Bargain Drill Press??????

[david pierce]

If you go to Ebay an pull up item # you will see what looks like a nice small sensative drill press and it almost is. I bought one a few years ago thinking that I could put the machine to good use if it had a quality drill chuck on it. The chuck that came with it was and still is a piece of junk. The drill press, however, is a good accurate machine. I removed the old chuck and quickly discovered that the taper on the spindle was unique to that chuck and drill press. The factory represenative was contacted and I was informed that the spindle that came with my drill press was the only spindle available and it only fit that chuck. I then disassembled the drill press and measured the bearings and spindle. The bearings and journels were 10mm so I checked with CTC tools and found a 10mm ER-11 spindle and collets. The only problem was their longest spindle was too short for the drill press. When the spindle arrived I machined an extension on to the ER-11 spindle fastening the two parts together with LOCTITE. I reassembled everything and then checked the spindle for runout. There was almost no noticeable movement on the dial so the runout was better than .0001. This experience went well for me and the ER-11 collets can hold carbide shanks where a three jaw chuck can not. I have made no recommendations for anyone else to purchase one of these due to the machining challenges required to bring it up to good standards. For anyone out there who does have the skills and equipment to make the necessary modifications, this could be a good purchase.
david

[Author]

Posts