I am fabbing some old school batwings out of some split wishbones and want to cut a slot in the wishbone tube to slide the wings in behind the axle perches. Will the drill press hand the lateral stress if I use an end mill bit to cut the slot? I appreciate the advice...
I would think the drill press will run too fast. Good question, maybe someone with machining experience will chime in. Im curious as well.
I don't know what kind of drill press you have but most of the combo machines Mill/drill are just large drill presses with a X & Y table attached. so yes and no
It can be done. The bearings in the head of a drill press are much smaller than those in a milling machine. The spindle isn't designed to take much side load. This is what I would suggest. There are some small x-y tables available that can be bolted to the drill press table. I think Sears or Harbor Freight has them. I would get one of those, set your job up in it and cut your slot using the plunge method. That is, drill a hole at one end of the slot, put the end mill in the chuck, carefully align it with the hole and plunge it carefully down into the hole. Raise the cutter out of the hole move the table in x or y, about .010, whichever may be the case and plunge the cutter carefully into the workpiece. Keep repeating this procedure until you get the desired slot length. This method keeps the side load on the spindle to a minimum. I hope this helps.
I highly doubt it. At best the problem is two fold. For an endmill to cut well it needs RIGIDITY - something your drill press/table is very unlikely to have - the next problem is that the chuck is most likely mounted with a morse taper - they don't work all that well with side loads. Now of course if you were REAL patient you can definitely prove me wrong and make it work - but I'm afraid the final results will be less than stellar and your frustration level may be quite high. I tried doign some rather small "milling" with a drill press ONCE (once was enough) it was such a PITA. If you decide to do it - I hope your luck was better than mine. In the meantime - I would look into alternatives if I were you. YMMV
http://www.homestead.com/tool20895/jose7x10taig.html Here's a link for a video that shows how to do it: http://www.homestead.com/tool20895/VideoPrices.html He pours concrete down the tube of the drill press to make it more rigid, and epoxies the chuck to the Morse taper. This is a $89 cheapo drill press. Quote: Yes!!! You Can Mill on the Drill Press! [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]This video just had to be to done in order to show most beginning micro machinists (and even some not-so-new), that if you simply cannot yet afford to add a "real" milling machine to your shop, you can still perform just about every type of milling operation in the book by using a small to medium drill press after some of the special modifications you will learn on this tape. That's not to say that you should forego ever obtaining a milling machine. Instead, the goal of this video is to show you that you simply don't have to wait for years until the funds for that 1000-pound monster are raised. There are no special camera effects, cut-aways as work pieces are substituted. You will see the author performing the following: end milling, side milling, cutting shoulders, slots, slitting cuts, spot drilling, drilling tapping basic indexing on 5c spin jigs, and X & Y coordinate locating with wigglers and edge finders and much more! Shop made tools will be shown as well as construction information. You will also learn the simple but very effective tricks used to transform this 40 pound weakling into a capable milling tool. You will see the author's special micrometer spindle/quill feed, accurate to .001" and locking feature he built into this tool and how it is used. Don’t avoid those projects requiring milling. Learn right now how it was done and begin milling in less than a few days with the help of this new video. All in all, probably the best video on this very "taboo" subject of milling in the drill press! [/FONT] I have seen most of this guy's videos, including this one. They are pretty cool, as he shows how to do things without expensive equipment. They are very informative, without being too techno-nerdy. I have spoke to Jose on the phone, too. Good guy.
Are you thinking of holding the end mill in the chuck? If the answer is yes, then the answer is no. End mills have helical shape to the flutes that pull the cutter down.......It's highly likely that you'll pull the chuck off the taper. I'd find a buddy with a mill. Pat
Smaller,low end drill presses don't use a Morse taper, the chuck is screwed on.Some might be welded. Just because you CAN,doesn't mean you SHOULD. I've seen more than 1 drill bent drill chuck because of using it to hold an end mill. Now try and drill an accurate hole with a wobbling chuck. First choice,drill a series of holes in a line, and open up your slot with a file.Easier than it sounds. Scribe 3 lines,drill the end holes first,then slighty smaller holes in betwen.
i have a set of endmill holders that are morse taper and dont use a draw bar, there not the collet kind they just use set screws. i have only used them a couple of times and they did work, if i were you i`d buy an end mill and give it a try.
I have access to a Bridgeport mill at work, but when I need to cut a slot at home in steel, the way I usually do it is to drill a row of holes, then use a pneumatic 3" diameter cutoff tool, (or you could use a die grinder with an attachment to let you use a 3" cutoff wheel. If you need to make smaller slots, one of those cheap mini die grinders with the 1/8" collet and a tiny 1" diameter cutoff wheel work well to make small slits. You can cut most of the slot out with those, then use a machinist's file to clean it up or to square the corners if you need to. I think using a drill press will just bend the shaft of your drill press, if it doesn't just yank the chuck out of the morse taper first like everyone else mentioned. It sucks having a drill press with a bent shaft. Sometimes, if all you have is a hand drill, you can make slots by drilling a bunch of holes in a row, then use a junky drill bit you don't care about ruining and with the drill bit most of the way through the hole, rock the drill back and forth lengthwise to turn the holes into ovals, and eventually connecting them together. It's a brutal mad-dog way to do it, but it works if you're in a jam.
You might make it work , but not easily or well. I've tried using a drill press to mill some narrow slots in aluminun and it was a pretty iffy deal. You need a good drill press, cheap ones heve to much play which will make your bit chatter like mad. If it's a morse taper chuck it will pull the chuck loose. If it doesn't come loose at the taper it's still damn hard to get the bit to stay in the check-you can't get it tight enough. Having said all that you might as well try it if you want- there's no teacher like experience. It would be a lot faster to drill and file as suggested above.
I've done it. It wasn't pretty & I certainly wouldn't do it for anything remotely requiring precision - I was just carving down 2-1/2" spring perches to 2" for my '34 wishbones...by the time I was done, the cutter was well chipped from wobbling on my cheap-o drill press, but it worked...barely.
Do you or one of your pals own a lathe? You can mill on a lathe. With some, you need a milling vise. With lathes that have T-Slots in the lathe carriage you can clamp the workpiece directly to the lathe carriage and use the cross-feed to mill the desired slot. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One thing that happens when milling on a drill press is that the chuck arbor rocks back and forth within the Morse taper and the chuck and cutter will drop out which can either break things or spoil the workpiece. As noted, hard on the drill press bearings as well. Got any pics of what you're trying to accomplish?
No, no, NO and Hell NO! One: Few drill presses have bearings designed for side loading. They're all designed with an axial load in mind- IE, in line with the axis of the drill bit. The cheaper the press, the cheaper and smaller the bearings. Two: If the chuck is held in with a Morse taper- as most medium-to-large presses have- the twist of the mill can bite and pull the chuck and arbor right out of the socket. If you're lucky, all you'll do is break the mill. If you're not lucky, you'll break the mill, the spinning chuck will fall clear of the machine and stab you in the crotch with the broken stub of the cutter, after which it'll land on the floor and damage the arbor and chuck itself. Besides the inevitable damage to the piece you're trying to mill. Three: The typical 3-jaw drill chuck is not designed to hold the hardened shank of an endmill. It will walk on you, either pulling out or being pushed in. Either can result in damage to the mill bit, chuck and/or workpiece. Four: I have one of those cheap import X/Y tables. Trust me, it's NOT for milling. It's pretty good for semiprecise positioning to drill a hole- which is what I bought it for- but it's piss poor and sloppy for milling. Besides which, by the time you paid the cost and freight on that shit table, you could have paid a machine shop to make the same slot, and had money left over for some Superbowl beer and snacks. As the others have said, mark out your slot, and drill it with a near-net-size drill bit. Then use a cutoff wheel or 1/4" die grinder with a carbide burr to trim out between the holes and shape the slot. Anything else is asking for trouble. Drill presses are not meant for milling. Yes, some people have piled a bunch of time and labor into a cheap press to make a cheap and iffy mini-mill, but that's what they end up with- a cheap and iffy mini mill that's really only suited for occasional hobby milling on model parts. Doc.
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