I’ve been contemplating converting my drill press until I saw this vid. Thanks for convincing me NOT to do this unless I was willing to put much more of my time and money than I realized
Your setup is just great . I have a little rigid milling table and an old walker turner drillpress that i restored . I could not find any of the videos of other guys convincing enoug to modify mine . Yours sealed the deal so i am going to modify mine ! Your determination to make something work is really motivating . Thank you for sharing it .
Excellent video!! One point to consider for converting drill press to mill, if replacing the quill bearings, is drill presses have ball bearings which are limited in thrust, while mill machine lower bearings are angular contact bearings, which are much better for thrust. On my drill press (a Buffalo Forge 18) I found that I could get an angular contact bearing with the same dimensions as the lower ball bearings. It's worth looking into. Greg
Thanks for the spindle collar idea, I made one for my 30 year old Drill Press, looks much like yours. I used the heavy XY table also, I fabbed a bottom brace for the underside of the table . Have been able to fab some much needed parts in steel for my cheap chinese Mini Lathe too this is a very usefull addition to my shop. Thanks again.
Excellent work, I have the same drill press and the old Taiwan machines are very good. 10 times better than today's Chinese machines. You have put a lot of work into this project and I thank you for sharing it. Would love to see more.....
I have a HF round column gear head mill that is basically the big brother to your rig. When tramming the tool to the table I use a 150mm cut off of 8mm rod from one of my 3D printer projects. The rod is totally straight and is easy to line up with a square.
Great video..I've seen a few more worthwhile modifications..like a 80/20 sand/epoxy mix to fill in columns and base castings to dampen vibration / chatter..a car scissor jack to raise and lower the drill press table with just a turn of a handle..but the best was to dramatically stiffen the chuck head from sideways flex with a ball bearing fitted to the outside of the chuck then a sleeve on the outside of the bearing that then U bolts back to the column with a fitted metal spacer in between the sleeve and column..2 to 4 U bolts are used..making sure to tighten but over tighten causing flex back towards the column..the chuck usually needs to be fitted to fit exactly snug inside the ball bearing with some sandpaper or a lathe if available.. afterwards ZERO flex..I was thinking about using a old 10 to 18 speed bicycle for the gears and a shortened chain to replace the slipping belt and pulley system and gain more speed control and possible torque..also seen a old treadmill motor and controller used with great results..
Mate..... you are my new favourite youtuber. That was awesome. Right on point with what I’m wanting to do. I have watched many a video on this conversion and you have not only covered it in great detail with no BS but you have done a quality job. Love it and looking forward to those individual videos on the separate parts like the collar for the holder etc. thank you 🙏
Finally a solution to my problem, I have a very old Arboga milling drill, it is a beautiful machine but in reality I could never use it as a milling machine because the tool falls off every time, I even broke a gear because I pinned the arbor and the pin popped out. I think I'll put a collar like that one Thank you very much, greetings from Mexico!!!!
Thanks for the great video. You gave me some very good ideas on how to solve a few issues I've had with my own mini conversion project. Very smart use of the calipers.
That sounds awesome, I'm trying to use my wood lathe spindle for a light duty metal lathe, and I'm using an old precision ball bearing spindle (it's called a hard disc drive spindle but it's about as big as an american football) to try making a rotary or linear precision grinder with some granite plates for the linear ways with homemade graphite air bearings. Still major work in progress but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Now you just need to make a power feed attachment for the table. You can use a windshield wiper motor or a small stepper. Banggood sells a $3 PWM controller that has 2 channels and will control a stepstick stepper motor driver and a NEMA 17 stepper. Use one with 2 shafts and there you go, Power and manual feed for under $30. Really makes facing jobs like that, easy. Some people just make a coupler that fits over the wheel hub and uses a cordless drill to power it. Really saves on the wrist action on those repetitive surfacing jobs.
the tapmatic drill tap adapter will allow one to tap with a drill press safely if your drill press has enough horse power for the tap that you are using, I have tapped 1"-8 11/2" deep in mild steel in production line with tapmatic, good vid thanx
Finally got around to making a that collar for an M2 taper ER32 collet. …easy as! As well as taking lots of steps to reduce all movement, re your ideas. All in prep for a light mill conversion as you’ve set out. The bonus, even at this early stage, the drill function has really improved. Ta mate. R
Bloody good video Mate. My BS Ometer never flickered once. On that basis its time to subscribe, so I did. Its nice to run into some one from my home town, "Smartsville". Your advice of " don't go fooling if you got sloppy toolin" holds to true. Hope to learn more from you Bro. Love your work. My pet bunyip & I are gonna have a cold beer on your behalf. Cheers Mate.
I've done a lot of things to my drill press so I can mill on it. I still have some movement issues and you have given me some good ideas to do to improve it further. Great video...thanks! I have several large brushless inrunners. I think I'll do your motor mod, but I'll use an inrunner instead. I have a 3hp inrunner...that ought to do the job!
Holy Shit Mate, this is an awesome video! very informative. I basically have the same drill press, but mine is a floor mount. But with video I know what to look for and what to beef up!!! Thank you.
Pretty impressive, Aussie Shed. Thanks for the video. Have sent the video link to a mate that's just picked up the same drill press, and is setting up his workshop. Cheers, Craig
You had me in the first 30 seconds! New subscriber. Might I suggest filling the drill leg with steel sandblasting media? I assume its hollow and this should help with any additional vibrations. Brilliant videos! Cheers.
Very impressive....repuposing a machine to go to another spectrum is the way of the Ingeneur or as they're know an engineer.….. the height of ingenious applications. BTW....if you look inside say an ER 32 chuck with a Morse or parallel shank you'll find it's got a hole all the way through. With this you can stick the chuck up into the quill spindle taper and push a long cap head screw with a washer up the hole in the chuck to reach the cross slot where you normally drive the tang down with a drift. If you fit a round pin in the cross hole and drill a cross hole through the middle of it and then tap it to suit the long screw you can pull the taper tightly into the spindle by using a long Allen key up the inside of the tool shank.
I am currently building similar thing to suck the taper up into it to keep it from coming loose. I also stiffened the column on mine. It was hollow in the inside. So I took pieces of re-bar and filled the column with them and concrete. Should make column more rigid. Have yet to test. Fitting digital readouts to my cast iron table this weekend.
Thanks Mate, Yes, The Belt Sander linisher has been a bit of an un-intentional interruption to those projects. Only due to my own carelessness. Unfortunately, because I use it a lot, I have had to prioritise its rebuild. Its nearly done now, so Back to the Mini Lathe soon, with the Mill slotted in there somewhere also. Cheers Mate.
Trevor, Excellent! A great overview of your conversion. As I mentioned I have most of the components already such as a milling table identical to yours plus a milling vice but it’s a bit different than yours. Mine is an import clone of the Kurt which gives super positive locking power to the movable jaw with the angle lock feature so it should serve well, especially after I enlarged the surface area so the thrust bearing on the screw makes full contact. (Import versions skimp on the metal on the jaw side allowing lap over of the inner surface of the bearing which over time will cause the outer rim of the bearing to fold over a bit causing bearing failure. ie:”Eddie the Grouch) Anyway I have a bit more modifications as my drill press is a floor model. It’s a seventies model Craftsman so it’s a super heavy cast iron model. I also have the treadmill motor though it’s currently powering my metal lathe. I originally had it on the drill press and was very pleased with its power and speed versatility. You are right about the flywheel that comes with these dc treadmill motors. The flywheel provides the needed torque for these applications. I tried it on the drill press without it and could easily stall it. Once I put it back on I had no worries on torque. It’s great you responded so quickly with this conversion overview as it gives me information I was needing to get started. Thanks so much!
Dale, where did you get your Kurt copy from, assuming within Aus.. Other than the trust bearing on the movable jaw would you recommend it?? Carl from Coffs
carl white, I got my vice off of one of the eBay sites. I really can’t remember which one but it’s the standard Chinese copy of the Kurt. Since my mill (and budget) is small I opted for the four inch vise. As far as recommendations I would do so. With the exception of the thrust bearing the vice has been excellent in every way. I got the swivel base model and that feature makes tramming a cinch and the vice locks very solid to the base. The only modification I had to make was the addition of the shop made washer for that thrust bearing to ride against. (Commercial washers are just thin junk these days and I wanted solid surface) As far as accuracy I put it on my surface plate and it was in a half a thou in every aspect. I’m a hobby machinist just playing around so super accuracy isn’t warranted in most things I do but I was curious as to how accurate it was because it was advertised to be so. I believe this vice is sold by many vendors one being Little Machine Shop.com. They specialize in machines made in China such as the mini lathes and mini mills so popular today.
Just an idea if you go on to eBay you can get a milling machine spindle head with a selection of ether MT2-MT4 or BT30-BT40 or ER18-ER40 they have 5 ball bearings and is a bolt on ready to go and can use a drawbar with some modifications you can remove your drill press spindle and bolt one of these in its place and they cost around $100-$400
I have had those in mind for my manual mill project but can not find any videos of those on the tube. Only one russian video of the bt30 version that dont realy tell me to much., Do you own one of those your self?
You have the best drill to mill conversion I've seen, and I've hunted a long time. Yes I have done what I shouldn't have done - tried to run an end mill in the drill chuck - and it shook out. Fortunately it didn't do any damage. My bench drill is about the same size as yours and I would still like to try and do some light milling on it. The problem I seem to have is that the spindle has a male Jacobs JT 2-1/2. It's an old fashioned taper it seems, and there's no attachments available. I'm not even sure if one could get a JT-2-1/2 Collet fitting it would be safe to use. What I am thinking of is to take the quill out (replace the bearings at the same time) and to convert the JT2-1/2 taper to a 1/2"-20T thread on my lathe. The small end of the taper is over .6" so this could work. Then I can at least use a new standard 13mm threaded drill chuck. If I do this my question is -- can one get an ER25 collet chuck that has a 1/2' thread in the back? Are there other options you can suggest? It seems to me that I'm probably going to have to make the collet fitting/adapter to the newly threaded spindle.
Sorry Garth I cant help with 1/2 threaded collet chuck, I honestly have no idea. You seem like a resourceful guy, I'm sure you will find a solution. Cheers Mate.
If you could find someone with a foundry, the cavity of the base could be in-filled with an aluminium/brass alloy to help gain some decent rigidity. The base may even act act as a "chill" plate, which get used for making castings with minimal to no shrinkage.
Perhaps changing out the quill bearings for tapered rollers would help too. Maybe a few machenist jack type shims under the hollow base at the root of the column to aid rigidity also..You've inspired me to have a go at my drill press now. Thank ya kindly...B^ )
Unfortunately, that isn't as straightforward as it ought to be, deep groove and taper roller bearings don't come in identical sizings, most of the time you'll find two dimentions that match but not all three, something I found out the hard/expensive way.
thanks for this. i have a floor standing woodworking drill press of similar weight to the one you're using. applying the tips you've shared here will allow me to "bootstrap" my mini lathe (which i haven't yet purchased).
I like your modifications , I have craftex 2hp drill I am going to use for milling , what mille bit holder should be best to use for my morse taper #4 drill end .
I have an old drill press head about the same size as what you have there. I was going to try to rig a light mill out of it....Now I will pass. You did a great job...well explained lot's of creative mods...However, I do not have either the skill or access to needed parts or money to build one. You saved me a nightmare project. Have you ever seen any of Dan Gelbart's videos? You may get some inspiration from watching them. A particular that video you may like is "Building Prototypes Part 15 of 18 mill and lathe"
I’m just getting to the pointy end now of my drill mill conversion and wondering if you ever did the update video you mentioned where you would give a more in depth look at your collet lock collar and spindle lock collar ? Many thanks 🙏
know it been a long time, but with some manipulation, you could just simply make it operate right off the quil that takes all the lateral pressure of the quil and mills anything your motor size will allow you to and it all bolts to the work table/ ... essentially a quil driven mill attachment
Was looking to send you a drawing of a dual cam bushing that I use to reposition bolts and shafting on conveyors after the bushing/bearing hole has been wallowed out. I also made a larger version for a friend to relocate his Pinon Gear closer to his Milling Machine Spindle Column. It had zero back lash in the gears to column afterwards.
I have a 16 speed rexon tiwanese drill press that I used to do light milling in aluminum. Interesting solution to the taper dropping out during milling, I wish I could find a solution that did not require a Lathe. I ended up putting a small tack weld on mine in order to finish the light aluminum piece I was milling and left it that way for years. Though that tack may have introduced more runout in the chuck, hard to say because I only checked runout after the fact. +/- 5 thousandths if I remember right. I also have a really hard time with hole saws in the drill press which is causing me to try and improve runout and rigidity as much as possible.
the long way round but worth every step. a lathe is said to be able to build itself there is no reason a beefed-up drill like this one can't get you to an excellent DIY mill with a little research. the Germans, and you know them,i here told, have taken to building reinforce concrete bases and swear by the results. no one on earth more pragmatic about metal. the word anal comes to mind and i agree the heavier the better. the denser the material as well. where masonry and machinery meat is heavy and the very basic of anchoring it's parts Valhalla , i can hear the sharp ring of superb drawn sword steel now
Excellent! You have inspired me to do some work on my drill press. Also, I really like your videos. Very well done and entertaining.. Keep on keepin' on my brother....
Just thinking about the need for serious rigidity. The Gingery Lathe was a big success and made of concrete, and possibly a cheap way to create rigidity around a drill press conversion would be to make up the profiles one needs out of light weight steel etc and fill the cavities with concrete - ??
So everyone I've talked to says that the bearings can't handle side loads (radial) because they are made to handle vertical loads for drilling (axial). The issue with this is that every drill press I've taken apart has typical deep groove ball bearings which are in fact made for radial loads and NOT axial (iirc deep groove bearings can usually handle three times as much force in the radial (sideways) direction so this doesn't make sense to me). Even so it's pretty easy to find matching sizes of tapered roller bearings to replace the ball bearings if one wished to make this type of conversion more effective.
Maaate......that collar thingy is the ‘genius’ solution I have been looking for, thank you. Someone elsewhere suggested filling the post with metal sandblasting grit, whatd’y’think? I’ve stacked some rare earth magnets down from the main motor body to an eye guard brace to hold the Chuck down and it’s been solid. I have some of varying thicknesses to alter distances.
G'day Mate, filling the post would not have helped in my situation, my biggest issue in that area, was Flex in the Base Plate where the post mounts into. Bracing the Head of the Drill Press, for me, was a better solution took & works really well. Cheers.
@@TheAussieShed Would you be interested in making one for me? (the collar thingy) I’m from the, ‘you don’t know if don’t ask’ school of thought. callrod@hotmail.com……I’m in Sydney. Ok with a No, and/or cover all costs of course.
Excellent! i'm trying to mill with an extremely heavy stand drill press , have an excellent cast iron proper miling machine compound table but my nemesis is the N 3 Morse taper which gets loose everytime, would appreciate a lot if you can show the design of you collar. thank you in advance your material is Superb!
If you want to make your base more stable can't you make a sleeve for your upright and fill the rest of the base with metal. Or you can take the base off of the press to make a sand casting and machine the new one it to fit properly
Concrete and brass shims. With enough of both of those you can turn a toilet into a CNC lathe/mill/ass scratcher combo. Technically, epoxy/granite is better but it's kind of expensive.
Bloody maaaarvelous!! (said this Pom in his best cod Aussie accent!). At last an accent that isn't a hillbilly Yank sounding like a character from Deliverance! AND the same drill press as mine! Can we have a Yank free youtube channel please? This conversion looks the dogs proverbials, I'm welding up triangular 40mm x 40mm box section to brace mine to the wall top and bottom as I type this... Now all i need is an affordable No2 morse collet chuck with affordable collets and end cutters.... Yeeeehawwww! (just to make all you Yanks feel at home!)
Are you going to make more videos on this conversion? I have an old Taiwanese import Drill press allot like yours that I am trying to convert and am really interested in how you hooked up the treadmill motor. Mine has a JT 3 taper to the chuck though, so not sure what the best way would be to prevent it from coming off under lateral load. I don't think I'll have enough meat to do a collar like you did, any recommendations?
Hi, nice job on the Drill press conversion. How do you remove or reduce the quill play? I have a cheap drill press similar to yours and it seems to have excessive play of the quill to body of the drill press. I would think this would be an issue for this type of conversion. Thanks
How can I buy a collar similar to that one that will fit my Home Depot El Cheepo Ryobi drill press? Never mind I see now that it is just a pipe section. Still would be nice to be able to buy it. Maybe sell em on ebay? Video was very informative, thanks!
Hi Aussie...I am not sure if you will answer anymore questions on the video. I am needing to mill 2 short 1/4" slots on aluminum 1/4" thick x 1" wide flat bar stock. I need 2 milling slots about 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch in length and going all the way through the 1/4" bar.. I will make a many passes as needed. That will be all I will need. I can't see spending a $1100 just to do 2 short runs. I already have a compound table but the drill press I have is to weak. Is the a drill press that could handle 1/4 aluminum stock? Or will I need to spend a $1100? Thank you
G'day Mate, If you drilled a series of holes along the proposed slotted sections, would your drill press then be able to form it into a slot with an endmill? It would be a lot easier on your drill press if it is only a light duty unit. A little thing like that would be easy peasy with a bigger drill press. Cheers mate.
The ONLY serious drillpress to mill conversion I've seen! 👍👋👋👋😃The question is, has it payed off, financially, time spent and performance wise, compared to just finding an old original milling machine? Perhaps it has!? Also I'm thinking it's a project by it self for you?! The base could possibly be strengthened with casting epoxi-granit into it? "Artisan makes" has done similar to a mini lathe and mill. Personally I bought a small mill-drill just to drill and tap a few thousand holes with precision - without vibrations and run out - for a project at work. And then I brought it home. It now serves as a typical hobbyist's complimentary machine to my mini lathe. Motor is only 150W I think!? Anyway, only suitable for milling small model engineering stuff. A step up from the vertical milling atachment for the lathe. (The mill-drill cost about the same as a mini lathe.) A bigger proper second hand mill could probably be found for about the same money, but handling a machine that weighs five or ten times more, is an altogether diffrent matter. (Same issue with the lathe. I was actually offered a big manual lathe for free, but it wasn't feasable to install at home. The company that bought it new, had only used it very little, and had no use for it any longer. I'll probably think about having turned the offer down for the rest of my life.😪)
G'day Mate, It really was a bit of an exercise just to see how far I could go with it. It started out of necessity as I needed to mill some small pieces of aluminium. It certainly paid off for me, as in it allowed me to complete some small milling tasks in house. Plus I really like dicking around with stuff. Like all of these type of things though, it doesn't take long to outgrow. I have a pretty decent Manual Mill Now, not a Benchtop Mill, but not huge. Whole different Ballgame, dicking around with the drill press was very helpful to formulate exactly what I wanted from a workshop mill. Without it i'm positive I would have bought the wrong Machine. Cheers Mate.
@@TheAussieShed Sounds like very good developement!😃 (The internet is really great - sharing experience and learning literally across the globe - I live in Sweden!)
First I have to say incredible conversion and great video. But if you could please help me with the type of end mill holder or chuck used. Would you recommend R8 size? I’m new to machining and just seeing your machine tapping threads was incredible. You sir are a day dreamer. Greetings from South America Quito Ecuador. “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”
Hi Andres, thank you for the kind words. You will need to match the receiver taper in your drill press. Mine was MT2. So my chucks & collett holder are all MT2. If your drill press is R8 Taper then that will work Cheers.
Just found your channel. 👍🏻 I have just got a good treadmill motor to make a variable speed on my drill press. What pulleys and ratio did you use on your drill press. Ps I might be trying to do the mill conversion on my pedestal drill press as well after watching your video. I was also thinking of making the pedestal out of heavy box to stop flex, what are your thought on that?
G'day Jake, I have a 12v wall transformer from an electric shaver if I remember correctly, wired into the box for the 12v stuff. In some of the others I have done I used a small 12v transformer from ebay, Cheers Mate.
Subscribed! Gonna watch em all. Curious what price point you would put this machine if assembled? Is there any existing machine that compares to it? I'm guessing $1200?
G'day Mate, yes I have thought of a few similar things such as that. I feel it would definitely help, but i also feel more gains are to be had by adding further bracing to the drill head. But of course that relies on having something to brace off. Appreciate the input though, Cheers Mate.
G'day Mate, pretty much nothing. The Variable Motor was free, pulled from a Treadmill out for Garbage pickup, the Motor Controller was about $20 in Parts. X Y Table & Vise I already had from my other Drill Press. The rest is just bits of this & that & time in Labour. Cheers.
This is the only drill press conversion on RUclips that I've ever seen that worked! Nice job! Looking forward to the controller video!
I’ve been contemplating converting my drill press until I saw this vid. Thanks for convincing me NOT to do this unless I was willing to put much more of my time and money than I realized
Glad to have been able to help you with your decision. Cheers Mate.
Your setup is just great . I have a little rigid milling table and an old walker turner drillpress that i restored . I could not find any of the videos of other guys convincing enoug to modify mine . Yours sealed the deal so i am going to modify mine ! Your determination to make something work is really motivating . Thank you for sharing it .
My pleasure Mate, glad you found it helpful. Cheers.
great to see the various mods to make it handle a bit of milling. I think I will do most of the mods that you have done.
Very Good video I found out so far on youtube with clear voice explanation
Cheers Eric.
That was a very informative video and has given many of us a lot to think about. Hello from Melbourne.
Cheers Mark, glad you enjoyed it.
Super helpful video - valuable first-hand experience and clear explanations. thanks for posting! :D
Glad you enjoyed it Rob, Cheers.
This is the best drill to mill conversion! Thanks for uploading! I am going to copy all you have done! Cheers Mate!
Excellent video!! One point to consider for converting drill press to mill, if replacing the quill bearings, is drill presses have ball bearings which are limited in thrust, while mill machine lower bearings are angular contact bearings, which are much better for thrust. On my drill press (a Buffalo Forge 18) I found that I could get an angular contact bearing with the same dimensions as the lower ball bearings. It's worth looking into. Greg
Thanks for the spindle collar idea, I made one for my 30 year old Drill Press, looks much like yours. I used the heavy XY table also, I fabbed a bottom brace for the underside of the table . Have been able to fab some much needed parts in steel for my cheap chinese Mini Lathe too this is a very usefull addition to my shop. Thanks again.
Thanks Mate, Cheers.
Excellent work, I have the same drill press and the old Taiwan machines are very good. 10 times better than today's Chinese machines. You have put a lot of work into this project and I thank you for sharing it. Would love to see more.....
My Pleasure, glad you enjoyed it, Cheers.
I have a HF round column gear head mill that is basically the big brother to your rig. When tramming the tool to the table I use a 150mm cut off of 8mm rod from one of my 3D printer projects. The rod is totally straight and is easy to line up with a square.
Great video..I've seen a few more worthwhile modifications..like a 80/20 sand/epoxy mix to fill in columns and base castings to dampen vibration / chatter..a car scissor jack to raise and lower the drill press table with just a turn of a handle..but the best was to dramatically stiffen the chuck head from sideways flex with a ball bearing fitted to the outside of the chuck then a sleeve on the outside of the bearing that then U bolts back to the column with a fitted metal spacer in between the sleeve and column..2 to 4 U bolts are used..making sure to tighten but over tighten causing flex back towards the column..the chuck usually needs to be fitted to fit exactly snug inside the ball bearing with some sandpaper or a lathe if available.. afterwards ZERO flex..I was thinking about using a old 10 to 18 speed bicycle for the gears and a shortened chain to replace the slipping belt and pulley system and gain more speed control and possible torque..also seen a old treadmill motor and controller used with great results..
Great idea and video, you are the awesome Aussie engineer guy
Thanks mate, much appreciated.
That drill press brings back memories looks exactly like a made in Taiwan one that I had in Sydney in the 90s.
Reckon it'd be the same model, from Memory I bought it in Sydney in the 90's. Nice spotting. Cheers.
Such a great and thorough video! Thanks for the great work and info!
Mate..... you are my new favourite youtuber. That was awesome. Right on point with what I’m wanting to do. I have watched many a video on this conversion and you have not only covered it in great detail with no BS but you have done a quality job. Love it and looking forward to those individual videos on the separate parts like the collar for the holder etc.
thank you 🙏
I would love to see more videos on this conversion, specifically any information or upgrades on the cross slide table.
No problem Eric, on the to do list. Cheers.
Finally a solution to my problem, I have a very old Arboga milling drill, it is a beautiful machine but in reality I could never use it as a milling machine because the tool falls off every time, I even broke a gear because I pinned the arbor and the pin popped out. I think I'll put a collar like that one Thank you very much, greetings from Mexico!!!!
One great solution after another . Great video thanks from dublin
Cheers Mate.
Thanks for the great video. You gave me some very good ideas on how to solve a few issues I've had with my own mini conversion project. Very smart use of the calipers.
That bar that makes the drill press top part rigid is the solution i've been looking for. Stealing that idea! :-) Thanks!
G'day Davor, yep your onto it. The bar was a game changer with the drill press.
I love repurposed tools. I'm using an old wood lathe head stock to make a DIY surface grinder. Yours is the best DIY mill I've seen. Good job.
That sounds awesome, I'm trying to use my wood lathe spindle for a light duty metal lathe, and I'm using an old precision ball bearing spindle (it's called a hard disc drive spindle but it's about as big as an american football) to try making a rotary or linear precision grinder with some granite plates for the linear ways with homemade graphite air bearings. Still major work in progress but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Now you just need to make a power feed attachment for the table. You can use a windshield wiper motor or a small stepper. Banggood sells a $3 PWM controller that has 2 channels and will control a stepstick stepper motor driver and a NEMA 17 stepper. Use one with 2 shafts and there you go, Power and manual feed for under $30. Really makes facing jobs like that, easy. Some people just make a coupler that fits over the wheel hub and uses a cordless drill to power it. Really saves on the wrist action on those repetitive surfacing jobs.
the tapmatic drill tap adapter will allow one to tap with a drill press safely if your drill press has enough horse power for the tap that you are using, I have tapped 1"-8 11/2" deep in mild steel in production line with tapmatic, good vid thanx
Finally got around to making a that collar for an M2 taper ER32 collet.
…easy as! As well as taking lots of steps to reduce all movement, re your ideas.
All in prep for a light mill conversion as you’ve set out.
The bonus, even at this early stage, the drill function has really improved.
Ta mate. R
Cheers Rod, great stuff. Agree 100% with the improvements to the Drilling functions. Well worth the effort.
Bloody good video Mate. My BS Ometer never flickered once. On that basis its time to subscribe, so I did. Its nice to run into some one from my home town, "Smartsville". Your advice of " don't go fooling if you got sloppy toolin" holds to true. Hope to learn more from you Bro. Love your work. My pet bunyip & I are gonna have a cold beer on your behalf. Cheers Mate.
Cheers PJ, Great to have you On Board.
I've done a lot of things to my drill press so I can mill on it. I still have some movement issues and you have given me some good ideas to do to improve it further. Great video...thanks!
I have several large brushless inrunners. I think I'll do your motor mod, but I'll use an inrunner instead. I have a 3hp inrunner...that ought to do the job!
question, with mini mills now costing around $899 range, is it still worth converting a drill press over a mini mill?
Pretty cool rig I would recommend a knee level E stop or even build a full width E stop bar
Holy Shit Mate, this is an awesome video! very informative. I basically have the same drill press, but mine is a floor mount. But with video I know what to look for and what to beef up!!! Thank you.
Pretty impressive, Aussie Shed. Thanks for the video. Have sent the video link to a mate that's just picked up the same drill press, and is setting up his workshop. Cheers, Craig
Thanks Craig.
You had me in the first 30 seconds! New subscriber. Might I suggest filling the drill leg with steel sandblasting media? I assume its hollow and this should help with any additional vibrations. Brilliant videos! Cheers.
Thanks Darren, Cheers.
Great idea!
Very impressive....repuposing a machine to go to another spectrum is the way of the Ingeneur or as they're know an engineer.….. the height of ingenious applications. BTW....if you look inside say an ER 32 chuck with a Morse or parallel shank you'll find it's got a hole all the way through. With this you can stick the chuck up into the quill spindle taper and push a long cap head screw with a washer up the hole in the chuck to reach the cross slot where you normally drive the tang down with a drift. If you fit a round pin in the cross hole and drill a cross hole through the middle of it and then tap it to suit the long screw you can pull the taper tightly into the spindle by using a long Allen key up the inside of the tool shank.
I am currently building similar thing to suck the taper up into it to keep it from coming loose. I also stiffened the column on mine. It was hollow in the inside. So I took pieces of re-bar and filled the column with them and concrete. Should make column more rigid. Have yet to test. Fitting digital readouts to my cast iron table this weekend.
Anxiously awaiting more footage on the mill as well as the lathe. Thanks for sharing. Good content!
Thanks Mate, Yes, The Belt Sander linisher has been a bit of an un-intentional interruption to those projects. Only due to my own carelessness. Unfortunately, because I use it a lot, I have had to prioritise its rebuild. Its nearly done now, so Back to the Mini Lathe soon, with the Mill slotted in there somewhere also. Cheers Mate.
Nice "Mill Press"!!! Thanks for the video!
i like the depth gauge... it's something i've been wondering about. good idea.
Trevor,
Excellent! A great overview of your conversion. As I mentioned I have most of the components already such as a milling table identical to yours plus a milling vice but it’s a bit different than yours. Mine is an import clone of the Kurt which gives super positive locking power to the movable jaw with the angle lock feature so it should serve well, especially after I enlarged the surface area so the thrust bearing on the screw makes full contact. (Import versions skimp on the metal on the jaw side allowing lap over of the inner surface of the bearing which over time will cause the outer rim of the bearing to fold over a bit causing bearing failure. ie:”Eddie the Grouch)
Anyway I have a bit more modifications as my drill press is a floor model. It’s a seventies model Craftsman so it’s a super heavy cast iron model. I also have the treadmill motor though it’s currently powering my metal lathe. I originally had it on the drill press and was very pleased with its power and speed versatility.
You are right about the flywheel that comes with these dc treadmill motors. The flywheel provides the needed torque for these applications. I tried it on the drill press without it and could easily stall it. Once I put it back on I had no worries on torque.
It’s great you responded so quickly with this conversion overview as it gives me information I was needing to get started. Thanks so much!
Dale, where did you get your Kurt copy from, assuming within Aus..
Other than the trust bearing on the movable jaw would you recommend it??
Carl from Coffs
carl white,
I got my vice off of one of the eBay sites. I really can’t remember which one but it’s the standard Chinese copy of the Kurt. Since my mill (and budget) is small I opted for the four inch vise. As far as recommendations I would do so. With the exception of the thrust bearing the vice has been excellent in every way. I got the swivel base model and that feature makes tramming a cinch and the vice locks very solid to the base. The only modification I had to make was the addition of the shop made washer for that thrust bearing to ride against. (Commercial washers are just thin junk these days and I wanted solid surface)
As far as accuracy I put it on my surface plate and it was in a half a thou in every aspect. I’m a hobby machinist just playing around so super accuracy isn’t warranted in most things I do but I was curious as to how accurate it was because it was advertised to be so.
I believe this vice is sold by many vendors one being Little Machine Shop.com. They specialize in machines made in China such as the mini lathes and mini mills so popular today.
Just an idea if you go on to eBay you can get a milling machine spindle head with a selection of ether MT2-MT4 or BT30-BT40 or ER18-ER40 they have 5 ball bearings and is a bolt on ready to go and can use a drawbar with some modifications you can remove your drill press spindle and bolt one of these in its place and they cost around $100-$400
I have had those in mind for my manual mill project but can not find any videos of those on the tube. Only one russian video of the bt30 version that dont realy tell me to much., Do you own one of those your self?
You have the best drill to mill conversion I've seen, and I've hunted a long time. Yes I have done what I shouldn't have done - tried to run an end mill in the drill chuck - and it shook out. Fortunately it didn't do any damage. My bench drill is about the same size as yours and I would still like to try and do some light milling on it. The problem I seem to have is that the spindle has a male Jacobs JT 2-1/2. It's an old fashioned taper it seems, and there's no attachments available. I'm not even sure if one could get a JT-2-1/2 Collet fitting it would be safe to use. What I am thinking of is to take the quill out (replace the bearings at the same time) and to convert the JT2-1/2 taper to a 1/2"-20T thread on my lathe. The small end of the taper is over .6" so this could work. Then I can at least use a new standard 13mm threaded drill chuck. If I do this my question is -- can one get an ER25 collet chuck that has a 1/2' thread in the back? Are there other options you can suggest? It seems to me that I'm probably going to have to make the collet fitting/adapter to the newly threaded spindle.
Sorry Garth I cant help with 1/2 threaded collet chuck, I honestly have no idea. You seem like a resourceful guy, I'm sure you will find a solution. Cheers Mate.
If you could find someone with a foundry, the cavity of the base could be in-filled with an aluminium/brass alloy to help gain some decent rigidity.
The base may even act act as a "chill" plate, which get used for making castings with minimal to no shrinkage.
Perhaps changing out the quill bearings for tapered rollers would help too. Maybe a few machenist jack type shims under the hollow base at the root of the column to aid rigidity also..You've inspired me to have a go at my drill press now. Thank ya kindly...B^ )
Unfortunately, that isn't as straightforward as it ought to be, deep groove and taper roller bearings don't come in identical sizings, most of the time you'll find two dimentions that match but not all three, something I found out the hard/expensive way.
thanks for this. i have a floor standing woodworking drill press of similar weight to the one you're using. applying the tips you've shared here will allow me to "bootstrap" my mini lathe (which i haven't yet purchased).
I like your modifications , I have craftex 2hp drill I am going to use for milling , what mille bit holder should be best to use for my morse taper #4 drill end .
I have an old drill press head about the same size as what you have there. I was going to try to rig a light mill out of it....Now I will pass. You did a great job...well explained lot's of creative mods...However, I do not have either the skill or access to needed parts or money to build one. You saved me a nightmare project.
Have you ever seen any of Dan Gelbart's videos? You may get some inspiration from watching them. A particular that video you may like is "Building Prototypes Part 15 of 18 mill and lathe"
"That's not the drill, THAT's the drill"
"That's a spoon."
"I see you've played drilly-spoony before!"
I’m just getting to the pointy end now of my drill mill conversion and wondering if you ever did the update video you mentioned where you would give a more in depth look at your collet lock collar and spindle lock collar ?
Many thanks 🙏
G'day Jason, no, sorry Mate, not as of yet. Still on the to do list unfortunately. Apologies.
The Aussie Shed All good mate. Have taken lots of screen shots so I should be right. Thank you.
know it been a long time, but with some manipulation, you could just simply make it operate right off the quil that takes all the lateral pressure of the quil and mills anything your motor size will allow you to and it all bolts to the work table/ ... essentially a quil driven mill attachment
1:00 yep that was savage and here is a thumbs up and a sub.
Tip,to square the quill to table.use a d t I mounted on an arm in the quill and a piece of glass on the table
Was looking to send you a drawing of a dual cam bushing that I use to reposition bolts and shafting on conveyors after the bushing/bearing hole has been wallowed out. I also made a larger version for a friend to relocate his Pinon Gear closer to his Milling Machine Spindle Column. It had zero back lash in the gears to column afterwards.
I have a 16 speed rexon tiwanese drill press that I used to do light milling in aluminum.
Interesting solution to the taper dropping out during milling, I wish I could find a solution that did not require a Lathe. I ended up putting a small tack weld on mine in order to finish the light aluminum piece I was milling and left it that way for years. Though that tack may have introduced more runout in the chuck, hard to say because I only checked runout after the fact. +/- 5 thousandths if I remember right.
I also have a really hard time with hole saws in the drill press which is causing me to try and improve runout and rigidity as much as possible.
"This type of milling vise..."
"Hey, I've got one exactly like this one"
"... it's shit"
🙈🙈🙈🤣
Great video, just found you, I'm from Scotland, and intend to build a milling machine so you info is of great use
I love the calipers as a depth gauge
Thanks Jonas, Cheers.
Well done !!!
Thanks Mate.
the long way round but worth every step. a lathe is said to be able to build itself there is no reason a beefed-up drill like this one can't get you to an excellent DIY mill with a little research. the Germans, and you know them,i here told, have taken to building reinforce concrete bases and swear by the results. no one on earth more pragmatic about metal. the word anal comes to mind and i agree the heavier the better. the denser the material as well. where masonry and machinery meat is heavy and the very basic of anchoring it's parts Valhalla , i can hear the sharp ring of superb drawn sword steel now
You have had more thought than I had, I thought the overhead was a difficult, I will try it your way. Great video!!!!
Would love to see how you made the collar and the aluminum part for the quill and how it all goes together.
Excellent! You have inspired me to do some work on my drill press. Also, I really like your videos. Very well done and entertaining.. Keep on keepin' on my brother....
Thankyou Sir, Much Appreciated. Cheers.
Just thinking about the need for serious rigidity. The Gingery Lathe was a big success and made of concrete, and possibly a cheap way to create rigidity around a drill press conversion would be to make up the profiles one needs out of light weight steel etc and fill the cavities with concrete - ??
Sounds like a Great Idea Garth. Cheers Mate.
So everyone I've talked to says that the bearings can't handle side loads (radial) because they are made to handle vertical loads for drilling (axial). The issue with this is that every drill press I've taken apart has typical deep groove ball bearings which are in fact made for radial loads and NOT axial (iirc deep groove bearings can usually handle three times as much force in the radial (sideways) direction so this doesn't make sense to me). Even so it's pretty easy to find matching sizes of tapered roller bearings to replace the ball bearings if one wished to make this type of conversion more effective.
Maaate......that collar thingy is the ‘genius’ solution I have been looking for, thank you.
Someone elsewhere suggested filling the post with metal sandblasting grit, whatd’y’think?
I’ve stacked some rare earth magnets down from the main motor body to an eye guard brace
to hold the Chuck down and it’s been solid. I have some of varying thicknesses to alter distances.
G'day Mate, filling the post would not have helped in my situation, my biggest issue in that area, was Flex in the Base Plate where the post mounts into. Bracing the Head of the Drill Press, for me, was a better solution took & works really well. Cheers.
@@TheAussieShed
Would you be interested in making one for me? (the collar thingy)
I’m from the, ‘you don’t know if don’t ask’ school of thought.
callrod@hotmail.com……I’m in Sydney.
Ok with a No, and/or cover all costs of course.
Great video, thank you.
I would like some help in deciding if a drill press i am looking at getting would be suitable to convert. How can I contact you ??. Thanks
Glad you liked it Andrew, Cheers.
Normally taper bearings or angular contact bearings are the best option for bearings. Really need bearings that can handle a side load.
Excellent! i'm trying to mill with an extremely heavy stand drill press , have an excellent cast iron proper miling machine compound table but my nemesis is the N 3 Morse taper which gets loose everytime, would appreciate a lot if you can show the design of you collar. thank you in advance your material is Superb!
I made a collar after seeing this. I cut a groove around the bottom of the spindle and another on the MT2 taper to match the collar. Now it cant slip.
@@russleggett3728 Tanks! good idea
If you want to make your base more stable can't you make a sleeve for your upright and fill the rest of the base with metal. Or you can take the base off of the press to make a sand casting and machine the new one it to fit properly
Concrete and brass shims. With enough of both of those you can turn a toilet into a CNC lathe/mill/ass scratcher combo. Technically, epoxy/granite is better but it's kind of expensive.
Bloody oath mate that's Fkn awesome! Great set up I'm now subscribed bloody heaps good 😎🇦🇺🛠
Bloody maaaarvelous!! (said this Pom in his best cod Aussie accent!). At last an accent that isn't a hillbilly Yank sounding like a character from Deliverance! AND the same drill press as mine! Can we have a Yank free youtube channel please? This conversion looks the dogs proverbials, I'm welding up triangular 40mm x 40mm box section to brace mine to the wall top and bottom as I type this... Now all i need is an affordable No2 morse collet chuck with affordable collets and end cutters.... Yeeeehawwww! (just to make all you Yanks feel at home!)
Hey mate! Did you end up making the video about the SCR-based DC motor controller?
Nothing like a Bridgeport. Heavy castings make for precision, ability to take heavy cuts. This is fine for home
Absolutely Jon, totally agree. Cheers.
These aussies diy machinist Demi gods
Are you going to make more videos on this conversion? I have an old Taiwanese import Drill press allot like yours that I am trying to convert and am really interested in how you hooked up the treadmill motor. Mine has a JT 3 taper to the chuck though, so not sure what the best way would be to prevent it from coming off under lateral load. I don't think I'll have enough meat to do a collar like you did, any recommendations?
Huh, I have the exact same drill press which I bought new in the 1980’s.
It cost around a hundred bucks.
me too!
This is a really great video on the subject. Thanks for taking the time. How come the set screws don't slip on the morse taper of the tool holder?
G'day Mate, the first part of the shoulder is parallel, it holds very well. Cheers Mate.
Hi, nice job on the Drill press conversion. How do you remove or reduce the quill play? I have a cheap drill press similar to yours and it seems to have excessive play of the quill to body of the drill press. I would think this would be an issue for this type of conversion. Thanks
Please consider getting a mini mill and rebuilding it like you did with the lathe.
Cheers
SOLID!
Nice to see this. Lance & Patrick.
How can I buy a collar similar to that one that will fit my Home Depot El Cheepo Ryobi drill press? Never mind I see now that it is just a pipe section. Still would be nice to be able to buy it. Maybe sell em on ebay? Video was very informative, thanks!
Try starting with an old Shopsmith 10ER set up in the drill position.
Hi Aussie...I am not sure if you will answer anymore questions on the video. I am needing to mill 2 short 1/4" slots on aluminum 1/4" thick x 1" wide flat bar stock. I need 2 milling slots about 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch in length and going all the way through the 1/4" bar.. I will make a many passes as needed. That will be all I will need. I can't see spending a $1100 just to do 2 short runs. I already have a compound table but the drill press I have is to weak. Is the a drill press that could handle 1/4 aluminum stock? Or will I need to spend a $1100? Thank you
G'day Mate, If you drilled a series of holes along the proposed slotted sections, would your drill press then be able to form it into a slot with an endmill? It would be a lot easier on your drill press if it is only a light duty unit. A little thing like that would be easy peasy with a bigger drill press. Cheers mate.
The ONLY serious drillpress to mill conversion I've seen! 👍👋👋👋😃The question is, has it payed off, financially, time spent and performance wise, compared to just finding an old original milling machine? Perhaps it has!? Also I'm thinking it's a project by it self for you?!
The base could possibly be strengthened with casting epoxi-granit into it? "Artisan makes" has done similar to a mini lathe and mill.
Personally I bought a small mill-drill just to drill and tap a few thousand holes with precision - without vibrations and run out - for a project at work. And then I brought it home. It now serves as a typical hobbyist's complimentary machine to my mini lathe. Motor is only 150W I think!? Anyway, only suitable for milling small model engineering stuff. A step up from the vertical milling atachment for the lathe. (The mill-drill cost about the same as a mini lathe.)
A bigger proper second hand mill could probably be found for about the same money, but handling a machine that weighs five or ten times more, is an altogether diffrent matter. (Same issue with the lathe. I was actually offered a big manual lathe for free, but it wasn't feasable to install at home. The company that bought it new, had only used it very little, and had no use for it any longer. I'll probably think about having turned the offer down for the rest of my life.😪)
G'day Mate, It really was a bit of an exercise just to see how far I could go with it. It started out of necessity as I needed to mill some small pieces of aluminium. It certainly paid off for me, as in it allowed me to complete some small milling tasks in house. Plus I really like dicking around with stuff. Like all of these type of things though, it doesn't take long to outgrow. I have a pretty decent Manual Mill Now, not a Benchtop Mill, but not huge. Whole different Ballgame, dicking around with the drill press was very helpful to formulate exactly what I wanted from a workshop mill. Without it i'm positive I would have bought the wrong Machine. Cheers Mate.
@@TheAussieShed Sounds like very good developement!😃 (The internet is really great - sharing experience and learning literally across the globe - I live in Sweden!)
[BTW: ....I LIKE THE HARMONICA MUSIC, TOO ]
First I have to say incredible conversion and great video. But if you could please help me with the type of end mill holder or chuck used. Would you recommend R8 size? I’m new to machining and just seeing your machine tapping threads was incredible. You sir are a day dreamer. Greetings from South America Quito Ecuador.
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”
Hi Andres, thank you for the kind words. You will need to match the receiver taper in your drill press. Mine was MT2.
So my chucks & collett holder are all MT2. If your drill press is R8 Taper then that will work Cheers.
Just found your channel. 👍🏻 I have just got a good treadmill motor to make a variable speed on my drill press.
What pulleys and ratio did you use on your drill press. Ps I might be trying to do the mill conversion on my pedestal drill press as well after watching your video. I was also thinking of making the pedestal out of heavy box to stop flex, what are your thought on that?
How did you build the collar ?
i tried to setup this same box. trying to figure out how to get the 12 volts for the rpm display. did you somehow get yours from the scr output?
G'day Jake, I have a 12v wall transformer from an electric shaver if I remember correctly, wired into the box for the 12v stuff. In some of the others I have done I used a small 12v transformer from ebay, Cheers Mate.
@@TheAussieShed that's kinda what I figured. Thanks!
On the collar you made to hold the collet holder in, how do the grub screws grab the taper to hold it in?
Subscribed! Gonna watch em all.
Curious what price point you would put this machine if assembled? Is there any existing machine that compares to it? I'm guessing $1200?
finally serious info
I will learn from you
Interesting, good job. I have a floor model heavy duty Powermatic that I want to convert to a milling machine. Need all the help I can get. Thanks
Indepth video on components for Drill/machine?
Hi, where can I find more of the drill press mods as I only see 2 videos?!
Thank you.
G'day Mate. Yes only the 2, but i'm due to pull it down soon, so hopefully some more vids will come from that. cheers.
Have you considered Epoxy Granite for strengthening that area to remove flex?
G'day Mate, yes I have thought of a few similar things such as that.
I feel it would definitely help, but i also feel more gains are to be had by adding further bracing to the drill head.
But of course that relies on having something to brace off.
Appreciate the input though, Cheers Mate.
Wonder if a palm router could be built into a drill press?
I made some one with some old pallets and a makita
Very nice job! How much did this cost you tho?
G'day Mate, pretty much nothing. The Variable Motor was free, pulled from a Treadmill out for Garbage pickup, the Motor Controller was about $20 in Parts. X Y Table & Vise I already had from my other Drill Press. The rest is just bits of this & that & time in Labour. Cheers.
@@TheAussieShed wow, good on you Sir! Too bad they don't throw out treadmills and stuff around here :D