MILL FROM DRILL PRESS: It can be done!

Hey guys, this is an overview of my homemade mill and all the accessories that I use with it. If you wanna try this yourself, I'll be happy to answer any questions about the machine. Just drop a comment. I'll upload a video of me actually using it sometime in the near future
YES I know I need to replace the bearings, YES I know you shouldn't hold endmills in a drill chuck, but in complete disregard of these points, I succeeded. Ignorance is bliss. Thanks for watching!

[@jericochavez209]

This press has worked like a charm for my projects kzbin.infoUgkxajoEbapTfqWaadnqb04h6U576yxXp-FE . I didn't even secure it to my table top, mainly due to the fact that I was using a 15 lbs drill vise. It's not flimsy at all as to what others have claimed it to be. Make sure the locking nuts and levers are secured and there won't be any issues with light pressure and patience. I was able to drill through aluminum, plastic, and steel (steel took a while) with no problems at all. Yeah it took a little longer than a regular drill press, but I don't have the space OR the money for one.The instruction manual was worthless, but luckily assembling the press was intuitive. However, the manual would be good for ordering replacement parts if needed. There is a nice breakdown of the parts that are included in the kit. Before ordering, make sure it is compatible with your unit, it is clearly stated what models the press is compatible with.This was an excellent purchase for $40!!

[@genkidama7385]

this video blew my mind on so many levels. much respect, hope you continue beeing creative. it's when you lack everything that your brain starts working properly.

[@Tom-yc8jv]

So many things he did WILL get someone seriously injured, just because he doesn't understand the difference from drilling and milling. The DRILL shaft will not work as a MILL shaft and WILL drop out when being used and go flying around the shop at high speeds, if a sideways force (from milling) is used on a drill shaft.

[@buckylaine]

Glad I saw this. Brilliant idea to fix the x and y then convert the head to move up and down!!!

[@danvandertorre6349]

the bearings in the shaft are the next problem replace them with tapered ones that you can tighten down for no flexing.

[@MrTrekFanDan]

Cylo… (Just a thought, Instead of changing the bearings...) I know the bearings on a drill press are "designed" for vertical pressure , and not lateral/ horizontal pressures that may dislodge the chuck...ejecting it across the room, giving a whole new meaning to "fly cutter"....but, I'm considering drilling an +/- 1/8" hole perpendicular all the way through the entire quill, spindle and the chuck taper shaft out the other side....then inserting a "spring pin" (aka roll pin) that is recessed within the quill, but connecting the spindle to the chuck arbor...that would suffice in securing it, but also making it easily removable for future chuck changes...kind of like a shear pin...but for light duty. But First, I've got to get a press, change out the AC motor to a treadmill DC motor so I'll have much slower speeds for milling. ....Your thoughts...

[@jhbonarius]

Just my thoughts. I've been trying to mill aluminum on my bench drill before I realized this. Now I'm really worried about my bearings...

[@Tom-yc8jv]

You shouldn't have to swap out motors, since all drill presses have adjustable belt speeds on top of them. Unless you are switching between materials all the time. In that case, it would be better to just get a real mini mill. The roll pin will not work under milling stresses and will shear off in no time. If it did work, they would have been doing in the few hundred years that metal lathes have been around.

[@007connecticut]

30 years ago, I did the same to my drill press. I nearly lost an eye when the jacobs chuck decided it had enough. Do it right, get a real machine for side milling.

[@key948]

Can I have more details on how the drill head is fixed to the rack. Do you still use a more taper to hold the chuck, or is that modified too? Brilliant conversion

[@barnie171]

ive seen an old drill press made by " Sher " engineering in Australia in 1930's and 40's ( was taken over by Skil ) that had a handle beside the drill table and moved it up and down to drill . but there was no 3 way handle to move the drill bit down .they also made table saw /lathes .

[@jonathansimmonds5784]

I've watched a lot of these videos, a good one will tell you to use Morse tapers to hold the chuck/cutter but the best videos will mention that the bearings in a drill press aren't designed to take the sideways pressures of milling. Think carefully before you decide to do it.

[@genkidama7385]

omg you're such a psychopath !!! i was looking at cheap ways to do stuff, because living on a remote island makes everything imported 2-5x the original price, but it seems you already found everything yourself. man you cant imagine how much this helped me think through a lot of stuff, just watching this blue box of crap you disclosed at 7:45 made me realize how simple it was just to build a gear cutter or whatever tooling you would need. wow. im speechless, i've watched tons and tons of machining videos with expensive american tooling out of my wallet's reach but this tour of your bench just brought all these ideas i had flying in my head randomly, on the table. in fact with just some old chinese drill bits and simple crap holder you can make every tool possible to machine steel. what a genius. people on youtube are so proud to show their expensive tools, but i find the stuff you assembled together far more valuable.

[@philflip1963]

Looks promising but it would be nice to see it in action. P.S. If your Quill is a sloppy fit you could remove it and electroplate it until it's a good sliding push fit though as you said you have a screw to clamp it up anyway..

[@Tom-yc8jv]

SUPER DANGEROUS with a DRILL shaft in a MILL..!! A drill shaft is made for downward pressure ONLY and WILL come loose and fall out while milling with horizonal pressures!!! The shaft is only held in by tapper fit and any sideways pressure, while it is spinning, WILL make it fall out. Milling shafts are made for milling by the fact that they are bolted into the shaft with a drawbar!!!!

[@matthewmoilanen787]

I think you must be speaking of the Chuck not the shaft. The shaft is not just held on with a taper it's the chuck. Oh and mine is retained by a bolt up through the chuck as well so maybe his is held similarly. Kind of a low budget questionable unit though it appears to me. The vise is really even aligned to the head.

[@richardkenders5316]

This was useful! I have a craftsman floor drill press. 1. I like the way you raise and lower the head. I've been raising and lowering the table. I have a 3 jaw chuck and a rotary X-Y table. Mounted together they are quite heavy and my table tends to sag outward slightly on the bolt. I'm not sure how I can adapt your set up to my floor unit quite yet. You did lose the ability to rotate the table on the column. 2. Adding a couple of locking screws to the quill is so easy. I don't know why I didn't think of it. I've been using the depth ring to hold the quill in the up position, but that doesn't deal with any slop in the quill assembly. 3. I don't know where you got those slides from, but they are really nice! I use a $400 Wilton cross vice. If I have a piece of advice...get collet blocks. They are pretty cheap and far more stable than your drill chuck tool you use for indexing for cutting multi-sided parts.

[@anthonyortiz7924]

No spindle/bearing replacement? How is it handling the side forces?

[@Tom-yc8jv]

It doesn't..!!! What this guy did was super dangerous and can get someone really injured!

[@iwontreplybacklol7481]

@@Tom-yc8jv how is it dangerous? If you go slow and use shallow depth of cut on soft metals like aluminum and brass ect, a simple drill press should be able to handle that almost negligible side forces. The main problem is precision.

[@growleym504]

How do you secure the chuck in the machine? Really really really super really bad idea to rely on a taper fit, when milling. I have spent all morning looking forr a video showing a conversion that uses a draw bar and so far no joy. I found one guy who turns down and threads the spindle, for a threaded chuck, but I am really not super cool with that, actually. Still that would be better than just sticking the chuck up there and hoping it stays, cause it won't.

[@davegeorge7094]

I like your table removal, welding table ring to base mod..!!! great ideal just for drill press.You will need to drill 3.5" hole in workbench or bolt base over edge of bench. I found two winding in parallel in motor, added a DPDT, for energy saving widings in series because for solar power saving operation. Centrifugal switch need a 30ufd cap in series. Stock induction motor inrush was so huge a 2000watt inverter pooped out.

[@pauls5745]

but peeps say the spindle bearings on a dp can't handle side loading. how long would it last? I have a cheap Wen dp and thought if I just mill .040 - .050" per pass with a small bit, I might get away with milling some channels in 6061. I need to cut some cooling fins

[@baldrickscunningplan6154]

The bearings can handle side loading easily. Even if they wear out after a few years of use. They cost less than a tenner to replace them.

[@buder5116]

i would like a more in deep view/tutorial on that table mod :D

[@GrizzlyFab]

Sweet conversion! Did you add a drawbar or are you just running off a morse taper and hoping for the best?

[@Tom-yc8jv]

From how he was speaking in the video (could only hear it at 100% volume) he doesn't understand what a drawbar is....

[@danvandertorre6349]

put a rod in the drill press or a drillbit and pull down on the handle and look at the flexing, but there is a way to fix this the rod column is hollow replace it with a solid metal rod and make a thicker base for it and weld it on. good luck

[@kentdixon5716]

You never showed any milling, does that chuck vibrate loose when milling?

[@Bob_Adkins]

The Jocobs taper bore that holds the tapered shank in the chuck key is not suitable for side loads, and will most likely fall out in use. Your Mic could use an upgrade or 2, had to use the closed captions.

[@classicassassin9528]

Did you machine a new draw bar to take the horizontal pressure when milling ?.It is said that it is dangerous to mill with a morse taper insert.All videos that i watched on guys using drill press to mill,they dont show how the actual conversion is done eg removing the draw drill draw bar and inserting a modified one to take milling pressure

[@nifty1940]

excellent question.

[@cylosgarage]

normally thats what you would do. my drill press is kind of weird. theres no morse taper at all, only a JT3 taper built in on the bottom of the quill for the chuck, and it has a threaded hole in the middle to hold the chuck on from the bottom. ive never had a problem with it.

[@SebAstian-ld5vf]

I did a simmilar modification on my drill press, which is shown on my chanel. I fixed the morse taper with a simple srew which holds the taper inside. I used an additional bearing too and now i can mill Aluminium with a cutter diameter of 12 mm with a depth of 3 mm and more. With an 8 mm milling cutter, I can mill a depth up to 10 mm.Of course, my machine is a bit heavier (140 kg).

[@jafinch78]

Mine has a JT3 (Central Machinery S-987) also that I haven't looked into more if tapered or not. Other models manuals note the bearings being 6201's though one of the videos online shows a 5201 double roller being used and I did measure the spindle shaft which is .625" so makes more sense being a 5201 and not a smaller 10mm 6201 inner bore bearing from what I can tell. I'm still waiting back for a manual from Harbor Freight or to see if I can find the manual around here. Figured I'd work on and ordered the mini-lathe materials and will make that into the lathe and mill with a right angle plate and adapter to replace the compound rest/slide, some locks for the cross slide and carriage and a vise with a vertical slide like this: www.ebay.com/itm/Swivel-Vertical-Slide-125-x-100mm-Tool-Post-Milling-Lathe-Machine-PREMIUM-ATOZ/264137190423 I'll invest in the collet chuck and am wondering about installing on the drill too... though mainly thinking since I want to be able to machine components for the truck, car or whatever fabrication out of steel/titanium... I'll just upgrade the drill press to be more accurate. There is the tailstock Collet Chuck that I was wondering about drilling a threaded hole on the top to make a draw bar addition: www.ebay.com/itm/MT2-ER32-Collet-Chuck-Morse-Taper-Toolholder-MT2-ER32-Milling-Chuck-Holder-Tools/192734181071 Amazing the price!

[@jafinch78]

Something like this as I was thinking about since so cheap and not as large diameter mount plate... doing the same with mounting on the lathe spindle: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4OQhYagdrGkj5o Here's the mill conversion I was refering above with the 5201 bearing and I think a tapered bearing is the better as I ordered for the 7x10 lathe: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ7In3mteal5has Here's the bearing reference: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ7In3mteal5has Steve Jordan's KZbin channel has the ideas for the mini-lathe I'm using. Keep up the inspirational work! Looks like fun project you have going on.

[@thetruth5366]

Mag drill is more power than a drill press. Can you do it with a mag drill?

[@old_guard2431]

Very creative. Well done. (Except for the camera work. Got to lose the hand-held concept, my friend. Had to skip through a lot of parts because I was getting seasick. Bear in mind that in 20 years in the Coast Guard I never got seasick.)

[@BornSailor2]

Good idea but agree with John below - Turn up sound harley can hear you. Had to use closed captioning.

[@andpro8071]

Cool vid bro

[@Dread2x]

Great video

[@cylosgarage]

subscribe to dreadriver for epic fortnite montages

[@2010jshafer]

I would like to know how you did the table mod as well

[@CollegeHillFarm]

Very interesting thanks

[@johnbuob3480]

Turn your audio up next time you make a video. I have everything in my audio palyback up to max and can barely understand you.

[@iwontreplybacklol7481]

What a Cry baby

[@rustyshakleford5230]

Is that you royalnunsuch?

[@rolandbuckleyjr.4705]

I have commented on this before I am a tool &die maker for 50 years and this is the dumbest thing you can would not happen in my shop

[@WayneMarion]

Note to every poster ... record as loud as you can ... I'll turn it down if need be. I can't hear this video from three feet away.

[@louisfourie7756]

Please show all the angles

[@250-25x]

Very cool, I'll have to do a vid of my "conversion" I'm assuming the 1/2" x 20 thread is acting as your draw bar? I used R8 collets and re-threaded the quill mount on my HF unit. Have fun, G.

[@danvandertorre6349]

you can ask me for advice anytime.

[@donthit707]

Awesome video 🇺🇸

[@archimedes7436]

Would you recommend increasing the size of the motor?

[@cylosgarage]

torque never was a problem for me personally. This mod simply isnt rigid enough to take full advantage of the motor horsepower

[@archimedes7436]

@@cylosgarage im assuming thats a 1/4 hp motor...

[@cylosgarage]

Yup

[@baldrickscunningplan6154]

I stole this guys idea of welding the bench drill table adjuster to the base. Just completed my homemade milling machine. I am calling it "The Frankenmill". It is made from a Chinese drill press. A 500w cheapo hammer drill and the base from a plunge router. It is a Silverline power hammer drill and it is mounted into a Trend plunge router base and fixed to the top of the drill press headstock. I ground off the existing casting that houses the Pulley bearing and splined shaft. The standard 500w induction motor was removed along with the Pulley/belt drive system. I modified the quill to accept a 20mm Collet x 150mm extension holder (Ebay CL20 ER20 150L) and welded a smaller 13mm shaft into the end. This shaft fits into the power drill chuck. The Collet extension shaft is now direct drive to the hammer drill. I had to change the bearings from 12mm to 20mm. I am using a set of ER20 Collets to fit up to 13mm milling bits.The plunge router base allows the quill to move up and down whilst maintaining direct drive to the Collet shaft. The power drill has a variable speed trigger, so i can dial in different speeds up to 3200 rpm. I drilled and tapped 8mm threads around the quill and used 8mm Nylon Bolts that synch onto the quill to remove any play. I already had a Proxxon KT150 XY table mounted to the base of the drill press and a standard 4" drill press vice. It works an absolute treat. I can easily cut slots in Aluminium with an 12mm 4 fluted milling bit at 5mm depth cuts. The power drill is ideal and it is geared so i get a good amount of torque at the bit. It handles mild steel with the same milling bit. I might upgrade the power drill for a 710w version if i can pick one up on the cheap. The whole conversion cost me less than 20 quid.

[@mikebailes172]

Great idea, but not only is the audio too low, the constant motion of the camera makes me sea sick and I can't finish watching.

[@carlthornton3076]

Very Good!... #60 ✝ {6-25-2022}

[@jamesbrown-ow7xz]

might be a good video if you could hear it

[@wjhjr1415]

Sound?

[@lostfound8112]

nice video. ..I'm doing same

[@justinmorgan5282]

dank

[@ninja636se]

Can’t hear

[@Tnj8228]

Can't hear you. Your video is to quite

[@dustylivas799]

Jesus Christ turn up with a game on your microphone

[@pechimex934]

😢😢😢😢

[@davidwillard7334]

TOO !! MUCH !! BLAB !! BLAB !!

[@cylosgarage]

😎🤙

[@davidwillard7334]

@@cylosgarage BLAB !! BLAB !! BLAB !! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!!! BLAB !! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAB !!! BLAHH !!!! BLAB !!! BLHHH !!! BLAHHHHHHH !!!!!! BLAHHH !!!! BLAB !!!!!

[@paulbfields8284]

You are not very bright. You need to study how spindles are made. You simply cannot use a drilling spindle as a milling spindle. Putting an XY table on there does not a milling machine make.

[@cylosgarage]

Bruh 😂😂 savage

[@paulbfields8284]

@@cylosgarage no … realistic. I’m not one to pussyfoot around.

[@cylosgarage]

@@paulbfields8284 I love pussyfooting 😘😘

[@guloguloguy]

IMHO: YOU REALLY NEED TO REDO THIS ENTIRE VIDEO!!!!!!!! YOUR CAMERA NEEDS TO BE HELD MUCH MORE STEADY, AND MOVED S L O W L Y !!!!!!!!!! AND, YOUR AUDIO REALLY SUCKS, TOO!!!

[@cylosgarage]

Boo hoo