Bill Lantry
Member
- Messages
- 2,663
- Location
- Inside the Beltway
So, after going though several drill press acquisition plans and schemes, none of which were truly realistic or sane, and none of which panned out
I decided to take the bull by the horns and try the mother of all schemes. Doorlink, Thomas and I were working on Thomas's guitar, and it came time to drill some holes. Notice that I got them both involved in the process, and I even had Doorlink hold the neck while I shaped the headstock on the bandsaw. Even had both of them helping me at the spindle sander.
Anyway, time to drill the holes. We go over to my obviously inadequate drill press. I mention that I'm not sure the press is up to this, and doorlink rolls her eyes, and its decided we'll knock off for the evening and go pick up a drill press in the morning after church. Early father's day, and all that...
So we get to harbor freight, and I'm already telling myself "this will just be a kit, it'll take a lot of work to make it right. Choice is between a 1 hp, with not a lot of depth but with one hp, and a nice radial one, but only 1/3 hp. When I open the cover and see I can replace the motor eventually, I go for the radial, and life is good. 239, and no shipping. It ain't perfect, but if Stu can bring machines back from the dead and Jeff can resuurect a giant old jointer, surely I can handle any problem with a cheapo drill press!
All goes well, I get it home and the boys help me put it together. Everything goes perfectly, life is good, until I put the chuck on the spindle. It goes on, no problem. But it sticks. Badly. It'll do 3/4s of a revolution with the chuck key, and then stick again. It's so bad, I took the key apart, and stuck a long screwdriver into the key so I could actually turn it.
Now, you need to know that I'm not very good at these things. I once almost returned a planer because I didn't realize you had to wax the bed. So I'm thinking there must be some secret trick I don't know. Maybe it's just not machined perfectly and by turning and turning it it'll get looser? Maybe I should whack the danged thing with a hammer?
Any ideas would be most helpful!
Thanks,
Bill
I decided to take the bull by the horns and try the mother of all schemes. Doorlink, Thomas and I were working on Thomas's guitar, and it came time to drill some holes. Notice that I got them both involved in the process, and I even had Doorlink hold the neck while I shaped the headstock on the bandsaw. Even had both of them helping me at the spindle sander.
Anyway, time to drill the holes. We go over to my obviously inadequate drill press. I mention that I'm not sure the press is up to this, and doorlink rolls her eyes, and its decided we'll knock off for the evening and go pick up a drill press in the morning after church. Early father's day, and all that...
So we get to harbor freight, and I'm already telling myself "this will just be a kit, it'll take a lot of work to make it right. Choice is between a 1 hp, with not a lot of depth but with one hp, and a nice radial one, but only 1/3 hp. When I open the cover and see I can replace the motor eventually, I go for the radial, and life is good. 239, and no shipping. It ain't perfect, but if Stu can bring machines back from the dead and Jeff can resuurect a giant old jointer, surely I can handle any problem with a cheapo drill press!
All goes well, I get it home and the boys help me put it together. Everything goes perfectly, life is good, until I put the chuck on the spindle. It goes on, no problem. But it sticks. Badly. It'll do 3/4s of a revolution with the chuck key, and then stick again. It's so bad, I took the key apart, and stuck a long screwdriver into the key so I could actually turn it.
Now, you need to know that I'm not very good at these things. I once almost returned a planer because I didn't realize you had to wax the bed. So I'm thinking there must be some secret trick I don't know. Maybe it's just not machined perfectly and by turning and turning it it'll get looser? Maybe I should whack the danged thing with a hammer?
Any ideas would be most helpful!
Thanks,
Bill
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