Sunday drill party

[Dan0h]

Drilling has become the Bottleneck of my build process. Tonight is the night. Finally boxing the Lowballer, reboxing the Benson, finishing up a Snouse build, and doing a quick Stage3 booster in a baby enclosure.
Parts for the black eye won’t be here until next week so trying to clear the bench as the tubes are calling.

If I knew I would be addicted to building these magic boxes I would have bought a drill press two years ago.

 

[peccary]

I love my little $100 bench top Grizzly. I've been using it a lot more since I've gotten my lathe and it's been great. My only complaint is not having a crank for the table. It wasn't bad when I was just drilling boxes but I'm using it a lot more now and a crank would save a lot of time at this point.

Still, for about a hundred bucks I'm not complaining.

 

[Dan0h]

I love my little $100 bench top Grizzly. I've been using it a lot more since I've gotten my lathe and it's been great. My only complaint is not having a crank for the table. It wasn't bad when I was just drilling boxes but I'm using it a lot more now and a crank would save a lot of time at this point.

Still, for about a hundred bucks I'm not complaining.

I might have to look into this Grizzly.

I have one of these hand held jigs but it’s useless for drilling enclosures. Works ok for wood projects though.

 

[Deperduci]

I spent the extra $80 for this 1 home improvement store brand.. think this brand and 2~3 others come out of same factory just slap stickers on at the end of the paint line for who ordered. Anywho it has the aforementioned crank and I just got around to rebuilding my add on table for wood working. 2 things, that crank will save you headaches working on drill depth/height and really, make an add on table from smaller wood, like pine, poplar etc. framing and 2 to 3 layers of thinner mdf say 6mm/.25 in or 1 solid layer of 12mm/.5 in thick for when you have things that'll be slid around a LOT while drilling or using a drum sander bit or an already painted box you need a hole over THERE you forgot the 1st time . I also have this semi mobile fence that is looks like an unpainted measuring stick, a bolt in 1 end and a small clamp at the other. the blue arrow points at the hole I run the bolt through when I need the fence.

 

[peccary]

I'd certainly pay $80 for a crank!

 

[Deperduci]

oh btw, I got 1 with the 5/8 as opposed to 1/2in chuck, a work light you can see in the pic(the black tube on lower left) and an led/laser center aim point so it might be like 35~40 for the crank...
The old drill press which I got from my late father was liek 27 years old, quite ancient for certain power tools and was having a rough time with forstner bits... this baby chowed right through 1.5in/38mm thick block of wood.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

The old drill press which I got from my late father was liek 27 years old, quite ancient…

Sounds like a kiddo compared to my drill press. My grandpa got it from an old machine shop that was throwing it away in the early 1960s when he was a garbage man, and at that point it was already old af. 45-50 years later, I got it from him. I believe I dated it back to the early 1940s, pre ww2. It’s like 80 years old now and struggling

 

[Deperduci]

oh, you got a good 1, this was 1 of those $60 jobs you find in a, guess ya call it '2nd rate' store. where socket sets run maybe $10/8euros. a central EU/UK/US made press from before 1941 is 1 of those undying critters, like willie nelson and keith richards! hence 'certain power tools'. stuff made after 1980 has a shelf life, stuff made before 1950 has some warehouse full of spare bits in central Ohio or suburban Prague...

 

[HamishR]

Now that I have a drill press like this I quite enjoy drilling enclosures - it takes me back to my high school days where I loved metalwork class. Most of my friends thought there was something wrong with how much I liked metalwork but I just like making things and fortunately the things I make often look a bit like how I intended.



I think it's hilarious that it's one of those generic Chinese tools where the bulk buyer is asked what name they want to put on it. So this one is proudly called Detroit. I don't think it has ever seen the USA, let alone Detroit. But that's ok, it works fine and ploughs through whatever I put under it. Having the press has allowed me to get quite accurate with my cuts which is handy for some of the large-project-in-a-small-box things that I like to do.

 

[szukalski]

I'd certainly pay $80 for a crank!

I'll meet you behind the bike sheds..

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

I think it's hilarious that it's one of those generic Chinese tools where the bulk buyer is asked what name they want to put on it.

@fig Labs branded drop-shipped drill presses. When?

 

[Alan W]

I still visit my shop almost weekly, so when I do, I bring projects along with me. It’s overkill, but I use a Bridgeport vertical mill to drill my boxes. I have a jig that holds them in place, that I center on the table, and can then use the x and y readouts to locate the holes. (Yes, this is a level of anal persnicketiness, but with 40+ years of prototype machining behind me, I need to do things this precisely.) My wife jokes, everytime I’ve built a cabinet, at how you can’t see where the drawers are. After 2 weeks, I have to bring it back into the shop to make larger clearances. Who knew wood moves with humidity?