Help!! 10" drill press won't make clean holes!

[LX Kid]

I bought an older 10" Ryobi drill press that was hardly used and sat on the guys porch letting the collum rust. Ok so I know it's not a high tech drill press but for $50 it was worth it. (I have a drill press for the precision work.) I can't get it to drill a clean hole thru metal. I've adjusted the quill screw, put a new 1/2" JT-33 chuck on and leveled the table. When I put a 90 degree straight edge, on a chucked up transfer punch, I get about 1/8" gap. Tomorrow I'll pull the chuck off and set up a dial gage on the JT-33 spindle mount. Any suggestion what else I might try? Been making a tool tray this evening and just have to add a border so things don't roll off.

 

[addertooth]

Never underestimate the effect of a bad drill bit. Buy One really good drill bit, and do a fresh hole with it (using oil). If it still looks bad, then you likely have something loose.

 

[jwmay]

Put a bottle jack under the table. Use it to get rid of the gap. Leave it there.

 

[LX Kid]

Never underestimate the effect of a bad drill bit. Buy One really good drill bit, and do a fresh hole with it (using oil). If it still looks bad, then you likely have something loose.

Hmmm! You might have something there with that thought. The drill bit was new "butt" it was Chinese afterall. I'll try some good USA screw bits that I have. I always use cutting oil when drilling metal.

 

[tq60]

With drill bit in chuck and a square flat on table and against drill bit you see a gap indicating table is not 90 degrees to drill bit?

Which way is off?

Some have tilting tables and others not.

If tilted side to side can be difficult to confirm.

Get framing square, check to confirm square then check table to column.


You may have some looseness in the clamp that holds the table to column.

This may be shimmed with a soda can to improve fit.

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[LX Kid]

With drill bit in chuck and a square flat on table and against drill bit you see a gap indicating table is not 90 degrees to drill bit?
Get framing square, check to confirm square then check table to column.
You may have some looseness in the clamp that holds the table to column.

Very hard to determine a gap with a drill bit due to the bit's flutes. I checked the table to column and there is about 1/32" gap at top which tells me the table has a drop on the outer table. My clamp is very solid "butt" a jack on the outer edge could help as "jwmay" has suggested. I really don't need all this much accuracy in this drill press as it does fine for the reason I bought it. I'll use it on wood and an occasional hole in metal. I used a USA drill bit and it worked just fine. Chinese coated drill bits aren't that super accurate in my opinion. A wise man once said to me, "You pay less you get less!"

 

[jwmay]

Yeah I drug my drill press out of the shop when I got a second mill. I still use it some for quick and dirty applications, but otherwise it did nothing but make me mad.

 

[whitmore]

Very hard to determine a gap with a drill bit due to the bit's flutes. I checked the table to column and there is about 1/32" gap at top which tells me the table has a drop on the outer table.

So, it's not a spindle-to-column deviation from parallel, rather a table-to-column not perpendicular?
Are all (head/column and base/column) the joints to the column well tightened? Those were
assembled after shipping/unpacking by persons unknown.

The tram can be 'fixed' by building up the table with wood, and flattening the wood, or (maybe) by remachining
and/or shimming the table-to-column joints. Hand filing might be enough. Tram against the
table tilt can be hard to lock; I had to drill/ream/taper-pin the 90 degree position on mine.

Possibly, re-boring the table's column aperture would be appropriate. Or, reversing the column (if the
column is bent, you can move the bend to near-the-base). Check the column against a straight edge?

 

[RJSakowski]

It isn't necessary that the table of a drill press be square to the column. The table height is not adjusted during drilling. what is important is that the spindle axis is perpendicular to the table surface. A drill press can be trammed in the same way a mill is trammed. An off axis indicator mounted in the spindle and swept around the table surface will quickly and accurately determine any non square condition.

 

[tq60]

All of our above statements reference alignment which do nothing other than direction.

What do you mean by clean hole?

If drilling at an angle through stock then alignment is issue.

If the hole is not round then it is tool issue or bad spindle bearing allowing wobble in the bit.

Photos?

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