Mark,
I have a two hp mill drill which runs on 120 vac. If you get a "sturdy"
mill drill you can do some pretty heavy duty milling & it makes a super
drill press.
You need to get one which has about a 8" by 29" bed & most important, a
vertical column of four or more inches in diameter, for rigidity when
milling. Be sure to get a R8 spindle also. I have never come close to
running out of horsepower. You don't really need power table feed or
power quill feed or digital readout which would almost double the cost.
With floor stand & accessories it will probably cost one to two grand
but well worth it if you do much metal working. If you collect
additional tooling & cutters it will eventually add another grand to the tab.
Do an internet search for Enco, Grizzly, & MSC, industrial supply firms.
You will get a good education in the process. Check the link below for a
good home machine shop web site.
http://www.chaski.com/cgi-bin/machine_index.cgi
Dave Russell
"Mark J. Andy" wrote:
>
> Howdy,
>
> I posted a quick message about this the other day, but figured I should
> give some more info and some more specific questions...
>
> My teammate managed to bend the spindle on my old 10" benchtop drill press
> that I've had for like 10 years. Something about using holesaws in
> methods they aren't designed for in a light duty machine... :-)
>
> I've been wanting a "real" drill press for a while anyway though. Anyone
> got any recommendations, either of specific models / where to buy or
> things to look out for? I'd like something of machine shop quality,
> though I probably can't afford that. Ideally I'd be $400 or less, though
> there's a craftsman industrial drill press that's 2hp, has a 20" swing,
> has a 3/4" chuck, and just looks beefy as hell. Its also $650... :-/
>
> Seems like the "standard" home shop floor drill press is 3/4 hp, 17"
> swing, around $300 or a bit less. Would one of those do whatever I'd
> need? In particular, is 3/4 hp plenty, or would more hp be better?
>
> I'm using it primarily for metal (Steel & AL) drilling, with the
> occasional metal holesaw use to make rollcage mounts, etc.
>
> Related to this a bit... Do they make single phase 110 vac mills that are
> worth anything? Should I be looking at one of those instead? I could get
> 220 vac single phase to it if I had to, but it'd be kinda a pain. Three
> phase isn't possible. Every now and then I do something where a mill
> would be awfully handy.
>
> Any help out there?
>
> Mark
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/shop-talk
|