I,m wanting to convert my el cheapo drill press to a manual mill. This is the table I just purchased http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8750
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8750 and I,m attaching it to this drill press
http://www.toolprice.com/product/9102L
http://www.toolprice.com/product/9102L
I read somewhere that someone said the problem with using a drill press is that as you lower the spindle the shaft looses its rigidness. So my idea is to put something under the table that I can raise and lower the table without having to lower the spindle. So my question is,"is there any device out there that can do this ?" And " Is it a good idea?" Any comments are welcomed.

Hey zip, what about some scissor jack's? Otherwise you could look on,
www.micromark.com (http://www.micromark.com)

The most common means of rasing and lowering a drill press table is a rack and pinion. Take a look at floor model drill presses to see how they arrange it.


Tiger

Thanx Gentlemen for the replies. Scissor jack are too big and most rack and pinion on drill presses as you raise and lower them kinda wobble sideways. I need a jack that is flat, my idea is to have something roughly the same size as my cross table base and maybe only 2 to 3 inches high with a wheel handle that can lower it and raise it. Maybe have a 1/4 steel plate cut the same size as my cross table basewhich the base would be mounted to it. Underneath the plate would be 4 screw nuts roughly 2" long spread out evenly towards the corners of this plate. This would then be lowered down over 4 vertical acme screws(2") that are attached at one end each to a flat gear (1/4 thick by 2" diam). In the center of all 4 gears would be another flat gear with a bevel gear on top of it which a horizontal rod with another bevel gear at one end and a wheel handle at the other end. This assembly would sit in a steel square base. My only problem is I researched prices for the gears and for as much as it would cost to build this I can buy a mill just about.

Or if someone has a better cheaper idea, love to hear it

why not use a hydraulic jack? you can get a small hydraulic cylinder and then pump it up or release the pressure?

Yeah I,m considering that and also the scissor jack . I,m sure that I,ll end up fabbing something as the space that i,m needing to work in is confined. I need something that is only a few inches tall and can raise up just a few inches.

No the problem is that the tang will fall out of the taper every minute and ruin your part and end mill.

Drill presses are just not designed to take side loads.

for about 150 more you could grab a micromill from harbor freight small in size and ridgid enough

Yeah I know that but until I get the cash up for that this gonna have to do, I bought that milling table because for one my customers I have to fabricate some parts in hurry and that milling table was all I could afford at the moment. ANd I figured it would be cool to go ahead and convert it to close to a real mill. I plan to get a real mill in the future but for now I just want something I can practice with. And that still leaves me with designing and fabbing a z axis table, I mean does my idea make sense on the cheap side? I know there are many other people that come to these forums and ask the same question how to do things on the cheap and if I can figure a way to do it( along with the helpful input of you Machining Gods) and at the same time help other people in their quests well its worth it to start a thread like this one.

OK remember I told you, it's goanna frustrate the hell out of you when that chuck falls out and turns your part to scrap.


I did this exact same thing about 5 years ago, diddn't work for sh^%. Funny now that I think about it some guy told me it would not work and I diddn't listen.



The guy above has a better idea, save the coin and buy a cheap mini mill. It'll be a hundred times better.

Oh I can appreciate what your saying and agree with ya 100%. But let me ask you this? did you just add a milling table and then just lowered the spindel to mill? .... What I,m getting at, is it possible that by lowering the spindel and extending the spindel shaft that it loses its ridgedness therefore causing vibration to allow the chuck to fly off?

Dammit that mill is on sale http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47158
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices,
Had I known this was on sale I would squeezed the cash to get it

Strat you were so right dude, oh well hopefully it will still be on sale in about three more weeks, I should be able to cough up $259, Thanx for the replies guys, I was just tossin an idea out there thats all....

i bought one about a year ago same sale price then and been wondering when they would have it on sale again main thing with this is get the mill cheap and grab the arbors they have thier like $10 /each then it should be a good stable little machine i really don't work big stuff so this was just right for the stuff i do ....the other nice part of it is getting to learn a real mill so down the road if i want something bigger and better i have an idea of what i am doing with it

something else do a search on here someone said something about getting like 10% discount coupon from the site ...... every buck helps

ROGER THAT, Yeah I knew I should had checked out Harbor frieght out before I purchased that table. I had checked their site a week ago and it wasn,t on sale then. What kind of work are you doing with it? And if ya had a choice would you buy it again?

Damn, I didn,t realize Harbor Frieght is here in Florida and everywhere. Its killin me and business was good today so I,m in route tomorrow to pick up the Micro Mill. Even through I ordered the milling table I,m sure it won,t go to waste....

Ok update, I recieved the compound table. This thing is HUGE!! I definetly messed up somewhere I got the impression that this had a 6"X6" base (same size that I needed for my drill press base) and its actually 8" X 10 1/2". I clamped it down temperary. And will make an adapter plate in the morning for it. Yeah Nervis is right its not good for milling. Even through I will use it to mill the four parts I need. So yeah anyone else out there thinkin of converting a drill press to a milling machine give it up and purchase a real machine.