Cheapskate Solution: Drill Press Too Short

[n3480h]

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

 

[great white]

Cool way to increase the usefulness of a small drill press.

 

[thomas s]

Good idea if you can please post some pictures when your done. thomas s

 

[rdean]

Did the same thing to mine a few years back when I needed more height.
Good job
Ray

 

[RJSakowski]

I made a similar modification but put an offset in. The 2-1/2" offset increased the swing to 18" and my working height by 7". I also added a spacer to bring the table out to match. It has held up well to over thirty years of heavy use.

 

[Cactus Farmer]

I just love it when a plan comes together............well done.

 

[n3480h]

Good idea if you can please post some pictures when your done. thomas s

Per your request, Thomas.
There are two of these bores located on the lower side of each head (on the pushrod side). The axis is a compound angle so that the plug and a plug wrench will clear pushrod tubes and hold down studs on the VW engine. With the plug holes drilled and tapped 10mm, I now have two plugs per cylinder. One set fires off a Slick magneto, while the lower 10mm set fires off a Dyna 5 electronic ignition and coils. The engine will run on either ignition, or both at the same time. We like redundant ignitions when we're cruising along at 150mph and 5,000 feet above the ground.

 

[thomas s]

Thanks for posting. Great job and yes I would want two plugs per cylinder also. thomas s