Drill press into milling machine

[mariusmarius]

Hi everyone!
I have a small garage to spend my free time in afternoons. I have decided to use a common desk drill press and to transform it into milling maschine. I have read a lot of articles on internet about it.
If you have any ideas about this topic, please feel free and send them to me.
Thanks.
Marius

[Dirtinla]

also harbor freight puts these vises on sale every once in a while

Harbor Freight Tools Coupon Database - Free coupons, 25 percent off coupons, toolbox coupons - 5" RUGGED CAST IRON DRILL PRESS MILLING VISE

also for VERY small milling

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Multifuncti...19.m1438.l2649

If you have a lathe?

Let us know how it goes

-=Fred=-

[ncollar]

Marius
The idea of using a drill press as a mill has been around since the beginning of time. The spindle and the bearings are set up to cut in one direction that is down. Any side ways movement will do nothing but wear a bearing that is not designed for that. Not just that but the chuck will more than likely shack itself off. If you go forward with the idea make sure you have a good supply of cutters because the sizes you will be able to use are rather fragile.

[astroracer]

Agree with above. A cheap, desktop drill press uses the downward force while drilling to retain the collet/chuck in the quill. This "upward force" goes away when you try to side mill with an endmill cutter. Any chatter (and there will be chatter) will walk the standard taper drill chuck right out of the quill... A true mill uses a drawbar to hold the collet in the quill. It will not fall out at the first hint of chatter.
And, as ncollar also alluded too, the bearings in the drill press quill are not designed to operate under a sideways force.
Just so you know.
Mark

[hemmjo]

As with any machine tool the drillpress/milling machine will work ... if you keep its limitations in mind. All of the issues mentioned above; inadequate bearings, danger of the chuck coming loose, minimal cutter selection, etc., are very valid. With those things in mind I have used my old craftsman drill press to "mill" aluminum, wood and plastic for various projects.

The adapter I made for my lathe, similar to the one Fred showed in post #2 is much better, but the drill press was better than nothing before I had the lathe.

You got to use what you have access to.

I would love to have a nice mill, but I have to keep weighing the +'s and -'s of the mill vs the wife. So far, the wife is winning


Good Luck,

John

[master53yoda]

I did a write up on a drill press conversion that address all the negative feedback that is brought up about converting a few years ago. that thread is here
Homemade Drill Press Conversion - HomemadeTools.net

[ncollar]

Yoda
I did not say it was impossible but as I said have a good supply of cutters because of rigidity they will break very easily and the larger ones will take the chuck off the spindle.
Nelson

[master53yoda]

ncollar if you will look at the thread i posted you will see that i addressed ALL the limitations, i have used a 3/4 endmill on steel with no problems, I also use a a 2 1/2 face mill on aluminium all the time.
Art b

[Toolmaker51]

And for what we call "my 2 cents"; Drilling and milling are entirely different operations. Even heavy units struggle with side load. Not only are the bearings wrong orientation of contact, the upper and lower are too close together for stability of any kind. Second but just as severe, the round post everything mounts to. Milling wants rigidity; won't happen when the spindle housing is far up that post.
Now, you won't find anyone here against X-Y table on a drill press for coordinate drilling. The problem will still be size of a X-Y table compatible with a bench drill.

The variance in results, before and after my post, is due [in order of significance IMHO]
1. wide range of presses in use to attempt milling,
2. the backlash and gib adjustments of coordinate table,
3. cutter types,
4. speed [rpm] selections,
5. ability to manipulate a proper and steady feed rate.

[garage nut]

I tried it and gave up. It was just going to be for small slots in Ali. As mentioned I build "7" style racing cars, but even that turned out unsatisfactory even after drilling numerous holes in a line and just milling the small bits out. Also as mentioned the chuck falling out and breaking the little cutters

Watch E Bay it is a lot less frustrating.

Just my experience...