- Joined
- Dec 22, 2012
- Messages
- 328
I have to drill, c'bore and thread new VW heads for second sparkplug holes for a secondary ignition. I've built the fixture, acquired the tooling, made a pilot for the c'bore . . . and then discovered the fixture head is too tall for the minimill. No problem, I can also do it all on my 8" drill press, right? Nope, about 1/2" too short. Well how about the larger drill press in my son's shop? Tall enough, but the chuck is larger and interferes. Hmmmm, said bad words and planned on buying a new or used drill press. Then the Scotch heritage took over. I fired up the mighty HF 7x14 and turned a chunk of heavy wall scrap steel tube to match the OD of the little drill press column, and turned down 3" on the end of the tube to fit the ID of the original column. A decent press fit on the hydraulic press. All this increased the vertical capacity of the little drill press by 10", and the extension is rock solid. Problem solved and the price was acceptable.
Tom
Tom