What to look for in a drill press?

[Wild Bill IV]

We bought this baby out of Government Surplus through a dealer.

It might be a tad large if weight is an issue View attachment 1652807

What is the spindle travel on that machine????
RADIAL ARM DRILL??? THEY ARE AWESOME OLD MACHINES TO RUN!!!
I ran two 40" or 42" (radial travel) SUMMIT brand radial arm drills (set at 90° to each other) at a time in a hydraulic value manufacturing company!!! They were gear box spindle speed controlled and geared feed rates!!! I believe they were 15hp motors driving the gear boxes!!!

They had the quick couplers in the Morse Taper spindles tor running various tools in one clamping of the value bodies!!! Run a pre drill in 2, 4, or 6 different location by releasing the swing clamp and moving the head radially, once centered lock clamps and power feed the drill!! The power kicks out with an adjustable depth setting on the feed dial!! Unlock clamps, recenter, lock clamps, engage power feed!! Once all ports are predrilled, QUICK CHANGE to a form tool with/or without stopping the spindle, and form all the ports unlocking and relocking clamps while manually feeding the form tool!! Quick change to a tap, tap all the ports with reversing dog setup, backing the the tap back out of the port!! Drill, form, and tap 4 cast iron ports in about 3-4 minutes!!! The ports were various sizes of SAE or NPT formation and associated taps!!!
Values were made for heavy forestry equipment down to small lawn and garden tractors with agriculture and heavy equipment being the main market!!!

I see your machine has a sump and a pump for running coolants in the machine base!! If it was my machine, I would use oil coolants!! We switched to water based coolants and started getting mold and bacteria growth!!! Cleaning the sump in this condition was nasty!!! Plus, the growth leads to possible skin burns and/or irritation!!! Plus, the water and coolant additive tend to separate overnight!!

By the way, that is one mean looking bore bar in the engine lathe!!!
Looks like you could build small canons with that set-up!!!

 

[Wild Bill IV]

4 or 5 pieces of black pipe will do an amazing job of moving heavy equipment. When i first heard about doing that I thought they were nuts, until I started moving my Bridgeport by myself.

Heavy machine dollies are much safer than using old world methods!!! Saving fingers and toes!!!

 

[Wild Bill IV]

If you want new, look at the larger more expensive grizzlys. 20" and up, if you really want to go for it then a gear head press with power downfeed, tapping, etc.

If good used, Wilton, Clausing, powermatic, buffalo, walker turner, all good. and dont shy away from 3phase, a simple vfd will give you fingertip speed changes. Make sure you test it out first and everything works, no noise in the head. Runout on a DP, anything under 10-15 thou, its a drill press, is good.
Be prepared to pay though, I paid 800 for my used variable speed wilton, its a beast,

You left out the biggy and most used drills in manufacturing!! DELTA!!! Delta had lots of various attachments for there standard line up!! From multiple spindle drills and tappers, tap o matics, bushing guided reamers, plunge cutters like o-ring cutters, and high speed, small hole deep drilling and gear drive power feed!!! And, every now and then, you might find the 6 gang drills (table top with the perimeter coolant catch trough) with each drill performing a different operation!!! I have a small bench top DELTA!!! IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT, I BELIEVE THE DELTA "POWERMATIC" PRODUCT LINE USED THE VARIABLE SPEED DRIVE SYSTEM (Variable pulley configuration that can be made "on the fly")!! And, there is a company that is called Powermatic that also makes drill presses!! Kinda of confusing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I even have the old SEARS Craftsman hand drill and drill press stand!!! It still works, but you can't do heavy drilling with it!!! 1/4" drill is too much when drilling into 1/4" plate!!!!

 

[jackieschmidt]

What is the spindle travel on that machine????
RADIAL ARM DRILL??? THEY ARE AWESOME OLD MACHINES TO RUN!!!
I ran two 40" or 42" (radial travel) SUMMIT brand radial arm drills (set at 90° to each other) at a time in a hydraulic value manufacturing company!!! They were gear box spindle speed controlled and geared feed rates!!! I believe they were 15hp motors driving the gear boxes!!!

They had the quick couplers in the Morse Taper spindles tor running various tools in one clamping of the value bodies!!! Run a pre drill in 2, 4, or 6 different location by releasing the swing clamp and moving the head radially, once centered lock clamps and power feed the drill!! The power kicks out with an adjustable depth setting on the feed dial!! Unlock clamps, recenter, lock clamps, engage power feed!! Once all ports are predrilled, QUICK CHANGE to a form tool with/or without stopping the spindle, and form all the ports unlocking and relocking clamps while manually feeding the form tool!! Quick change to a tap, tap all the ports with reversing dog setup, backing the the tap back out of the port!! Drill, form, and tap 4 cast iron ports in about 3-4 minutes!!! The ports were various sizes of SAE or NPT formation and associated taps!!!
Values were made for heavy forestry equipment down to small lawn and garden tractors with agriculture and heavy equipment being the main market!!!

I see your machine has a sump and a pump for running coolants in the machine base!! If it was my machine, I would use oil coolants!! We switched to water based coolants and started getting mold and bacteria growth!!! Cleaning the sump in this condition was nasty!!! Plus, the growth leads to possible skin burns and/or irritation!!! Plus, the water and coolant additive tend to separate overnight!!

By the way, that is one mean looking bore bar in the engine lathe!!!
Looks like you could build small canons with that set-up!!!

We run Ridgid Black cutting oil in and on everything. We buy it by the 55 gallon drum.

Of course, in our machines that do incorporate sumps and pumps, such as our large vertical mills that we use to cut keyseats in shafts, it is re circulated..

 

[tobnpr]

Be very careful using a drill press for milling. They dont have a draw bar and when the morse taper comes loose you might have a chuck and end mill spinning in your lap.

And the spindles aren't designed for side-loading...

 

[Jayplace]

Heavy machine dollies are much safer than using old world methods!!! Saving fingers and toes!!!

I would agree that having machine dollies would generally be better than using 4 or 5 old school pipes to move something like a milling machine. If you use heavy machine dollies often, I would assume there would be a fork lift nearby.

The pipes still do an amazing job and the cost is almost nothing, probably have those pipes laying around.

 

[Walt Krafft]

My 3 man crew uses pipes in a chinese fire drill. Me picks them up and passes them to Myself while I push.

 

[jackieschmidt]

60 years ago, we moved heavier machines on pipe rollers and pry bars.

Now we rent some machinery dollys as need.

When they delivered our 38 foot American lathe, the three man set up crew had it off the truck and in place in about two hours using two huge fork lifts and machinery dolly’s.

For those that don’t know, this is what they look like.

 

[hpshooter]

60 years ago, we moved heavier machines on pipe rollers and pry bars.

Now we rent some machinery dollys as need.

When they delivered our 38 foot American lathe, the three man set up crew had it off the truck and in place in about two hours using two huge fork lifts and machinery dolly’s.

For those that don’t know, this is what they look like.View attachment 1655154

We always called them skates in the foundries I worked in.

 

[Wild Bill IV]

I would agree that having machine dollies would generally be better than using 4 or 5 old school pipes to move something like a milling machine. If you use heavy machine dollies often, I would assume there would be a fork lift nearby.

The pipes still do an amazing job and the cost is almost nothing, probably have those pipes laying around.

You can rent those dollies for very little cost!!! HECK OF A LOT CHEAPER THAN LOSING FINGERS OR TOES!! You don't need a fork lift!! Use levers and shoring blocks!! Pry up on the lifting points if possible!! Plus, try making a 90° turn with 5 pipes!! DANGEROUS!!!!

I was a machine designer!!! If the machine was fixed to a pallet, I allowed the maintenance crew to use 2 forklifts, as long as they carried the load low through the plant!! If it was lifted in, it went on the dollys, with the stipulation of steerring the dollys with rods, and watching the expansion joints and load shifting!!! NO FINGERS OR TOES UNDER THAT MACHINE AT ANY TIME!! I was responsible for anyone getting hurt!!! It was my A$$ on the line!!!!

Thank you Jackieschmidt!!! Our dollys were Blue!!!! 38feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those that don't know how they work, look at Jackie's pix, post 48!!
The top black disc is a slightly cupped plate with a trust bearing under it!!! This allows the dolly to swivel under load and not disturb the plate! The dolly is turned by inserting a rod in one of the tubes at each end of the dolly!!! We fashioned our steering rods so that a dolly could be pulled or pushed with a rod!!!!