Another Mini-Dozer

[sparc]

Here is a picture of a 12spd Craftsman drill press I bought about 10 years ago and you could get speeds from 250 to 3100 rpm right out the box. It was probably in the $450. range back then. You can also drill to the center of a 34" diameter project.

Rick

Craftsman 17" radial drill press. Nice. These were made by Emerson back then I believe, decent DP for the money at the time. Did you buy it new or was it used when you bought it?

 

[RangerRick]

Craftsman 17" radial drill press. Nice. These were made by Emerson back then I believe, decent DP for the money at the time. Did you buy it new or was it used when you bought it?

Brand New. I make custom cribbage boards and some of them were made like a lazy susan so a lot of people could mark their own score just by rotating the board.

To drill the holes in the board (some boards had over 600 holes to drill) I would mount a pivot point on my drill table and drill a small hole under and in the center of the circular cribbage board. Then I would just rotate the board to the points marked on the board, drill and repeat 600 times. Attached is a picture of one of my oak 18" diameter lazy susan boards with black walnut and mother of pearl inlay.

Bob, I hope you don't think I'm stealing your thread, I just want to demonstrate the advantage of using a radial drill press.

Rick

 

[Short Game]

Beautiful.

 

[grsthegreat]

Brand New. I make custom cribbage boards Rick

your work is truly amazing. i would never have the patients or the eye to do anything like this. Great job.

 

[rawinok2]

...Bob, I hope you don't think I'm stealing your thread, I just want to demonstrate the advantage of using a radial drill press.
Rick

Rick,
That's OK. I was just demonstrating what could be done for those of us "PO FOLK" who aren't "rolling in the dough"! Just think of how many baubles & beads your wife had to go without, just so you could have such a nifty machine like that ! B.t.w., that is some beautiful work you've done there ! What tools are needed to do inlay work like that ? Now, being able to make stuff like that takes true talent! I consider myself just a "so-so" welder. You have talant ! Did you buy the drill press here in the states? Or are you another Canuck? Your bio is a little vague.

 

[RangerRick]

Thanks for the compliments. I live in Connecticut and bought the drill press right in a local Sears store.

For the inlay, I use a router with an inlay attachment with a 1/8" bit and a sharp chisel to clean up the corners.

I use a computer to draw my designs and a plotter to draw my patterns. I then spray-glue the pattern to my wood stock to show me where to drill or rout.

Bob, I added more info to my profile, I hope I didn't put too much now. Thanks for pointing out the fact that I haven't updated that in years.

Attached another one of my crib board pics and some wood turning I've done.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Rick,
That's OK. I was just demonstrating what could be done for those of us "PO FOLK" who aren't "rolling in the dough"!

I'm a "PO FOLK". I'm glad that I held off on ordering the parts to modify my drill press. I found a used one that has a 1/2 hp motor and goes down to 250 RPM... $75. It's only 260 miles away from me .

Fortunately, my wife is at a conference near where the drill press is located. Being the WONDERFUL wife that she is she offered to go pick it up for me. I got the call about an hour ago that she had it in the back of the car all safe and sound.

I figure I can get at least $50 out of my old drill press (Delta Shopmaster DP200). That brings the net cost of my "modification" to $25 and the net time down to about 90 seconds (the time it takes to move the old one and put the new one in its place). The end result is a drill press that goes 1/3 the speed with twice the HP of the one I have currently.

I owe you big, Rowinok, for showing me the value of a slower drill press.

 

[Renze]

As my neighbour would say: If you keep your eyes open for the right deals, you dont have to draw your wallet wide open...

Update regarding above mentioned concept:
Yesterday i was at the welder repairman, and asked for the price of drills. He had a full box of 24-30mm drills, and an incomplete box of 14-23mm drills. The big box was 90 euro new (ex VAT) and the small box was 70. After getting the oxygen bottle for which i came, i asked what he wanted again for the drills.. He said 90 euro..?...ex VAT. I thought: thats already 19% dow.. And said i'll think about it.
Later that day i needed Co2, i thought i had a spare bottle but my brothers kid put the yellow thread cover back on an empty bottle From the 14-23mm drill box, there were 19 and 23mm drills. I happen to have bought the 21mm drill from that very same box, about 4 years ago, and its good quality: I thought he might want to get rid of these drills, after 4 years...Anyways, i took some cash with me, and when i was there, i said: Make me a price for the both drill boxes, the complete one and the incomplete one: You tell your accountant that you've taken the drills from your stock to your own workshop, and i'll pay cash. He said 100 euro, and i quickly took the deal !

So i got myself 12 drills of 14 to 30mm, which is 277mm of combined drill diameter. The going rate for USED drills is 50ct/mm so i got new drills cheaper than used...

 

[Iplayfarmer]

One last contribution to the "drill press modification" hijack...

I've attached a picture of the speed reduction mechanism on this bigger drill press that I bought. Some of you may be able to poach ideas from it to adjust your own. I don't know if the motor pulley can be turned upside down like this on the smaller drill presses.

The first picture includes a full shot of the center idler pulley and the off-set pin that allows it to move in relation to the other pulleys. The second picture is the assembled drive mechanism.

 

[Short Game]

You must have read my mind that that was the view I wanted of your new-to-you machine.