Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

I notice alot of you guys build your own blocks and I was wondering if you all use mills or do some of you use drill presses? I just bought a press on e-bay for $16.50 :D Will this work to mill a simple block?

it depends on your design and the speed of the drill, but is should work if you go slow

also, be shure to use the correct bit

your drill press may work to "mill" your piece.... however the only difference between a true mill and drill press is horizontal loading of the cutting tool. A drill press is designed to mainly take vertical loading only, with minimal horizontal force applied to the bit. So you will probably rapidly wear out the (most likely sleeve as opposed to ball or roller) bearings. If all your cuts are vertical then you should be fine.

Tokamac

Thanks for the replies guys. The press is a 5 speed, 620-3100 RPM, so I think the speed is ok and by wearing out bearings do you mean from trying to push the material through the bit because I was thinking more along the lines of taking little bits of material off at a time just using the vertical motion of the press and then cleaning it up with a dremel. Would this work? Also I would like to know what size stock you guys use and some tips on soldering methods

Here's the link to the press I bought http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2048523926

yes that method should work fine (not pushing the piece, vertical drilling only, dremel finish up).... but don't expect the polished results like a spir@l or Maze, of course.

Tokamac

Thanks tokamac. Anyone have suggestions on stock size (copper, aluminum) and soldering methods?

Something I feel that should be mentioned with a drill press. The bearings in a drill press are not persision. Your results will not be as good as with a mill. You will also wear it out quickly as mentioned above.

But what I really have to stress is this. Do not try and hold the material with your hands. Get a good X-Y table with a very good vise. Keep your fingers away from the cutting tool. You will not be able to hold the material in your hands whil pushing against the cutter. Also in a drill press. It is highly recomended to use new sharp cutters. It will take some of the load off of the press.

I have used a drill press before and the results were far from my liking. And there are SOOOOO many safety issues that need to be addressed. I would always recomend using the right tool for the job. Please be carefull as I would hate to have someone hurt them selves. But it would be fun to make fun of ya if you did loose a finger! :) J/K

Is that why they call you Stubby in real life Fixitt

Seriously a drill press can knock the hell out of you!
take it from a guy who broke his thumb in wood working 101

fresno12

yea that drill press fitted with a good x/y table/vice using good bits should be able to do some pretty decent work. use up down cuts and slowly move the piece over slightly then go down again so you get a progressive chanel cut. and they it can be cleaned up further with the dremel tool if nessicary.

Yeah, it will work for starters, I made few block on drill press and x,y table with vise (that's a must) but I already notice that it become a little loose, like guys mentioned before It's just not made for forces in x,y direction just z , but you can definetly made few block for test, just look what have I done this way
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...&threadid=3211
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...&threadid=3617
But be carefull, especialy if you never work with metals, forces are great so injuries can be the same

Great thanks for the replies. I was thinking more along the lines of using the press just in z direction taking little bits of material at a time, but that x,y table sounds like the way to go. Is that what you used on those blocks morphling1 because those came out alot more presice than I was planning on. Do you guys have links where to get a good x,y table? Thanks again.

Edit: Fixittt, thanks for the concern and heads up:) I have worked in the construction field for a number of years and am experienced in tools, but machining, I'm sure will be a whole different deal. I will try and keep all my filangies (sp?) intact:evilaugh: I haven't lost one yet.:D

Hey, that's a nice drill press ya found there! Damn that's a lot cheaper than I thought they would run on E-rip! I was just wondering if anyone knew if you could replace the bearings in a typical drill press with some bearings that can handle the horizontal loading that standared milling would produce? Seems like there has to be something that could make it a lot easier... I don't know about you but $500-2000 is damn well overpriced for an overhyped Drillpress, er I mean "milling" machine, lol! That's basically all they are, drill press with differing bearing loading and usually better torque motors, anyhow cheers!

:)

You can do some really nice things with a drill press and x y table, just remember to have patience and how long it will hold up depends entirely upon how heavy duty the machine is.

I just got the same drill press :D (can't beat the price, and it's a decent press)

It's deffinately a LIGHT duty drill press and wouldn't hold up to any side to side motion. It should work just fine in vertical drilling like everyone has said.

J.C. Whitney has an assortment of x-y vices (cross vice) that should fit this press just fine. I plan to order the better one rather soon - http://www.jcwhitney.com/item.jhtml?...=19830&BQ=null

Yes, get a friend to hold the material.

I've got similar drill press and exactly same idea - wanna try to mill with it.

Can anybody post a link or pics to right bits for the job, also some "how to" mill tips & tricks ?

I can purchase some miling bits very cheaply manufactured by Jabro (Netherland I think). They look good, anybody uses bits from that manufacturer?

here's the pic... I got these three for 1$ a piece...

the bigger ones are 3 mm dia x 4 mm...

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

Your pretty close to Spokane, have you ever dropped by Harbor Frieght on Sprague? They have some cheap mills and milling stuff. Sometimes they have the X/Y tables to. Although as mentioned it is probably not a good idea to do that with a drill press. If you do though use aluminum instead of Copper as Copper will destroy that press. I get all my milling bits at Spokane Industrial Supply. The price is a little high but $4.95 for double sides HS end mills isn't to bad. Good Luck.

Hey jaydee. Thanks for the tips. I'll have to drop in to those places and see what I can find. I think I'll go with Can O' Beans idea and get an x,y vise from JCWhitney because as stated above the drill press won't hold up to side to side motion so I'll just use it in z motion to take bits of material at a time and move the material with the vise. If I prove to be decent at home milling I may pick up a non CNC mill this spring. What do you guys think about this one. http://www.dxmarket.com/micromark/products/82573.html would this work or is it too small?

Doesn't look like it would be easy to convert to CNC. For that price you should get one that is easily convertable. It would cost you about $1,000 to convert it over from manual to CNC. Here is a link to Desktop CNC mill injfo: http://www.desktopcnc.com/general.htm

For basic blocks you do not need to CNC as my mill works both ways and I done a few manually with just the hand wheels. Works fine. But the drill press alone should be able to put out plenty good blocks. This is the one I got here: http://www.acumotion.com/pro_mill.htm

All it is a is standard manual mill with a second party CNC converstion kit. Here is my mill before the CNC convertion: http://www.acumotion.com/mill.htm

Cool thanks for the links jaydee. Yeah I would definatly want one that could be converted to CNC sometime down the road, and it's not that much more than the one I found, for that matter it's not that much more than it is for a good drill press and x,y table so the mill would definatly be the way I'm going to go.

If you want to do Copper it maybe in your intrest to spend a little more on a bigger manual mill and then convert it down the road. The mill I got will handle copper but you have to run it real slow and make many extra passes to complete the channel depth. If I bought the mill just for WB I might have just got a big manual mill but I bought this mill for other things that require more precision that manual mills can do like PCB electronics circuits and carburator adaptor plates ect ect ect... Thing has endless uses. :)

Ok I just stummbled across this http://www.emachinetool.com/tooling/...800&Source=PTC It doesn't list the size, but it looks just like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1761747056 If so this will fit on my press. Ha score.

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

The Taig micro mill ( www.taigtools.com ) and the sherline mill are both highly respected.. I think harbor freight has a deal on their mini-mill right now, though, 260$ or something crazy. Specs are pretty damn good and reports are fair. Not sure if the HF model is CNC-able, I'm sure it could be (you could CNC your chair if you wanted to badly enough) but the amount of work involved could be "considerable"

I personally own a Taig lathe with milling attachment.

Also - a great place to find X,Y tables, sherline mills, bits, bobs, raw material - http://www.use-enco.com no affiliation.

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

Frag
Something people are not telling you, and they should be.

The forces involved with milling can be very high. You need to get a shield before considering any test milling.

I seen want aluminum can do to the inside of a steel encased CNC machine, when things go wrong, open milling scares the hell out of me now.

Safety first please :D

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

boy do I agree, like a grenade
I won't stand in front of an open machine

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

Yes, safety first. However, you can minimize risks quite a bit by proper setup and tools.

1) Work with high quality bits that are sharp and don't go too fast.
2) Secure your metal.
3) Make sure that your piece of metal isn't going to fall apart when you drill into it.
4) Really secure your metal.
5) Use coolant liberally when cutting. When the bit and/or metal gets hot and expands, it grabs and all that motor force goes somewhere. You really want it to not go into you via flying pieces of metal. Stop once in a while to let things cool down.
6) Did I say to secure your metal?
7) Always use safety eyeglasses and gloves.
8) Really make sure that your piece of metal is tightly secured.

That's what I was taught by some machinists. However, I'm sure that people like Jaydee could add more.

Remember, people regularly go to the emergency room after using these things. These machines are more powerful than several burly guys. So, think of them as a 500lb mean and nasty man in prison outfit who pumps iron every day and hasn't had his smokes in 3 days and you in tightly fitting blue jeans.

Re: Is a drill press ok to mill with
 

Id say old frag isnt around now, but the advice is still valid (look at the OP date)