Gunsmithing Recommendation for a Drill Press

[rg1911]

I had been hoping to snare a nice used medium-sized milling machine, but after almost a year searching around here, none have materialized. So my next thought is a new (or used) drill press that, with a good machinist's vise, could do double-duty as a light milling machine. I'm not sure if the presses I see at Sears, Home Depot, etc, are sturdy enough to do the trick.

If someone has a similar setup, I would like to hear your recommendations/lessons learned/etc.

Thank you,
Richard

 

[Wannashootit]

They're completely different animals- especially the cheap Chicom big box retail drill presses.
Drill presses are not designed for lateral loads on the spindle. Far too much slop and you'll wear it out in a heartbeat.
If your needs are such that you don't require a full size machine, consider a "benchtop" machine such as that made by Little Machine Shop. They now offer them fitted with a DRO, a must-have on a mill...

 

[TC308]

Not to mention that the drill chicks don't hold an end mill very well at all. I wouldn't even bother. Look for a small mill, you'll be much happier with that as a drill press than the other way around.

 

[Waorani]

Echo the above. I started out w/ a floor stand Delta drill press and picked up a well used Bridgeport a few years later. I never realized how much slop there was in the DP until using the Bridgeport for a while. Now I rarely use the DP for anything. You'd be ahead of the game to keep looking for a mill.

 

[kengel2]

I used a drill press and vise thing from harbor freight to mill out some bedding and then clean up new bedding.

Had to go extremely slow and like the guys above said its not really good for the drill press.

It worked though, id never use it for wood or metal though. I think youd break the press pretty easily. For the fiberglass stock and bedding it worked just fine.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

 

[GottMitUns]

I would keep looking for a full sized mill. I have a good bench top mill that uses R8 collects that i am replacing with a Bridgeport next month because a knee mill is easier to work with IMO.

 

[rg1911]

Many thanks to all for the information. I'll continue looking for a used mill (can't afford a new one, unfortunately). I'll probably still need to get a drill press as a stop-gap measure and not try to mill with it.

Richard