AceofSpad3s
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2014
- Messages
- 1,808
I bought a respectable drill press today, and as is tradition with every new piece of complex machinery I must do something dramatic and stupid within the first 2 hours of purchase. As I was holding up and trying to rotate the head stock, which I expected to be completely jammed and rusted on, actually wasn't and managed to drop a foot and bonk the table with the chuck since the coefficient of friction went from salt belt exhaust bolts to lubricated slip and slide in a nanosecond. It was naturally located up two flights of narrow stairs in a second floor apartment into the back of a sedan so that was a fun bonus. Didn't lose fingers or fall down the stairs so it's a win I suppose.
First thing I notice is the belt adjustment is a bit of a hairball, the motor tilts on the shafts that control the tension, the motor has 4 bolts and can slide up and down, there is a rubber foot on the bottom that sits against the casting, I had it running smooth on the lowest setting but I wanted to try the high speed and it's growling at me because of all the micro adjustments that cause the belt line to be slightly off and I have to keep fiddling with. Is this the sort of machine you just pick a speed and hope you don't need to use another unless you got an hour to fiddle around with it or is there some trick to it?
Obviously as I found out promptly from the head, having no geared table or over travel stop on head stock is a recipe for fun when you are tired, have about 1000 hours of muscle memory from using a press that does have those features at work where you can loosen stuff up and doesn't have a gravity assisted feed mechanism that tries to eat your fingers
.
I don't plan on trying to put a counter balance on the table any time soon, but I would like to reduce the odds of cast iron gremlins attempting eat my extremities.
The drill presses with geared tables have that collar that is on the shaft that retains the rack, is there something like that I could buy for a non geared press that would just clamp on the shaft so I could limit the total travel of the table and head and just loosen it up and move it if I had to disassemble it or drill an abnormally large work piece? Also, I see some examples don't have that metal knob with the rubber ring that is in the middle of the casting on the left side, what does that adjust?
First thing I notice is the belt adjustment is a bit of a hairball, the motor tilts on the shafts that control the tension, the motor has 4 bolts and can slide up and down, there is a rubber foot on the bottom that sits against the casting, I had it running smooth on the lowest setting but I wanted to try the high speed and it's growling at me because of all the micro adjustments that cause the belt line to be slightly off and I have to keep fiddling with. Is this the sort of machine you just pick a speed and hope you don't need to use another unless you got an hour to fiddle around with it or is there some trick to it?
Obviously as I found out promptly from the head, having no geared table or over travel stop on head stock is a recipe for fun when you are tired, have about 1000 hours of muscle memory from using a press that does have those features at work where you can loosen stuff up and doesn't have a gravity assisted feed mechanism that tries to eat your fingers
.I don't plan on trying to put a counter balance on the table any time soon, but I would like to reduce the odds of cast iron gremlins attempting eat my extremities.
The drill presses with geared tables have that collar that is on the shaft that retains the rack, is there something like that I could buy for a non geared press that would just clamp on the shaft so I could limit the total travel of the table and head and just loosen it up and move it if I had to disassemble it or drill an abnormally large work piece? Also, I see some examples don't have that metal knob with the rubber ring that is in the middle of the casting on the left side, what does that adjust?
