Drill press use to mill copper ?

[boy_gameover]

Hey guys ! i bought a mini drill press on ebay
5 Speed Mini Drill Press

* Chuck Size: 1/2"

*Table Tilts From 0-45 Degree

*Quick Belt Tension Release for Easy Speed Changes

*1/3HP Motor Spins @ 5 Speeds: 585, 1040, 1510, 2150, 3000



I also bought this vise


Can these things above use to milling these water blocks



The copper bar which i gonna mill ,its thick about 0.5" ,i also gonna mill aluminum bar about 1'' thick
So which Bits i need to buy and where can i find it . Thanks guys

[Geof]

Originally Posted by boy_gameover Can these things above use to milling these water blocks.......

NO

But I will expand on this:

The drill chuck is attached by what is called a Jacobs taper; it is simply wedged on. If you put a side load on this by trying to use the drill as a mill IT WILL COME OFF not immediately but it will, and you might finish up with a face full of spinning drill chuck.

The bearings on a drill press are not intended to take side loads and they have too much free play; if you tried milling in a drill press your cutter will wander all over the place.

The table is not rigid enough, the cross sliding vise is not rigid enough.

If your read somewhere, or where told it was possible to mill on a drill press using that vise I am afraid someone was misleading you.

[boy_gameover]

Originally Posted by Geof NO

So what do i need to buy to mill copper bar 0.5" . .I did waste money .Need help !!I don't know much about machine and tool . Please help !!

[LeeWay]

You may have wasted a little money if you paid more than $40 for it, but otherwise, its a very useful tool. I have a similar version from Harbor Freight and it's quite good at what it is designed for. Drilling holes. Some of these machines are better than others, but none are designed to mill, like Geof mentioned.

Depending on the quality of that little DP, you may wind up chuck dancing just trying to drill something. You may have to work on the taper to get it to fit or seat better. Maybe not. Mine was fine. I did have this problem on a floor model initially. I bought a nice taper shaft and keyless chuck for it though and have had no more trouble from it.


I haven't tried milling any copper yet, but I think it may be fairly hard. Harder than brass I think. I'm sure that depends on the grade too though.

Sherline may be able to tackle it.
Taig.
X1.
Maybe use a mini lathe with a milling attachment.
X2.

Are there some other little mills I am not thinking of? I am sure, but these I think are the most common.

[billystein]

Sorry boy,

Geof is correct. you need to buy a mill. you may be able to use the drill press to drill some holes so not a total waste.
look on craigslist and ebay and look for auctions. take your chances like the rest of us. lots of junk to get stuck with.
I suggest you make friends with someone who can look at the machines and tell you if they are any good.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by boy_gameover So what do i need to buy to mill copper bar 0.5" ......Please help !!

First: Forget about milling copper, it is a horrible metal to machine in either a mill or lathe even when you have years of experience and top quality machines and tools.

You want to make the water blocks; which I guess from your nom de plume and the picture are for cooling a processor so you can overclock it like crazy without it going up in smoke. Make them from brass; much, much easier to machione and the thermal conductivity is about 90% that of pure copper.

It is possible that you could make them on your drill press but it will need a bit of imagination. Your picture shows a block with U-shaped channel and what looks like a lid off to the side; I am guessing the lid solders on the top.

All you need in the block are passageways that let the water circulate from the inlet to the outlet; figure out a pattern of intersecting holes that would permit this. Drill these holes from the side and then solder cover plates on the side.

Before starting to drill blocks of brass get some blocks of mdf and experiment to test your hole pattern.

[boy_gameover]

I just only puchased the vise( before i posted ) ,the Drill press is not buy yet (thanks everybody) .This guys offer me this Drill press for 30$ ,i think it is same thing with the drill press i posted

Brass is tranfer heat lower than Aluminum and Copper .I found this link
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/th...ity-d_429.html
So if i dont buy the drill press above what things i need to buy for milling Metal
I have about $250 . . PLeae give me some advice to buy tool .Any tool can mill metal good .Thanks

[LeeWay]

Here is a little X1 milling machine, but I don't recommend you buy it without researching your intentions first.
The machine can be had cheaper from a local Harbor Freight store if you have one, by using some discount coupons that are sometimes available.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47158

This also doesn't include any or not much tooling. You can probably just buy the tooling you absolutely need, but first you would need to know what that is.

I am with Geof again on this. Design your parts around the tools and machines you have. Get creative with jigs and product design. This is exactly how I started out. Then when I had a viable product, I would upgrade the design when I had bigger and better machinery to allow me to do so. Even with a simple design, if you price it right and pay attention to detail and support it well, you will get sales.

Keep researching and the place to start that is here. Click on Forums on the top menu, then scroll down to something you might be interested in, like mills. Then read. It takes time for sure.

Welcome aboard, by the way.

[vladdy]

if you just want to make a couple of cooler plates, you 'probably' can use a cheapy drill press...
them two main drawbacks to the drill press are..
1] quality of cut / rigidity...not a great consideration for cooler blocks, brass is fairly easy to machine without larger loads required by cutting steel, etc, and a cooler doesn't need 0.001 accuracy in the channels, contact surfaces can be 'plate sanded' smooth,
2] side load machining, not recommended for any non-drawbar fixed tapered sleeve type of tooling,BUT, you can drill slightly overlapping holes, and clean up by hand [ or even dremel]...
if, however, you want to do this on a larger / professional / business scale,
forget what I said and get [as a minimum] a good quality mini-mill...

..enjoy..