Drill press milling vise?

T

tobnpr

New member
No room or need for a vertical mill right now (but perhaps down the road), but I could use a decent milling vise for the drill press. Primarily for some light wood milling (stock hardware) and precisely locating drill holes without spending minutes shifting/re-clamping the work.

I have a HF down the street and looked at their model- played with it a bit...and nearly ran screaming. It was as loose as a, well, you know...

Any suggestions that will offer reasonable precision, that won't break the bank?
 
I have a "Shopfox" branded one that I got at a local industrial supply. It's chinese but is pretty decent for the money and has served me well. I'd also check out "jet" tools. They are also chinese but probably the higher end and usually sold thru industrial supply houses.
 
I do not have a shortage of machinist vises, problem for most, 3 of them weigh 80+ lbs. each, that much weight could turn a drill press over and no one wants that much weight on a mill.

F. Guffey
 
I have used my mill ~ once a week for the last 10 years.

I have a 1963 Rockwell 21-100 vertical knee mill.

I got it off Ebay.
 
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A point against using a drill press vise for very much serious mill work is that a drill press is not made to take sideways pressure. It is made to drill, and its thrust bearing is designed to take straight line pressure. For some light work, a sturdy drill press will work OK, but under extended or heavy use, will wear off center and end up wobbling. A milling machine designed as a milling machine will be a lot better.

Jim
 
A point against using a drill press vise for very much serious mill work is that a drill press is not made to take sideways pressure. It is made to drill, and its thrust bearing is designed to take straight line pressure. For some light work, a sturdy drill press will work OK, but under extended or heavy use, will wear off center and end up wobbling. A milling machine designed as a milling machine will be a lot better.
Click to expand...

Or the chuck will fall off the Morse taper.
 
Instead of using you drill press as a mill why dont you get a mill and use it as a drill press? Avoid the trial and error and get your self a good vise from grainger, I bought two cheap ones just to find out they didnt do the job I wanted so now I use them as a third hand on the bench and my good one on the mill.
 
About the most you can mill on a drill press is wood, plastic, and soft aluminum. The chuck will slip on it's taper, which is most likely a Jacobs on that end. Either that, or the Morse taper may slip, but most of the time, it's the Jacobs, as it has a sharper angle. Most drill chucks aren't precisely centered either.

Another problem is the quill size, and the bearings. It is made to drill all right, but general drilling isn't that accurate. To keep it from vibrating, you need the quill all the way up, and locked.

Last, wood, and plastic require a fast cutter speed, so one would be better off using a router. That leaves soft aluminum, but I doubt you will get very accurate cuts on it, as there's generally way more runout in a drill press, and way more vibration.

The above is considering smaller shop drill presses, not the larger industrial versions, which are meant for machine shop applications. The ones from Delta, and others are really too weak to mill with.
 
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Look around for a used machinery dealer, auctions, ebay, craigslist and get a mill. If you find you must use a drill press than get a end mill adapter and dont use the drill chuck. http://www.shars.com/product_categories/view/4080106/Morse_Taper_End_Mill_Adapters
I had a few endmills laying around that had a MT ground right into them. I have since scrapped them because everything here uses a collet (R-8, Cat40, etc..).
Also run the drill press with the quill retracted and locked.
 
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