Drill Press (not as posh as Bernies)

Chas Jones

Member
Messages
949
Location
Cotswolds, UK
Having finally succumbed to the frustration caused by my small engineering pillar drill having insufficient reach for most of my woodwork tasks, not even reaching the centre of a decent sized turning blank.
I swapped it out for a beam head unit with a better reach. Pocket money restrictions meant that I had to settle for one of Axminsters budget models, but experience with my first lathe from the same stable led me to believe that it would meet my needs although a little fettling might be in order.
Initial inspection did indeed show that some of the clamping threads and associated bits needed a bit of TLC but all in all it fitted together OK. On initial running however I thought I had bought a lemon, operating noise was extreme and the belt cover was vibrating like a cement mixer on steroids:eek:.
The problem turned out to be the Motor pulley assembly which was wobbling extensively on the motor shaft, basically because the grub screws had never been tightened. I Know, I should have checked! :doh: even though it came pre-assembled.
That fixed and the cover adjusted so that it fitted correctly in its clip and it now purrs along just fine. The keyed chuck outer sleeve is a loose fit to say the least but the jaws run true and clamp well.
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Now we come to the major design flaw with this particular bench model, as you may just be able to see against the background clutter the table is not exactly a marriage made in heaven for this drill. The answer for me starts out with a suitable piece of 18mm ply with a couple of 8mm bolts let into it to match the clamping slots in the table and a suitable cut-out in the rear face to pass behind the column about the length of the table slots.

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This is then faced with MDF strips to the side attached with csk screws leaving a central channel to take sacrificial matching MDF strips.
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This of course led to the inevitable design flaw that you could no longer adjust the table height with the sub table in situ and in the rear location.
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This led to the manufacture of a short extension piece to bring the operating handle clear.

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This now met the criteria of being able to drill a central alignment hole in my biggest turning blanks but lacked a little something on the repetitive drilling front in the form of a fence should I ever wander into the flat wood world for more than a few minutes. A suitable bit of Oak and some 8mm studding came together to form the necessary.

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Whilst we were at it a few spare sacrificial bits of MDF seemed in order, and just to fill the picture space a gratuitous shot of the handle extension piece.
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Oh and whilst we are telling the saga, when you are scrapping those old style Computer hard discs so that some little tea-leaf does not empty your bank, save the magnets and utilise them to hold the odd adjustment key or tool nearby.

(Apologies for the straight crib of a UK forum post but I thought the table mod may be of interest.)
 
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Chas,
Your Axminster drill press, except for its colour, looks like it probably came from the same factory as my Shop Fox radial drill press, although mine is a floor model with the longer column.

The switch on yours is different, of course, and the clear shroud around the chuck is a Euro safety feature that's not used in the 'states.

I like your table set up, and particularly the extension for the table height crank. I may have to break out the metal lathe and fab up a similar one.
 
Looks like some nice refinements, Chas. I especially like the extension handle. I may have to see if my co-worker with a metal lathe could set e up with something like that. (I've got my table mounted far enough forward to miss the handle, but it's a poor workaround.)

Oh, and no worries about repeating posts from the UK forum. It's good info for the gang here, regardless of when it came from. :)
 
Chas,
Your Axminster drill press, except for its colour, looks like it probably came from the same factory as my Shop Fox radial drill press, although mine is a floor model with the longer column.

Much like this version I presume, http://www.axminster.co.uk/showimag...s/images/products/CCRDFS_xl.jpg&title=Perform CCRDFS Radial Pillar Drill

Like most of the stuff originating from China it gets badged and painted all colours, and the out of the box finish depends on how high up the quality audit chain if fell out.

Not a Rolls Royce but it does what I need.
 
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