Drill Press Cross-Feed Table

[etpm]

No-one said what the problem with round column mills was and I have no experience with them, but after reading about the Jacobs chuck damage due to side forces and a mention that round columns are a problem I put 1 and 2 together to figure out that with a round column the side forces are going to cause the cutter head to rotate around the column which means cutting a straight line will be very difficult. It just never crossed my mind until it was mentioned that round was a problem.

Some round column bench top mills have another problem that may not seem obvious until you use one. The quill will have only a limited amount of travel so if you are working on something that needs more travel than the quill has the head will need to be moved up or down. While doing this movement the head will also rotate a little bit one way or the other. When this happens you will lose your X and Y position.
When the head is in the proper position it is of course tightened to hold that position. On a decent machine the head should be able to resist even overloaded machining conditions. But cheap machines often are not able to do this.
As a machinist with over 40 years experience machining I somehow became a machinist. I'm not sure when exactly it happened but it apparently it did. I mean I can make good parts most of the time. Since I am calling myself a machinist, and since I'm retired, it seems to me that I should be willing to answer machining questions. So, if anyone here has machining questions, and if they ask me, I'll endeavour to answer them. Like any skill, when first starting questions will need to be asked and answered. I encourage this. I have seen lots of excellent work done by hobbyists. It doesn't matter what somebody is interested in. It takes practice and learning. So if you want to try something new just try it out. Ask questions. Make some mistakes and learn from them. Try whatever you want. Except maybe surgery. Or controlled building demolition. Or Saturn 5 Rocket Boosters.
Eric

 

[3Ts]

I'll take you up on that. It might be appropriate to start a different thread on this and I'll link it once I get it started.

Here's the thread:

New thread on machining

 

[Jims1025R]

I have two mills, one round column, the other ways, otherwise, very similar. The round column machine was fine, other than if you had to raise the head, it invariably rotated a little, and you lost your XY. It did have the advantage that you could swing the head off to the side, and mill the end of something long, clamped off the side of the table. I did that a few times, and appreciated the versatility. What you get one way, you lose the other.

MT3 spindle mills are fine, as long as the spindle has a draw bar too. That way, you can use MT3 collets with the draw bar, or MT3 drills or a chuck. Very handy - but no end mills in a chuck, even if drawn up. Chucks may not be concentric enough, and you'll abuse the end mill turning it a few thou off center. It may seem to work, but it's Flintstone.

 

[CalG]

On the distraction of the round column mills

When I was young......

I had a RongFu round column bench mill. That thing made me a lot of money poking holes in aluminum investment castings.

But, every time the head needed raising or lowering (like to change tools) Tram was lost. What a ROYAL PIA!

Call em, nifty HD bench press drills, but when milling, they take a lot of additional time.

I wasn't sad when I sold it. Better machines can do that same work. bnut there is always the "why tie up a $6000 machine when a $300 machine will do the task.

Plus, labor can be had cheap to run that class of machinery. Wait! College was expensive!

(my son, now with a son of his own about that age ;-)

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I can honestly say I haven't detected any movement in my Solberga drill press because of it's round column,

I think I could do some light milling on it, if I wanted.

SR

 

[CalG]

I can honestly say I haven't detected any movement in my Solberga drill press because of it's round column,

I think I could do some light milling on it, if I wanted.

SR

Isn't it nice to have more than one! ;-)

I don't have a gear head, but the Rockwell is on a VFD with a 3 hp motor. There is plenty of grunt at low rpms for drilling 1 inch holes in steel .

 

[jwmorris]

Intermittent cuts on steel using a drill press as a mill, if you buy a real mill first you will save the $800 you have budgeted for an X/Y table and won’t destroy your drill press.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Isn't it nice to have more than one! ;-)

I don't have a gear head, but the Rockwell is on a VFD with a 3 hp motor. There is plenty of grunt at low rpms for drilling 1 inch holes in steel .

Yes it is, I in fact have "five" floor models, with the pictured gear head Solberga being my biggest one.

Do I need five floor model drill presses? NO, but I'm a tool junkie that just can't seem to turn down FREE or almost FREE tools!

Like yesterday, I brought home two electric chain hoist!

SR

 

[SamO]

GO SLOW AND use SHALLOW CUTS!!!! Most drill press chucks are held on by a Morse taper. If you take a deep cut with your end mill it is very possible the chuck and taper will twist off and if they wind up on the floor you may have to buy a new end mill. Mills and mill/drills use an R8 collet (they have a keyway built in) to prevent that from happening.

 

[swines]

Just to close this out. I called the drill press manufacturer and talked with one of their techs and explained what I wanted to do. He said they expect people will use accessories like spindle drum sanders which would have more lateral load than a 1/4-inch end mill, and for what I wanted to do I should have no problems. Through a friend, I found a gentleman who had a really old Troyke cross slide that he wasn't using and loaned it to me. It all worked just fine, the drill press isn't damaged, I didn't break any end mills, and I returned the Troyke today. Sorry to disappoint all of those who were so sure it would end in disaster, the machine would be totally ruined, the chuck would fall on the floor, there would be an earthquake, a tidal wave, etc. Now you can post that I was just "lucky."

Or, it could be that I knew exactly what I was doing, how to do it, and the limitations of the machine...naaaah...the experts here will tell me I was just lucky. I can hardly wait for all of those posts...