was to be silver soldered.

What worked very well was a step bit. It centered well and didn't wander like using a regular bit in a pilot hole did. Your problem, as mine was, is not the power to cut the hole, it's the ability to keep the bit true. The step bit made this a snap.

Jeff

[krw]

Utilizing something is about making it affordable. That's not science.

[krw]

Yes.

Certainly there is room for both in "science". The disciplines are fairly well delineated, however. That is not to say that one person can't do both.