New use for a seldom used drill press

[8ntsane]

This afternoon, I was in the shop drilling a series of holes in a tube a buddy brought in. It was a baffel that slips onto the exhaust of his motor bike. Im drilling away, and the neighbours 13 yr old kid come in the shop looking for my dog. She usually stands around and chats awhile, in chatting, she comments how cute that little drill press is sitting on the floor. I thought, yea, its cute all right, I havnt used the thing in a few yrs. Mean while , I using my tool post , side driller, and I have my spindle indexer set up, and my hand was getting a bit tired from drilling. The kid says, you should use that cute little drill press! I thinking what? Naw, then I cant index the rows of holes. The kid says why dont you attach it up there some how, and use it? (':nuts:')

Thought hmmmmmmm, ('') this kid could be on to some thing here. So I took the tool post off, Grabbed the drill press, unbolted the base, removed the table, and (':shocked:') WTF, this works quite nicely. Had it rigged up and drilling holes in like 5-mins.
I stood there drilling my rows of holes, grinnin away, thinking , why didnt I think of that? The kid says, see, its easyer that way isnt it?

Long story short,,here is the pics
Lesson? Never under estimate the youngin,s! (':biggrin:')













I got to looking at this after the job, and I think Ill rig this up so it can be layed down, so drilling into the face of items are also possible.

 

[8ntsane]

Nice job. Been there done that. I did it with a UniMat milling head. Yer stuff is tooooooo clean. Don't make me come there and get it dirty. ROTFLMAO

"Billy G"

2 - shop vacs keep the shop clean
I gotta keep it pretty clean, or the dog tracks in the house.

 

[8ntsane]

Bill
you got any pics of the unimat on your lathe?
Ive almost got everything I need to mount a J-head Bridgeport up on the headstock of the Sidney (':biggrin:')

 

[Redirish]

A clean shop is a sure sign of a sick mind. :whistle:

 

[Charley Davidson]

Kids say the darnedest things :biggrin: That's a really neat setup as is all your cool stuff

 

[Tony Wells]

Out of the mouth of babes! Nice idea. I'll plant another seed. Put a fly cutter, boring head of some sort of cutter in it and using low spindle speed, cut some concave "barbell" shapes, or mill some helical grooves, using a thread cycle. Of course, this assumes some sort of drawbar or mechanism to retain the chuck/cutter. Just thinking here.

 

[12bolts]

The kid says, you should use that cute little drill press!.....The kid says why dont you attach it up there some how, and use it?..... why didnt I think of that? The kid says, see, its easyer that way isnt it?

Actually I think you should maybe see if that kid is interested in carving up some metal. Far too many kids these days not interested in the hands on approach.

Cheers Phil

 

[Tom Griffin]

Paul, that is definitely a novel application of a drill press. I'm curious though, do you plan on putting more than one screw in the flange holding it to the compound, or is that one REALLY tight?

I'm definitely with Bill on this one. If my lathe was that clean I'd be afraid to make chips.

Tom

BTW, what kind of lathe is that? It has a serious amount of cross slide travel.

 

[8ntsane]

Ya Charley, your right, they do say what ever they are thinking at the time. Got me thinking a bit too. I was curious if this drill dress could be layed down, so I headed back out to the shop just to have another look at this amazing dicovery by a 13 yr old girl. I had a angle plate laying on the bench, and slapped that on the compound, and hey! it will take a slight bit of work to get this to work, but very doable. I would need to make another pinch clamp with 2-fasteners to make it ridgid enough, but thats no big deal. So I think Im going to machine up a new pinch clamp, and also a thicker wall tube thats much shorter than the original. The angle plat would need to be shortened, its a few inches to wide. I will also do drilling jobs on the face of items mounted in the chuck.

Here,s a few pics of it mounted laying down.










Tony
Oh I hear ya, but I allready have a plan for that. ('')
I have a Bridgeport J-head, and the round ram. This is eventually going to be mounted to the top of the Sidney lathe headstock. The only part I still need is the turret housing for the ram. Finding a round ram BP thats getting parted out is been slow going. I might just pick up a dove tail ram if I run across one, should be easyer to find. The head stock cover on this lathe is massive, and I have the room to just park a complete Bridgeport upper assembley, from the turret on up, with room to spare!(':yikes:') The lathe is over 4,000 pounds , and wont even notice a Bridgey sittin on top. The J- head is ready to go, 220 single phase, all freshened up. Here,s a few pics of BP in waiting.





When I do find a turret housing, this will be one big a$$ 3 in 1(':shocked:') , AMERICAN style (':biggrin:')

 

[8ntsane]

Paul, that is definitely a novel application of a drill press. I'm curious though, do you plan on putting more than one screw in the flange holding it to the compound, or is that one REALLY tight?

I'm definitely with Bill on this one. If my lathe was that clean I'd be afraid to make chips.

Tom

BTW, what kind of lathe is that? It has a serious amount of cross slide travel.

Tom
I had it on with 2-bolts to use it. But me being me, I allways clean up my mess after each job, and I just set it on for pics with one bolt. Can,t have a import drill press falling over and causing damage to my lathe(':shocked:') That lathe is a 1941 Sidney 14X30 , swings 17 over the ways, 10 over the carriage. These machines will reduce the diameter of round stock from say, 4inches to 3 inches, In 1 pass! One of the baddest chip makers out of Ohio.

I will be putting a full plate on the compound for future use, and bolt it with 4-bolts The crosslide travel is 16 inches, its got lots