Suitable/recommended Bench/Pillar drills.

[Simon Dunkley]

Get yourself a longer piece of steel bar, to replace the existing column, then.
You only need a couple of extra inches (ooer, missus!) to make all the difference. You will find out why you need this if you add a small machine vice to the coordinate table.

 

[mickoo]

Get yourself a longer piece of steel bar, to replace the existing column, then.
You only need a couple of extra inches (ooer, missus!) to make all the difference. You will find out why you need this if you add a small machine vice to the coordinate table.

Indeed I will, seem to recall you quoted 45mm dia somewhere? not this thread though.

Kindest

Addendum, TBM220 arrived this morning, fastest Ebay delivery I've ever had, dinky little drill isn't it!, column dia is 20mm so off to grab a longer length.

 

[mickoo]

Checking out the TBM220 and the head bearings are very firm so I'm wondering if it actually might be possible to mill out horn guides in 7mm loco frames, depth control is not required, just a gentle slotting action. It certainly looks and feels like it'll mill basic plasticard shapes, say Class 40 bogie side frames etc or windows in body sides? The KT70 is still not delivered so will play once it's all set up.

 

[Simon Dunkley]

Mick,

I fitted a 400mm long column - you could go up to 450mm profitably.

Dodgy iPhone3 pic attached:

 

[mickoo]

Simon, thanks, need one of those chucks too, is that the Proxxon one? Looks like it can go bigger than a 6mm drill.

Kindest

 

[76043]

Dear All,
Having just got a TBM220 and KT70 for drilling and very very light milling operations, I'm finding that there is no way to lock the quill down other than via the depth stop.

Has anyone devised a way to clamp the quill?

Cheers
Tony

 

[simond]

Tony,

I did the same as you, then sold the x-y table and bought the small Proxxon milling machine. I kept the TBM.

Probably not the answer you’re seeking...


Atb
Simon

 

[76043]

Simon, yes, you're right, probably. But as always, on reflection this morning locking down with the depth stop is surprisingly secure because all the parts are metal. I think I'll cope.

I only need to make very occasional simple milling operations, so can't really justify a complete milling solution. The use of it as a drill will get much more use.

Cheers
Tony

 

[richard carr]

Mick

As Susie says you need 2 drills to cover everything.

My big one is a Rexon RDM50B, the quill is 2MT so all sorts of chucks can fit easily, this is super solid and can easily drill a 20mm hole if you need to in steel plate, probably overkill but I have had for 20 years now and it's still as good as new set to 1500 rpm it drills pretty much anything from 0.7mm upwards. It was £150 back then.

For the small stuff the proxxon TBM 220 runs at 8000 rpm and can do drills down to 0.3 mm into white metal with ease, I don't use it much but for the small stuff it really is what you want.

These are drills and don't do milling, if you want to do milling buy a mill !

Richard

 

[Martin Shaw]

I would wholly support Richard here, any machine that is fundamentally a drill is inherently lacking in rigidity to successfully carry out milling operations, and personally I would include anything made by Proxxon whatever they may market and label it as. Money inevitably is a major part of the equation but as everyone knows buy the best quality tools you can afford, anything lesser is bound to disappoint. As some of you know I have what is by modelling requirements quite a large bench milling machine, which is in engineering terms quite floppy, I wouldn't want to subject anything less sturdy to the forces that can be generated by milling operations.
Regards
Martin

 

[76043]

Having used all sorts of mills in my professional life I would normally agree, a drill is a drill, not made for sideways movement and the bearings will be killed fairly quickly. But I'm only going to be milling mazak or plastic almost literally once or twice a year and taking just a few mm off. I won't be needing precision in terms of frame alignment so I think this will do.

Plus I don't have the space or back muscles left for anything any bigger.

Cheers
Tony

 

[GrahamMc]

......I'm only going to be milling mazak or plastic almost literally once or twice a year and taking just a few mm off. I won't be needing precision in terms of frame alignment so I think this will do.

Plus I don't have the space.....

I know what you mean about the space and limited need. This was my answer to a need for a small amount of plastic trimming. I started with a second hand Warco small pillar drill (£30), well worth it, decided I wanted an x-y table, tried an aluminium one, got rid of it. Bought a cheap chinese x-y table (£50). Very coarse thread so no good for proper milling. Decided to go all posh and added a DRO.....
Height adjustment is with the aluminium collar, the depth stop, various bits of scrap and some feeler gauges. An adapted digital tyre gauge is sometimes used on the other axis.
The elephant trunk at the back is to ensure metal swarf doesn't get drawn up into the motor. Normally the base of the motor housing is open but it needed to be closed off.
It's not milling but worth the effort for what I want to do.
The two pins at the back of the plate provide a guide when using my cheapy parallels, these being the two arms of an 11" engineers square I cut apart. Bodging taken to new lows...

 

[76043]

Wow Graham, the "engenuity" of your "mill" is really cool, I like it, even if you say it is bodging taken to new lows.

I'm not kidding myself that I have a proper mill, I know I don't, but for soft material milling, it will do.
Tony

 

[Brian McKenzie]

If using a drilling machine for any milling work, just be careful that the chuck doesn't drop out of the spindle when under power. This can happen all too easily where the chuck is mounted on any of the common taper arbours such as Morse - and also at the JT type taper fit direct into the chuck body.

It is side thrust on the cutter that causes taper mountings to fall apart. Chucks intended for milling work make use of a threaded draw bar through the spindle for security.

-Brian

 

[GrahamMc]

be careful that the chuck doesn't drop out of the spindle when under power. This can happen all too easily....

Thanks for pointing that out Brian, I should have mentioned it. This wouldn't be a sensible thing to do in a larger machine or if a real sideways load was put on it.

 

[Bonky]

Right at the -budget-but-good scale is this one:100080 Mini Bench Drill Press Fully Adjustable Speed 100 W 7000 RPM 6.5 mm

I've just bought one and found it excellent for small work, (so much better than trying to use a Dremel)

Regards,