Monday, February 10, 2014

My new drill press

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I finally assembled my new drill press that I bought a couple of months ago.  All the cool woodworkers have one so I figured that I should pick one up too.  I waited until they went on sale at Harbor Freight and then used my 20% off coupon and got it for under $60.  Its not the best reviewed one out there but all I want to do is drill some straight holes in wood so I think that I will be fine.  I spcifically bought the one with a chuck key.  I read a lot of reviews saying the one with a keyless chuck always seemed to fail over time.  Ive never actually used a drill press before so this is all one big adventure.

 New in the box

Still in the box

Kinda out of the box

Out of the box

I bolted the column assembly to the base


I then slid the table down over the column
 

I put the motor assembly on top and tightened the 2 allen screws on the side

 I nstalled the 3 feed handles next

The chuck came covered in grease
 
So I cleaned it and the key

I retracted the jaws all the way inside the key and slid it over the spindle

I lifted the table and put a piece of scrap wood on it (not pictured) and then
pulled down on the feed handles to force the chuck onto the spindle

It felt like I was going to break something when I pulled on the handles so the chuck
didnt seem to go as far on the spindle as I would have liked

So I layed it on its side, placed the scrap wood next to the chuck,and gave it a
couple of good whacks

It went on a little tighter that way.  From looking at the spindle assembly I still feel
like it should have gone up more
It was set to the highest speed so I moved the belt to the middle.  It has a handy chart
attached to the inside of the lid showing where to put the belt for the different speeds
and belt placements

I live close to a Home Depot but the Ryobi Forstner bits had a lot of reviews saying that
they were dull so I drove to Lowes and picked up som Porter Cable bits.  They cost almost as
much as the drill press.
 
I ran a test and the chuck didnt look like it was wobbling at all
 
I was kinda surprised at just how much sawdust this little hole halfway through
a 2x4 made
 
It looks good to me.  Now I can make the woodworking mallet from
WoodWorking for Mere Mortals.



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