Basics of pillar drills....

[jo1010]

I've seen a bench top Meddings with a mill style adjustable table for sale.......are these viable for the odd bit of light milling or not ( in say 16 guage mild steel for cutting slots). I've never thought of these before and always assumed that 'proper' mills are outside a budget of a few 100 quid ....My thought is that the axial loads are beyond what the drill can take....what's the reality though

 

[Redsailor]

Pillar drills generally mount the chuck on a taper and any sideways thrust generated by an endmill results in the chuck falling off. Been there, tried it in the past, now have a proper milling machine. The adjustable table you mentioned is probably just used to accurately position a job for drilling. Do you know how the chuck is mounted?

 

[Seadog]

You shouldn't mill with a pillar drill.
Having said that, I mounted a compound table on my Progress 2 and used it for light milling for several years.
You just have to accept the chuck dropping out occasionally if you overcook it.

 

[julianthegypsy]

The milling table is useful as a jig borer for moving a piece to drill multiple holes accurately. I wouldn't mill with it or you risk damaging the bearings as well as the chuck falling out.

 

[Agroshield]

...the axial loads are beyond what the drill can take...

Drills are primarily designed to take axial (thrust/end/compression) loads. It is radial loads with which they have difficulties.

If the spindle is hollow, you can install a drawbar (even M5 would be OK). It would need a threaded arbor instead of a tanged one. That would stop the chuck and cutter dropping out and slicing through your safety flip flops or tangling in your thong.

The challenge with a tang-less arbor is removing it from the spindle when finished, so have a plan and do a dry run before snugging up the drawbar (and it only need to be snug, not tight).

If the chuck falls off the Jacobs taper, an ER collet chuck on a Morse shank would solve that.

For slots, you can remove the bulk of the material using a series of overlapping holes. The stiffness of a stubby milling cutter (compared with a slender and long twist drill) and the solid positioning provided by the X-Y table (especially if you lock the axis after moving it) minimise side loading on the quill.

Effectively you would do only one or more light finishing passes moving the stock past the cutter.

 

[Smallfry]

You can pick up a proper milling machine for not a lot, its moving the thing that is the problem, plus the space.

I have a little Marlow mill. Not the best by any stretch, but it doesn't take up too much space and was cheap.

 

[Ian X]

Same advice as everyone else who posted. I have an Arboga U2058 that I only use to drill with but I allow the neighbours lad to use it for light end mill operations on alu. It has a large threaded collar to secure a 3MT Clarkson No2 chuck to stop the chuck popping out as soon as axial force is applied, it works a treat.
My Arboga don't have a through hole quill but perhaps if your Meddings does you could fabricate a drawbar and use that to pull in a threaded MT arbor. I don't know what the bearing sizes and combinations in a Meddings drill press are and you would probably mullah them sooner than with drilling but I doubt they are precision bearings so cheap enough.

 

[bricol]

I have done similar in the past with a cheapo Machine Mart style bench pillar drill - so cheap I had to brace the table as it flexed downwards under drill loads!

It worked pretty well - bearing didn't fail, the chuck didn't fall off, no animals or small children were injured.

Obviously not as good as even a small mill, but for what I needed, it worked well. Just made sure to clamp and guide the material well - it tries to exit the table in unexpected directions if not.

Used it as well to convert Lancia integrale 8v water pumps (cheap) into 16V ones (not cheap) by removing various lugs and reducing bolt hole bosses.

 

[jo1010]

Thank you gentlemen! Voices of experience ....lots to consider... and things I hadn't even thought of as well. With all that in mind I'll consider the meddings a little more and find out more about it...

 

[Seadog]

If the chuck falls off the Jacobs taper, an ER collet chuck on a Morse shank would solve that.

A MT will drop out

 

[Beanwood]

What you need is an old Atlas Copco !!
A drill, but with suitable bearings for milling...
Linky...

 

[Agroshield]

A MT will drop out

How many ER collet chucks on a Morse taper can you show me that have a tanged end to them? Please read the words in context: if the use of a drawbar is possible to restrain the Morse taper, the only other possibility that remains is for the Jacobs taper to separate. The ER chuck eliminates that possiblity.

 

[Seadog]

How?
How do you attach the chuck other then by a taper, which inherently suffers from repeated shock unless restrained by a draw bar?

 

[dave h 2]

Argo just referred back to a Jacobs style drill chuck which has 2 tapers MT and JT, which is also bad at holding milling cutters as well as a bit of run out.
Does the Meddings have a proper graduated cross slide or a simple cross vice?
If a cutter snatches (like when you breakthrough into a drilled hole) the chuck may well come out, though it can't really go anywhere, however it will damage the job as well as the cutter.

 

[6ply]

Same advice as everyone else who posted. I have an Arboga U2058 that I only use to drill with but I allow the neighbours lad to use it for light end mill operations on alu. It has a large threaded collar to secure a 3MT Clarkson No2 chuck to stop the chuck popping out as soon as axial force is applied, it works a treat.
My Arboga don't have a through hole quill but perhaps if your Meddings does you could fabricate a drawbar and use that to pull in a threaded MT arbor. I don't know what the bearing sizes and combinations in a Meddings drill press are and you would probably mullah them sooner than with drilling but I doubt they are precision bearings so cheap enough.

Hi Ian, I have an arbogo drill too. Great drills aren't they? I'm curious to see the threaded collar on yours as mine doesn't feature one. It's just the usual mt3 socket for a tanged drill.

 

[6ply]

How?
How do you attach the chuck other then by a taper, which inherently suffers from repeated shock unless restrained by a draw bar?View attachment 471962

Some while ago I saw photos of a homemade adapter used to hold milling cutters. It overcame the problem of solid spindles with no option to add a drawbar.

There was a small threaded component placed through the slot normally used to extract drills. The retaining "draw screw" was then tightened from below. A cutter could then be inserted and secured side lock style.

I hope that makes sense!

 

[brightspark]

You shouldn't mill with a pillar drill.
Having said that, I mounted a compound table on my Progress 2 and used it for light milling for several years.
You just have to accept the chuck dropping out occasionally if you overcook it.

and bending the spindle i wasnt milling but the chuck came loose put a new one on but there was a bit of run out i clocked it and put the old chuck back on and gave it a few wacks with a hammer till it ran true then fitted the new one with a bit of locktite the bearings wont stand up to sideways pressure and chatter badly

 

[dave h 2]

Hi Ian, I have an arbogo drill too. Great drills aren't they? I'm curious to see the threaded collar on yours as mine doesn't feature one. It's just the usual mt3 socket for a tanged drill.

The threaded collar is for milling, it's an Arboga special

 

[Ian X]

Hi Ian, I have an arbogo drill too. Great drills aren't they? I'm curious to see the threaded collar on yours as mine doesn't feature one. It's just the usual mt3 socket for a tanged drill.

Hi Ian, I have an arbogo drill too. Great drills aren't they? I'm curious to see the threaded collar on yours as mine doesn't feature one. It's just the usual mt3 socket for a tanged drill.

They are very good drills and heavy enough not to jump about when drilling 25mm holes through 1" plate. The table as you know is highly accurate and I doubt there are many examples in the field with worn sections on the lead screws.
For anyone wishing to use an inverter to drive from 240v single phase there is the question of which winding to choose on the Dahlander wound motor, the high speed or low speed.
The collar and "C" shape retainer seem to be the first thing to go missing, I assume the collar and retainer were included in the price of the drill and the Clarkson Autolock chucks were an accessory at extra cost. There must be a good few of those collars and/or the C retainer missing in the fleet of machines because there are drawings on other forums for the parts, they are 600 Group (hellish expensive) as spares from Arboga.
This YouTube video is a good explanatory

*edited for posting wrong video!

 

[jo1010]

Hmmm, I've thought around the chuck/collect problem with pillar drills ...and I've started to look at the cheaper end of mills (but not chinesium cheap)...Taiwanese products from the 70s or 80s seem to be not too bad as long as they've not been worked to death..I've seen MD30 models (eg. Warco among others) come up a lot under different rebadged names ...but they seem to have MT3 fittings - is this likely to cause issues under light usage I wonder?