[Gooserider]

Putting bigger/better bearings in a drill to increase it's milling ability is really not a viable option in most cases. Especially if you don't have a mill handy to reshape the bearing pockets (and if you do, then what's the point???) The problem is only partly the bearings, which are usually the best available for that application already.

The key problem is that the column on a drill press is to skinny to support the side loads imposed by trying to do milling with it. If you compare the column diameters of a normal drill press and even a cheap mill you will note that the mill column is probably at least 2 X the size of the drill press. This means the column flexes less, and puts less load on the bearings because of their bigger sizes. Also while both machines use bearings that must allow axial movement while resisting radial movment (up/down is OK, but not sideways) the mill bearings are chosen with more attention to handling side loads.

Gooserider