# New drill press



## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I recently bought this drill press from Manards. This is their best bench top model, it has an MT-2 taper drill chuck shaft. At least, I think it's an MT-2 taper. I wanted that in case the drill chuck wasn't very precise, it would be easier to change out. I must admit, the chuck that it came with is pretty good, the tip of the drill bit doesn't make little circles when it's turning, like my old Craftsman drill press from the 1980s does. That one was never precise from the start.
Anyway, I'm trying to see if I can do some basic turning with this drill press. I've had the cross slide vice for a while now and I just bought the lathe tool and carbide tipped cutting bit from ebay for a very reasonable amount.
Income tax return is good for some things. 
I've been trying to make a train wheel, and it actually came out better than I thought. I'm trying to make the wheel tread and the flange about the same as the 7/8ths scale wheels that I have, but this wheel is a bit less than 2-1/2 inches in diameter. I used a piece of 1/2 inch thick by 2-1/2 inches wide by about 10 inches long bar stock that I got from the local welding shop to experiment with. I cut a square piece from the chunk with the angle grinder and a cutoff wheel, and then cut the corners off and tried to get the piece close to circular with the grinder. Then I drilled a hole through the center of it, put a 5/16ths bolt through the hole, tightened a nut onto it as tight as I could get it without breaking something, and then put the bolt in the drill chuck to hold it so that I could turn it. 
Cutting the flange and the tread wasn't difficult once I got the cutting bit aligned properly, and I was able to clean up the back and the face of the wheel reasonably well. I tried to dish the face of the wheel a bit, but this setup does not work well for that. I can't control the cut well at all for that. 
A lathe would obviously be better for this, but I don't have the thousand dollars to spend on one of those.
Flickr messed with their format again so I have to figure out how to get the right link to post here for the pictures.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)




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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)




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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Amber..seems I'm still up..
Nice to have fresh tools isn't it!!

You seem to have a good grasp of the processes needed to turn your own wheels.
Using out of the ordinary tools is challenging and rewarding at the same time...
If at all possible for this type operation...do not loosen or turn your finished part in the chuck...
Do all the cutting steps you need to...
I use to run an old belt drive lathe..large very good..but it had one challenge. If you removed what you were working on for any reason, you would loose the original center....
It taught me a lot about making parts...and made my head scratch more than once...
The chuck..even more so the bolt your using may not be perfect...

Now if you had a shop cut you a shaft with threads ..hence matching the bolt..that was perfect..you ran it in your new drill with a dial indicator..you would know for sure and how much it changes when moved in the chuck..
Then you could make choices based on that info..A custom shaft with threads should not run a lot of money..maybe you could barrow a dial indicator..
Stainless might be a better material if your planning to make very many wheels..saving the threads from repeated usage...

Looks like your having fun again..I have used my drill press for some mill ops on plastic parts to make masters for molds..

Better get to bed I should!!
Dirk


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

I have great admiration for those that are able to do well with not much more than a rock and a stick.

Andrew


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## overlandflyer (Jul 25, 2011)

i can't help but feel that if you keep up this practice, your new drill press is eventually going to be making those small circles your old craftsman exhibited in operation. there is a big difference between the construction of the quill on a mill vs a drill press. the bearings in a drill press are not designed to accept much lateral force.

i regularly read The Home Machinist (chaski) forum and a popular contributor there produces some fantastic work on a Sherline Lathe that sells for well under $1000.

if you do continue to work on the drill press, ...restrict your work to very, very light cuts.

cheers...gary


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Amber,

If you are in the So Cal area, you are welcome to use my ShopMaster mill/drill/lathe. You will ruin your drill press using it as a lathe. I did.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I did read somewhere that doing this is hard on the shaft bearing on the drill press, so I'm not trying to take off much metal at a time. I can't lubricate or cool the cut like you can on a lathe, so that's also a concern for doing this. I put a little bit of oil on the piece and the tool before I start the cut. I don't want to put much oil on it, the piece will fling the oil everywhere if i put much on it.
I'm not sure how well stainless cuts, and I would imagine that half inch thick stainless bar stock would get pretty expensive. 
I'm thinking about trying this with aluminum, easier to cut, and probably easier on the drill press bearings.
I've also thought about buying some cast wheels and finishing them this way, not as much work, the flange is already formed on the casting.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Amber...

I was not trying to be confusing..
I mentioned using SS as a trued and threaded shaft to turn your aluminum wheels on...
i.e. ..replacing the not too accurate bolt currently in the chuck...

Doing so would increase your "repeatability factor" when making the wheels..
The stainless also is harder and would better tolerate many wheel blanks being "tightened" over and over without thread damage... 

Hope this is a clearer picture...words can be funny at times...

Dirk


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

It is also a bad idea to clamp the chuck jaws on the threads of a bolt, as it is not only hard on the jaw faces, but re-chucking later will not center the shaft the same way.

I made a bolt into an arbor by chucking it by the head only and steadying the other end on a "dead center" held in a vice on the table (drilling the end of the bolt with a center drill and getting it "centered" was the most difficult part!); then I removed the threads for about an inch or so from the end of the bolt. That created a smooth length for the jaws to grip when chucked the other way 'round, and enough threads up by the head of the bolt to secure a work piece with a nut.

Removing the threads was difficult due to them pulling the bolt lengthwise as the bit pushed into them. I had to really grip the lever to prevent the quill from advancing rapidly (the bolt basically screwing itself down on the bit!). I was using a pointed bit, but I suppose a broad bit advanced into several threads at once might not engage with the threads like my pointed bit did, but I was trying to take the least amount of metal per bite. I also think the "interrupted cut" of hitting the threads as they passed the bit was harder on the drill press than the sideways pressure from the bit. (But the drill press was old and worn-out already and only cost me $5 at a garage sale, so I was not all that concerned about it!)


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Those little X-Y tables are very handy. Mine has seen a lot of use. If you don't have one for your drill press, get one.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I hadn't thought about cutting the threads off the end of the bolt to make an arbor, that's a good idea.


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## overlandflyer (Jul 25, 2011)

save yourself some work... cut the head off a shouldered bolt.​


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Even better idea!


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I couldn't find a shouldered bolt with enough thread length to work for an arbor, so I made one from a larger bolt. I bought a 3 inch long 7/16ths bolt, they're about half threaded, and cut the head off it. Than I chucked it into the drill press and took a file to the threaded portion while the drill was running. After a bit of work with the file, the threads were mostly gone. Then I set up the lathe tool in the cross slide vice and cut the rest of the threaded part smooth, more or less. I cut it down to a diameter that I could thread to 5/16ths coarse thread with a die. I also tried to cut the shoulder flat where the smaller diameter part meets the larger diameter part, that came out fairly well. I put a slight taper on the end of the bolt so that the threading die would start easier, and then I cleaned up the shoulder a bit with the file while the bolt was spinning. I threaded the 5/16ths thread most of the way up to the shoulder, leaving about the last 3/8ths inch unthreaded. Then I took a wheel blank that had been drilled to 5/16ths inch center hole and used it to fit the unthreaded part snugly. I took off just a little bit at a time with the file with it spinning until I could just get the wheel to slide over the unthreaded part. With the wheel up against the shoulder of the arbor, there's no wobble, and with the nut tightened on the wheel, it doesn't spin when it's being cut. 
Interestingly enough, I get less chatter cutting the 2-1/2 inch wheel blank than I did trying to cut that bolt down to where it could be threaded to 5/16ths inch.
The drill press is not ideal for lathe cutting, but it's all I have available.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

So far so good Amber!!
Now just add patience and time.
Do you have a profile for the shape of the flange you can match each wheel to? Like a card stock cut-out!
Take care..cut light..get some lube....

Dirk


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I should make a profile card from a piece of plastic to test the flange as I'm working on the wheel. I'm basically using a Sierra Valley 7/8ths scale wheel as a guide for measuring the flange height and thickness. As for the shape, well, I do the best I can with the limitations of this setup. I've been using a mill file to try to finish the tread because the lathe tool leaves the surface a bit rough due to the chatter from vibration. The cross slide vice isn't tight enough to prevent some chatter.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Good....see if you can " slightly tighten" the cross slide ways a touch more...

Still leaving them free to move as needed...
Try a really light cut.. so fine as to barely touch the part..

Using a file by hand still jumps around also....I wouldn't know anything about that tho....not!!

Dirk


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I discovered that I'm going to need a bigger arbor if I want to continue cutting wheels this way. The 5/16ths arbor that I made is slightly bent now from cutting 2 wheels. I guess the cutting stress is too much for the soft bolt that I made the arbor from. I'll try a 3/8ths arbor next, I should use axles that thick anyway instead of the 5/16ths axles that I've been using.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I started cutting the next arbor for the wheels tonight. I bought a 1/2 inch bolt 3 inches long to use. The thread takes up about half of the bolt which gives plenty of room on the unthreaded part for the drill chuck to grip, once the head is cut off. I cut off the head and then chamfered that end of the bolt on the grinder. Then I ground off most of the threads on the grinder, to save myself some time. Then I put the bolt in the chuck and took a file to it as it was spinning to smooth off the remaining threads. After I got that done as best I could, I started on it with the lathe cutting tool. I have it cut down past the depth of the original threads, but it's still just a little too thick for the 3/8ths threads that I'm going to rethread that part with. I'll leave a short section unthreaded near the shoulder that I cut on the bolt so that I can get a tighter fit when I put the wheel blank on it for turning.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I got the arbor threaded last night, now I just have to wait for my wheel stock to show up in the mail. I ordered 8 pieces of 4 inch aluminum round stock from a metals dealer on ebay. They're 1/2 inch thick disks so they should make decent wheels. "should" 
They should be easier to cut than the steel wheels that I was working on, the steel wheels are pretty abusive to the equipment that I've been using, they really show looseness of the various parts of the setup, including the slop in the quill of the drill press. The quill has good bearings and the chuck runs pretty true, but the whole quill assembly is a bit sloppy in the stationary part of the drill that it rides in, it has a bit of lateral movement that is noticable when you put sideways pressure on the drill chuck. The aluminum disks shouldn't be as hard on the drill as the steel ones have been. I'll know soon enough, I guess.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

It's been a while since I worked on this project, I'm finally getting back to it. I finished making another arbor for cutting wheels and tried it out on a steel wheel blank that I made from bar stock. I have 4 wheel blanks that I made, one of which I was working on last spring when I had to move the drill press setup into storage. I had that one rounded out so I decided to start on another one today. I picked the worst one to start with, it's the most out of round of the bunch. It's a pain in the butt to turn a square chunk of half inch thick bar stock into a round object.
I had cut them out with an angle grinder and cutoff wheel as close to round as I could, but you can only do so much that way. The wheel I was working on today had a flat spot on it that has taken a while to get past, it's more difficult when you use a drill press for a lathe. It would be really helpful if I could figure out how to set up a live tail stock, that would hold the arbor more steady and there wouldn't be as much chatter on the bit. I'll get back to the aluminum wheels after I get some progress on the steel wheels.
If I knew that my improvised lathe would cut cast wheels, I'd be tempted to buy a set of them. A lot of the work is already done with them.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

This is off the top of my head. You might try another drill chuck. Mount it in a bearing with a collar on each side.  Insert a piece of drill bit stock or some kind of true round stock in the drill press chuck. Then lock the second chuck on the round bar stock. This should true up both stock. Anchor chuck # 2 to the drill press plate. You can use the second chuck at a tail stock. 

Why not buy round bar stock the size or near the size you need for the wheel? 

Now I just read the post before the last one so you are using round stock. 

JJ


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I bought round stock for the aluminum wheels, that makes things a lot easier.
I'll have to check down at the welding shop to see how much it would cost me to have a set of disks cut from steel round stock. With something like that, he charges by the cut, as well as the cost of the steel.
As for the second drill chuck idea, I was thinking about trying something like that, but I'll have to figure how to make a mount for it to bolt to the drill press plate. I can think of several possibilities to try. I've also thought about making a steady rest of sorts to put pressure on the drill shaft so that it doesn't move sideways when you put pressure on the wheel tread with the cutting tool. The bearings on the drill shaft are tight, but there is a bit of looseness between the outer casing and the part that moves the drill chuck down when you're drilling with it. I think that's where the chatter comes from.


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## richardson121 (Sep 26, 2017)

I have been looking at the Jet 20 drill press for some time now. I really had no need for a drill press until recently. Originally I was drawn to the 20 drill press because of the 1.5hp. I've found no other drill press at this price can match its HP rating. Unless you want a gear driving auto feed Elis for 6k. I wanted to be able to drill through steel stock without a problem.


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