Modified my old drill press today

[Scrounge]

Thank-you for you help sir. It is appreciated.

Between the actual table and the added x-y table its pushing 130-150 lbs. While old this machine is very square and true so I hate to replace it.

My pleasure! I love the old machines, too. The stories they could tell! I'm fortunate that I got it for free. Gentleman that had it also had three other more modern drill presses. I've got two others, myself, but this one has some soul to it. Looks to me like yours does, too!

Bill

[Green Frog]

This talk of using a drill press for milling reminds me of warnings I got years ago when I proposed such a thing. It turns out that the spindle bearings on most drill presses are designed for a spindle that moves primarily up and down, and that they aren’t happy with a lot of lateral stress (like during milling operations.) is this indeed a consideration or was I misinformed?

My inherited drill press is about as old as I am (and I’m old!) and is a heavy head and motor marked Craftsman, mounted on a round column so it can be swung around side to side as well as sliding up and down. For scale, it takes a #2 Morse taper for the chuck, and to top it off, when my grand uncle rebuilt it he used what appears to be a Model A flywheel for the table. Overall. It’s not what most people think of when they hear “home shop drill press.” I wonder if it would be heavy enough to use for some light milling?

Froggie

[country gent]

I also dont recommend a drill press for milling for several reasons.1) the bearings normally arnt meant for side thrust issues 2) the morse tapers most drill presses use isnt really locked in ( like the r8s draw bar that tightens and hod the collet. Vibration can cause the taper to release allowing a turning tool to drop out. 3) The drill press stops arnt normally up to the task, allowing the tool to lower and damage parts and or the machine. 4) most drill presses just plain dont have the Horse Power for milling.
I have a series 2 bridgeport for milling and heavy work. But for simple hole patterns the drill press and table keeps a lot of wear off the mill. When building a die we would center drill and color code holes then go to the appropriate drill press to actually drill holes and tap. It was much easier to get a worn out Drill press replaced than a mill LOL.

[country gent]

For those contemplating this modification, I cant give you the actual jack for your machine, But I can tell you how to find the right one for your machine. Heres what to do.

1) lower table to lowest position and measure the distance from base to under side of the table, this gives the height the compressed jack needs to be.
2) Raise the table to top of travel and again measure base to bottom of table, This tells you the length of stroke you need to have.
3) You can now start to look at jacks on line to find what you need. Most drill presses dont really need a lot of power here. Mine is 1 1/2 tons single stage single piston and I figure it is 3 times what I need power wise.
4 depending on stroke you may want a double action jack, piston inside a piston this doubles the stroke almost.
5) a 2 stage jack produces pressure on both directions of the handle they raise much faster since there are no wasted motion.
6) for heavy tables or ultimate ease a air over hydraulic jack would be interesting. Expensive and would require an air compressor
7) When mounting keep it square and true, experiment with the in out placement to find the balance point so table moves freely both up and down. Doing this also relieves sme wear.
8) in reality the jack dosnt need bolted down tight, It is captive between base and table. But a couple pins to hold it in location are desired.

If the jack you find is short on stroke a extension for the base or ram can be made to get to top of travel but may reduce lower end of travel. My jack need spaced up 3" it was 3" shorter than the bottom of table travel but the stroke was what I needed. so 3" base under it gave me full travel. Also here take into account any accessories vises fixtures x-y tables drill chucks

[Conditor22]

Scrounge thanks for uploading the pictures, It helps people that are not that familiar with drill presses/that brand -type of press understand what's happening

[Scrounge]

This talk of using a drill press for milling reminds me of warnings I got years ago when I proposed such a thing. It turns out that the spindle bearings on most drill presses are designed for a spindle that moves primarily up and down, and that they aren’t happy with a lot of lateral stress (like during milling operations.) is this indeed a consideration or was I misinformed?

My inherited drill press is about as old as I am (and I’m old!) and is a heavy head and motor marked Craftsman, mounted on a round column so it can be swung around side to side as well as sliding up and down. For scale, it takes a #2 Morse taper for the chuck, and to top it off, when my grand uncle rebuilt it he used what appears to be a Model A flywheel for the table. Overall. It’s not what most people think of when they hear “home shop drill press.” I wonder if it would be heavy enough to use for some light milling?

Froggie

It's not recommended, but it's doable if you're easy on the handles, and really careful. There are instructions for making the modifications going back into the 1920's. Popular Mechanics had a article in, IIRC, the late 50's or early 60's. I had a copy, can't find it now. Involved replacing the original bearings with ones that will take a side load. I was looking at doing it to my old Craftsman drill press because I already had it in pieces. My next-to-youngest brother is a 300lb gorilla, and bent the quill decades ago. Dad gave it to me some decades later because I thought I could fix it. It needs new bearing anyway. But I've been looking for a milling machine as long as I've been looking for a lathe. I did find an Atlas MF horizontal mill about 10 or 12 years ago. It was in a box and 57 baggies. It's almost together, too. Just a couple more things to go to have it running, too. LOTS of stuff like that around here. Now that I'm retired I'm trying to work on all that stuff, and a few more projects I've found. The Craftsman drill presses are light compared to my red thing, and Country Gent's machine, but capable of a lot of good work. I learned how to use a drill press on that Craftsman. He's right that they don't have as much HP as a Bridgeport, but I've got a purpose-built milling machine that has a 1/3rd HP motor, and it has done fine for 8 years. It's one of the Harbor Freight mini-mills. Just gotta take smaller cuts, like with a light lathe. And even my South Bend 10L is a light lathe compared to many used in industry. The same applies to milling machines. The Atlas is it's day's equivalent of today's mini-mill. Small and light weight. But within it's limitations, it is a good mill. Don't get me wrong, if I had a place to put a Bridgeport, I'd get one, but I don't, so I have to make do with what I do have. And I'm still gonna put new bearings in the drill press that will handle side loads. Just because I might need it one day!