Drill Press Quill Play - Help!

[TSquared]

Just purchased a Harbor Freight #39955 20" Production Drill Press. Had a 20% off coupon, so couldn't resist the price. Checking the quill play pushing front to back I get .006 (.003 forward and .003 back) and get .003 side to side.

Is this excessive. I can't for the life of me figure out how to take out the play. Looking at the exploded view, I don't see a split casing on this model with any type of screw to tighten it up. Any suggestions anyone?

Runout is ok at .002. The quill play is bothering the heck out of me. Am I worrying about nothing? Thanks.

Terry

[hoghead]

You are probably worried about nothing. Those numbers are about right for Harbor Freight quality. There will not be any way to adjust the quill play, it is what it is. It should work just fine. If it doesn’t your going to need to step up to a more expensive and higher quality unit. Even a good Clausing will have .002”-.003” shake on the quill.
I have repaired loose quills quite a few times but never on a Harbor Freight unit. The cost would be way too high. The only good way to do the repair is to remove the quill and hone the bore straight and round, then grind the OD of the quill, chrome plate and regrind the OD of the quill to match the bore. If you did all that work and didn’t install high precision bearings you would have wasted your time and money.

[kling8]

I agree you are worried about nothing, I think you are always going to have some run out with a drill press. Depending on your tolerances and application, if you have really tight tolerances I would use a different machine, bridgeport would be one.

[TSquared]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Maybe a home milling machine next?!

Terry

[Mike Nash]

I bought my drill press (Guardian Power) around 1980-81 out of the trunk of a car at a flea market. It too had more quill slop than I cared for. I finally crammed a piece (pieces?) of HDPE between the quill and the casting (inside the head) and have been happy with it ever since. I don't remember any of the details about how I went about it, but it was very low tech. And it worked!

[emperor_wu]

I have a similarly cheap drill press (traded a laptop computer that I got for $30 for the drill press) with gobs of play between the quill and head casting. I'd love to hear more about Terry's HDPE fix. I was considering putting in three long thing strips of HDPE running the vertical length of the cast sleeve -- each one third of the way around the circumference. Has anyone successfully shimmed their quill in the head of the drill press? If so, how'd you do it?