I work on drill presses. This came up in my feed. You're absolutely right saying that one needs to start with a standard that's perfectly concentric. Not as easy as it sounds. To give an example, I went through a box of calibrated gage pins to find a handful that were concentric on the same axis as a press. Using a drill as a standard is like flipping a coin. Same goes for anything else that either isn't straight and perfectly concentric. I'm talking tenths, not thou. As an example, my own main machine - I have five presses - sees .0002-.0006 runout with a 1/2 Rohm Spiro chuck throughout its entire range. A NOS Jacobs 34 runs .0007-.0018 throughout its range on the same machine. It's important to indicate the full range of the chuck, not just a single point. Like you, I also polish the tapers. I have a bench buffer and use lightly abrasive compounds aimed at jewelers with a denim wheel. Once in a while, felt. Decent arbors are inexpensive; sometimes it's easier and ultimately better to install a new one. Same with polishing an internal taper, and that's where a Foredom TX flexshaft comes in. Then there's the play in the quill that needs to be taken care of, yadda-yadda. There's a lot to this, more than folks usually think. Same goes for indicating. As you'd mentioned, it's easy to gather an erroneous value. Imagine how that works with tenth indicators. A magnetic base is not an option; it's a necessity. Personally, I use Noga stands. I'd suggest turning the motor pulley for lower vibration. Really, one would have to write a novel to explain all this in detail and include every step. If you have a question, I'd be happy to post back. It seems like your audience works with wood, so having extreme accuracy and consistency isn't terribly important. A 1/64 is a bit over 15 thou, so a runout that 3-4 thou isn't such a big deal. Good luck.

Your thoughtful and well-illustrated videos walked me through the shopping, purchase, setup and initial testing of this same Rikon drill press. I still haven’t found the manual, so thanks for graciously sharing your expertise. Got mine new but already set up. Now I can work my way backwards to test it with a digital indicator as delivered - and if necessary - test it again after removing and cleaning the chuck. Also, 👍👍 for the hidden tutorial on how dial indicators!

Excellent! I am setting up a new drill press and learned so much from your excellent video. Thank you!

Thanks Kenny. I purchased this very model of the Rikon drill press and followed your setup video. This additional info was good to see as well. I’ll have to do the runout test later this week. I’ll need to seek out a dial indicator... perhaps. Not sure I’m overly concerned considering what my drilling needs are. I loved an earlier comment that another mentioned...” he was happy to have his drill press stay on the bench”. Cheers and thanks for your series of videos.

I have never tested my drill press for run out. I have always found that work pieces line up well during assembly. I never new that cleaning in the areas shown could make the difference. Thanks to this video, I will now check during normal cleaning and maintainance. Thanks for a great video Kennny.

Very informative video. I never knew that chucks are consumables and that replacing the chuck can resolve runout issues.

Good detail, and that’s how it’s done. We always want perfection but to have that you need to calibrate and check dial indicators and the loop never ends.

Thanks, that was useful.

The last few minutes of the presentation covered the other areas that could cause problems. Dust and grit on either of the sides of the jaws in the chuck is possible. Metal machinists and their machines are held to quite tight tolerances. But the blue print will always have a measurement plus or minus and X amount. If tighter tolerances are required that is where grinding and polishing come into play or in woodworking, sanding to the line. Shooting for tight tolerances on wood working machines is chasing your tail. The wood is going to move on its own due to moisture anyway so there goes your "perfection". Good video on using a dial indicator.

This got me to thinking about my old Delta 12" benchtop that I bought in '97, so I did the test. Surprisingly, I had barely .001 at the chuck and a little over .002 at the end of a rod 5" down from the chuck. The rest of the machine is rusty and beat up, but I guess I don't have to worry about runout. Don't remember if getting the table 90° has been in one of your videos, but would like to see how you handle that part. I need to get a new table and want to make sure that it's setup properly. Love your builds and Alt Tue as well - Chris

Hi Kenny, my drill press is so old that I am happy if it stays in the same place when I am using it.

You should look at the Nova Voyager variable speed drill press. Its a direct drive, so the motor does not hang out at the back making it more compact. Speed control from 50 to 5000 RPM at the turn of a knob. I love it. I considered the Rikon, but on further investigation read comments that it can make a lot of noise when cold, and since my shop is an unheated garage, this was a factor. The Nova is virtually silent.

The runout on my Bosch PBD 40 is absolutely insane. At first I thought it might be a "monday version" as we call it here in Denmark, but it turns out that, even though it is quite an expensive chuck, it is of quite low quality, and guess what, it is intended for hammer drills...

Kenny, hmmm, now I know why my drill press drills oval holes..lol. Seriously, good information now I will have to check mine out, never have. Thanks

Hi Kenny! Still liking your Alt-Tuesday shows. I have the floor standing Nova. When I received it, it was so bad on run out that I just filmed it and sent it to them and they sent me a whole new quill assembly. Just what you want to do, buy a new machine and then rebuild it. Now, when I am near the farthest the quill will extend I think the runout is still significant. You have given me the impetus to check it. And now is a good time since I am in the middle of doing the table with the gears and am just about to remove the old table from the drill press table so I will have the metal table showing. Finally, I am kind of wondering if the chuck itself while turning the key doesn't cause the 3 teeth holding the bit to perhaps throw the bit out of alignment. Only one of the teeth being say the first one to move could pressure it over a little creating your remaining runout. In any event, I am not anal retentive so I think your not worrying about this is the correct path to take. Regards, Bill

made me laugh so i thought i would share. My uncle looks at a part and said " Precision is not my name" . I will never be perfect but will always try.

Why didnt you mention the spindle? I measured my chuck and it was 18 thou. I removed the chuck and measured the spindle: 10 thou. Ive got two problems.

You could have knocked that quill out of the chuck and clean both the inside of the chuck and the quill where it fits into the chuck. That could easily knock off a couple of thousands.