Replacing Drill Press column for longer one - Advice needed

[MayerMR]

Afternoon fellas,

I'm getting ready to replace the original 2" column on my Walker-Turner bench-top drill press with a longer one to make it a standing press. My plan is to buy cold-rolled C1026 DOM steel tube in 2" diameter w/.188" thick walls. Currently, the bench-top column is 2" and right at .13" thick walls. I wanted to go up a little in wall thickness for added stability w/the extra length.

Is 70" about the standard height of the column for a floor press?

 

[FrankLee]

The overall height on my early Craftsman 100 with a 67" column is ~71-1/2".

If you don't have any options like a middle pulley, the head frame does not have to be at the highest point of the column.

I measured wall thickness on two Craftsman 2-3/4" columns. An early 67" column measured ~0.190". A late 62" column measured ~0.170".

Another consideration is the stability of a bench-top base on a floor-standing drill press.

 

[MayerMR]

The overall height on my early Craftsman 100 with a 67" column is ~71-1/2".

If you don't have any options like a middle pulley, the head frame does not have to be at the highest point of the column.

I measured wall thickness on two Craftsman 2-3/4" columns. An early 67" column measured ~0.190". A late 62" column measured ~0.170".

Another consideration is the stability of a bench-top base on a floor-standing drill press.

Thanks very much. I think I'll be good then with this column. I would like to add a middle pulley, at some point, but I figured I'd need to fabricate something for that anyway.

Very good point on the stability - I've already thought about that and plan to build a wider base with some with adjusters so I can level it out.

Really appreciate your quick reply.

 

[Carla]

Afternoon fellas,

I'm getting ready to replace the original 2" column on my Walker-Turner bench-top drill press with a longer one to make it a standing press. My plan is to buy cold-rolled C1026 DOM steel tube in 2" diameter w/.188" thick walls. Currently, the bench-top column is 2" and right at .13" thick walls. I wanted to go up a little in wall thickness for added stability w/the extra length.

Is 70" about the standard height of the column for a floor press?

Buying a length of commercial DOM tubing might not be a very good idea, actually.

I don't know that any drill press manufacturers used DOM tubing for their drill presses, but it would seem reasonable that some of the manufacturers might have. (older Delta drill presses used welded tubing, one may see the weld inside the tube)

The 'catch' is that drill press columns have to be ground to a fairly tight tolerance, to fit the bores in the base, head, and table. I don't know just what that tolerance is, but I'd suspect it would be something like 'plus nothing, minus .001 or .0015 from nominal size.

The readily available commercial DOM tubing isn't held anywhere near that closely. Grinding a column to serviceable accuracy is relatively cheap in high-volume production, but would be prohibitively costly for a one-off.

The practical and cost-effective thing to do would be to look for a floor-model drill press, actually.

cheers

Carla

 

[ez-duzit]

...The 'catch' is that drill press columns have to be ground to a fairly tight tolerance, to fit the bores in the base, head, and table...

This and the base will be too small for a floor model.

 

[crguy]

Lots of drill press parts on Ebay if you want to just buy an original column & base.

 

[FTG-05]

Buying a length of commercial DOM tubing might not be a very good idea, actually.

I don't know that any drill press manufacturers used DOM tubing for their drill presses, but it would seem reasonable that some of the manufacturers might have. (older Delta drill presses used welded tubing, one may see the weld inside the tube)

The 'catch' is that drill press columns have to be ground to a fairly tight tolerance, to fit the bores in the base, head, and table. I don't know just what that tolerance is, but I'd suspect it would be something like 'plus nothing, minus .001 or .0015 from nominal size.

The readily available commercial DOM tubing isn't held anywhere near that closely. Grinding a column to serviceable accuracy is relatively cheap in high-volume production, but would be prohibitively costly for a one-off.

The practical and cost-effective thing to do would be to look for a floor-model drill press, actually.

cheers

Carla

I did this to my China-made Central Machinery drill press back in the late 90's. At the time, I worked part time at a local welding shop and had access to a lathe. I went from something like a 12" column to around 20"-22" or so. I had to get a thick piece of tube and then lathe it down to final dimension on the welding shop's lathe.

For extra stiffness, I then filled the hollow interior of the tube with concrete.

I bought that old thing back in the early 80's in Seattle; updated the motor in 2014 and now the quill bearings are starting to go. Prolly time for a new drill press after all these years.

 

[MayerMR]

I did this to my China-made Central Machinery drill press back in the late 90's. At the time, I worked part time at a local welding shop and had access to a lathe. I went from something like a 12" column to around 20"-22" or so. I had to get a thick piece of tube and then lathe it down to final dimension on the welding shop's lathe.

For extra stiffness, I then filled the hollow interior of the tube with concrete.

I bought that old thing back in the early 80's in Seattle; updated the motor in 2014 and now the quill bearings are starting to go. Prolly time for a new drill press after all these years.

Shucks, she's an old friend at this point. You're gonna abandon her bc of a couple of $4 bearings?!

 

[MayerMR]

Welp, got it all set up with the new column and my temporary wide-footprint base (until I can locate a floor press base. That said, the wooden base has four little leveling feet on the bottom and it really is pretty stable. While I had it apart yesterday, I took some time to shine up the handles on the brass wire wheel and cleaned up the table, base and the stop collar all cleaned up with a citrus degreaser, following up a wet sanding on the tops of the table and base. Finally wrapped everything up with a light coating of Boiled Linseed Oil and let them sit outside in the sun all afternoon and until about 3pm today.

Still have some additional work to do on some of the components of the head of the press, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how she turned out!

Wanted to keep the original paint, but also protect it - I like how it turned out.

 

[FrankLee]

Welp, got it all set up with the new column and my temporary wide-footprint base (until I can locate a floor press base. That said, the wooden base has four little leveling feet on the bottom and it really is pretty stable. While I had it apart yesterday, I took some time to shine up the handles on the brass wire wheel and cleaned up the table, base and the stop collar all cleaned up with a citrus degreaser, following up a wet sanding on the tops of the table and base. Finally wrapped everything up with a light coating of Boiled Linseed Oil and let them sit outside in the sun all afternoon and until about 3pm today.

Still have some additional work to do on some of the components of the head of the press, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how she turned out!


Wanted to keep the original paint, but also protect it - I like how it turned out.

Nicely done! What length did you use?

 

[MayerMR]

Nicely done! What length did you use?

Thank you. I used a 70" column, which it a good height for me, but is probably a bit tall for most people.

I need to use it a little bit, but I may end up lowering the head just a bit.

 

[FTG-05]

Nicely done! What length did you use?

And more importantly (IMO): what did you have to do with the +70" length of steel pipe/tube/whatever to make it fit?

 

[MayerMR]

And more importantly (IMO): what did you have to do with the +70" length of steel pipe/tube/whatever to make it fit?

I *had* to do next to nothing. It was cold-rolled steel tubing from the local Metal SuperMarket store. It came coated in a blackish/blue colored anti-rust preservative that I did need to wipe off with with acetone.

What I *chose* to do a bit of quick polishing job on the new column, so I hand sanded for about 5 mins with 80 grit sandpaper, then jumped to 250, then 500, then 800, and then finally 1000. Then another quick rubdown with acetone to clear the grit and then a quick Brasso metal polish for a little bit better shine. Lastly, I used some Johnson's paste wax on it for a preserving finish. All-in-all it was about 30-45 mins of work to go from dull to shiny.

It's important to get the cold-rolled tubing as it is much more true-to-diameter than hot rolled steel tubing. Additionally, you always want to get "tubing" vs "piping" - again, the dimensions are apparently measured differently than tubing.