Mills are incredibly useful tools for a home shop, but even the cheapest units are around 800 bucks. But what if you don’t need precision down to the thousandth of an inch? We just need a rotating bit and X/Y control, right?Seems straightforward enough. Are you ready to watch me fail… repeatedly? Because this is Ten Tries.
Try 1
I have a $70 Harbor Freight Drill press, and I mounted an about $70 cross slide vise on it. I ordered some engraving bits from China, and they didn’t do too bad. The mounting was interesting, and I had to make up a couple mounting plates out of ¼” flat bar mild steel.
It works, but something is wrong…
Try 2
Apparently one of these screws was loose. They hold in plastic pieces called “gibs” which make sure the slides move with very little slop. After the adjustment, the machine worked so much better. It isn’t a perfect surface finish, but it can easily be smoothed out with a file and sandpaper.
The bit isn’t able to pull itself into the material like it did before and the surface finish is much better.
Obviously this setup cant move much metal and has its issues. For one, the chuck connects to the drill press with a tapered connection. There is no locking mechanism, so it won’t be able to handle much downforce on the bit. There is quite a bit of backlash in the cross slide, so it isn’t too easily controlled. And, the side forces on the drill press are likely not great for the bearings. Luckily, I’m not a machinist, so I will only be using this setup on rare occasions.
With that said, I’m pretty happy with how this tangent project turned out. I was able to fix a cast part that would otherwise just have to be melted back down. If you want to see more on the machine I made this part for, I’ll have that video up next Sunday!