So, I have been trying to make round holes on the mark. Clamping a work piece to the drill press table can be a hassle.  A cross slide vise looked like a way to speed up drilling multiple holes without having to clamp and re-clamp.  There are a number of these vises on the market.  I bought a Harbor Freight 6 inch with a coupon for about the same delivered price on eBay.

The vise slipping at the start of a hole has been frustrating.  I found that the collars did not pull the screw shaft tight against the plate.  Even after tightening the collar the hole in the plates had enough slop to allow sliding during a drill.

Removing the handles, collars and plates is easy enough.  This allowed me to make some measurements of the parts.  The screw shafts are 12mm.  I found KFL001 flange bearings on eBay - 2 for $7.70 delivered.  The Longitudinal Slide needs a carrier plate and the Transversal Slide needs to have the flange housing milled about a 1/84" on each side for socket cap screws to fit in the original holes.  Following are layouts for each.

 Here are before and after photos of the slide adjustments.

Transversal Slide

Longitudinal Slide

Here is a photo of the plates showing wear after a few months of lite duty.

So far the results look promising.  No more wiggle waggle as the slides move from end to end.  My intention by using a bearing was to eliminate the slop in the plate hole and by using the inner race set screws and the collars there would be less backlash.  However the bearing also made adjustments smoother.  I am not sure how well the zinc flanges will hold up.  Maybe there is a simular bearing with a cast iron flange.

Milling - there are as many opinions about using a cross slide vise and drill press as people who have this set up.  Here is mine.  With practice and patients small tasks can be completed with reasonable results.  I have worked ABS plastic project boxes, softer grades of aluminum, and even A36 steel..  A ER20 tool holder with a Morse Taper 2 works much better than a drill chuck.  I have a set of 2 and 4 flute end mills all with 3/8 in shanks.  The wider the cut requires more passes to get depth.  On a A36 flat bar I cut a 0.050" grove with a 1/4" end mill in 6 passes.  It is sort of OK, there are visible chatter marks on the side walls.  For a garden tool fix it will work, for standard shop work, not so much.

Disclaimer – Determining suitability of the modifications described here or skill levels needed to make these modifications is solely the responsibility of anyone choosing to replicate the modifications.  There is no intent to criticize the Harbor Freight products described here.  Please be advised, the suggested modifications have not under gone any safety review or risk assessment.  Proceed at your own risk.  These modifications are not approved by Harbor Freight.  Moreover, Changes to the Harbor Freight items would probably void any warranty by Harbor Freight. 

Drill Press – Machine Levelers

Drill Press – Machine Levelers

By way of introduction, I have a nearly ten-year-old Craftsman Benchtop Drill Press.  The specs put it in the mid-range of this category.  The stand was built not long after the drill press was purchased.  At that time, I did not include levelers in the design.  So, the levelers here are add-ons.

I knew the chuck was bad.  Replaced it with new and a new Morse Taper #2 arbor.  Snugged up the quill slide adjustment.  Static TIR at the chuck is 0.004”.  Spinning TIR is about 0.007” (reading between the bounces).  Sweeping the table from the chuck, left to right was 0.030”, back to front was 0.061” I needed some way to level the drill press.

I tried using scissor jacks and found these to be too loose and not repeatable.  A bump to the drill press would make it wobble and it would not return to the same level reading.  Before I went further, I needed to understand the relation of a 0.1 degree reading and linear measurements.

The table here shows the values as slope to degrees.  0.1 degree equates to 0.21 in/ft.  Drilling through a ½” piece of material would result in a 0.001” error from entry to exit.  I need to relate the base, column, table and drill head to get an accurate sense of the drill press.  Levelers.

I would not expect anybody to have an exact duplicate of my drill stand.  So, for people pursuing levelers they will need modify the brackets for their application.  The scanned copies of my sketches are rough but should provide enough information to construct your own version.

The tools I used are:

Dewalt Chop Saw

Bosch Rt Angle Grinder

Craftsman Drill Press

Lincoln 175 HD wire welder

Husky and Craftsman Digital Levels

¾”-10 tap and die for thread clean up.

The holes for the threaded rod to pass through the bracket were cut with a 7/8” bimetal hole saw, and a lot of WD-40.  The holes for the ½” mounting bolts were made with a pilot drill and followed with a step drill to ½”.

Design considerations are: The threaded rod is 18” or half a three-foot section of rod.  The length is primarily to reduce bending over while I am adjusting the levels.  The acorn nut at the bottom are used to reduce friction while adjusting.  The down side is that these concentrate pressure on the floor surface and can cause damage.  I have started with furniture pads and may switch to blocks of wood.  The threaded coupler just above the acorn nut is to stop travel of the rod when it clears the wheel.  The small wing nut tightens up the play in the coupling nut on the bracket.  This does not take much torque.  Finger tight is enough.  Up from there is a plain nut as a stop for the larger wing nut.  Even on the first leveling, I noticed turning the large wing nut 1-2” is about 0.1 degrees.  As it should, ¾”-10tpi rod will move 0.100in per revolution.  Thinking of the large wing nut as a degree selector, ¼ turn equals 0.025”.  So, 1-2” swing should be close to 0.1 degrees.  I found that tightening the small wing nut will throw off the level reading.  Go a little further that you would expect and then tighten the small wing nut.  The acorn nut on top is a finish.  It also can accept a 1-1/8” socket for powered up/down movement.

Assembly note:  I drilled and pinned the bottom coupler and top stop nut.  If you do this, spin on the coupler and acorn nut until the acorn nut bottoms out.  Back off the acorn nut a turn.  Then advance the coupler to the nut.  Now drill the pin.  This will give the acorn nut some thread to tighten against the coupler.  Do the same for the top stop nut, just add in the large wing nut.

Sourcing the parts:  ¾”-10 threaded rod, plain nuts and threaded coupling nuts are available at the big box hardware stores.  The ¾”-10 acorn nuts, wing nuts, and large wing nuts can be found at Zoro.com. Also, BoltDepot.com has all the fastener parts except the large wing nuts.  That well maybe I just didn’t ask.  The ¼ by 3-inch square angle steel and 3/16 by 2-inch angle steel can be found at a structural steel supply house or a scrap yard.  Onlinemetals.com can supply short pieces of both sizes if you don’t need/want a 20-foot section.

Leveling is easy with this set up.  Now, I want to see how long it holds.  Also, now I can dig further into the drill press.