Hacking a Chinese drill press

[Marco Bernardini]

Just curious… is there some technical contraindication preventing me to flip the motor of my 350W 5-speed Chinese drill press, mounting it "pulley down" on the top of the drill head?
Today, trying to drill the usual "impossible hole" (in the center of a 30×30 cm wood table, having just 12.7 cm between spindle and column: :whiteflag: made by hand) I imagined a head like that of the Bridgeport, with some supplemental movements.
Wifey is dubious about that, but I showed her some Bridgeport J-heads, selling them as "early shop made hacks later introduced as production improvements". What a luck she's not fluent in English…:rofl:

With the motor on the top of the head I can make a sort of horizontal guide on the top of the column, to get some Y movement and, maybe, add some roll and pitch to the head.
What's your opinion (apart that I'm a bit :nuts:, but I know that)?

Marco

 

[John Hasler]

Just curious… is there some technical contraindication preventing me to flip the motor of my 350W 5-speed Chinese drill press, mounting it "pulley down" on the top of the drill head?
Today, trying to drill the usual "impossible hole" (in the center of a 30×30 cm wood table, having just 12.7 cm between spindle and column: :whiteflag: made by hand) I imagined a head like that of the Bridgeport, with some supplemental movements.
Wifey is dubious about that, but I showed her some Bridgeport J-heads, selling them as "early shop made hacks later introduced as production improvements". What a luck she's not fluent in English…:rofl:

With the motor on the top of the head I can make a sort of horizontal guide on the top of the column, to get some Y movement and, maybe, add some roll and pitch to the head.
What's your opinion (apart that I'm a bit :nuts:, but I know that)?

Marco

The motor certainly won't care, assuming it is reversible.

 

[cjtoombs]

I would just make sure that it's easy to change the belt, as you will need to change speeds often if you are doing step drilling. That's the thing I hate most about the step pulley drill presses, the constant changing of speeds needed and the fact that the belt tensioning on my HF 16 speed is crap. Good luck, and make sure your wife doesn't learn English, or you will be in trouble