excellent. thanks for sharing.

Yep, I agree, without being able to hold various shafts and poles in a stiff status, then you end up with a limp noodle. The single largest problem with most drill presses is that they are all build on a round column.

This is the only drill press conversion on KZfaq that I've ever seen that worked! Nice job! Looking forward to the controller video!

Your setup is just great . I have a little rigid milling table and an old walker turner drillpress that i restored . I could not find any of the videos of other guys convincing enoug to modify mine . Yours sealed the deal so i am going to modify mine ! Your determination to make something work is really motivating . Thank you for sharing it .

great to see the various mods to make it handle a bit of milling. I think I will do most of the mods that you have done.

Very Good video I found out so far on youtube with clear voice explanation

Thanks for the great video. You gave me some very good ideas on how to solve a few issues I've had with my own mini conversion project. Very smart use of the calipers.

That drill press brings back memories looks exactly like a made in Taiwan one that I had in Sydney in the 90s.

This is the best drill to mill conversion! Thanks for uploading! I am going to copy all you have done! Cheers Mate!

Excellent work, I have the same drill press and the old Taiwan machines are very good. 10 times better than today's Chinese machines. You have put a lot of work into this project and I thank you for sharing it. Would love to see more.....

Mate..... you are my new favourite youtuber. That was awesome. Right on point with what I’m wanting to do. I have watched many a video on this conversion and you have not only covered it in great detail with no BS but you have done a quality job. Love it and looking forward to those individual videos on the separate parts like the collar for the holder etc. thank you 🙏

That was a very informative video and has given many of us a lot to think about. Hello from Melbourne.

Great video, just found you, I'm from Scotland, and intend to build a milling machine so you info is of great use

Super helpful video - valuable first-hand experience and clear explanations. thanks for posting! :D

I've done a lot of things to my drill press so I can mill on it. I still have some movement issues and you have given me some good ideas to do to improve it further. Great video...thanks! I have several large brushless inrunners. I think I'll do your motor mod, but I'll use an inrunner instead. I have a 3hp inrunner...that ought to do the job!

Nice "Mill Press"!!! Thanks for the video!

I love repurposed tools. I'm using an old wood lathe head stock to make a DIY surface grinder. Yours is the best DIY mill I've seen. Good job.

Great idea and video, you are the awesome Aussie engineer guy

Pretty impressive, Aussie Shed. Thanks for the video. Have sent the video link to a mate that's just picked up the same drill press, and is setting up his workshop. Cheers, Craig

Such a great and thorough video! Thanks for the great work and info!

thanks for this. i have a floor standing woodworking drill press of similar weight to the one you're using. applying the tips you've shared here will allow me to "bootstrap" my mini lathe (which i haven't yet purchased).

i like the depth gauge... it's something i've been wondering about. good idea.

Thanks for the spindle collar idea, I made one for my 30 year old Drill Press, looks much like yours. I used the heavy XY table also, I fabbed a bottom brace for the underside of the table . Have been able to fab some much needed parts in steel for my cheap chinese Mini Lathe too this is a very usefull addition to my shop. Thanks again.

Nice to see this. Lance & Patrick.

I would love to see more videos on this conversion, specifically any information or upgrades on the cross slide table.

Bloody oath mate that's Fkn awesome! Great set up I'm now subscribed bloody heaps good 😎🇦🇺🛠

Excellent video!! One point to consider for converting drill press to mill, if replacing the quill bearings, is drill presses have ball bearings which are limited in thrust, while mill machine lower bearings are angular contact bearings, which are much better for thrust. On my drill press (a Buffalo Forge 18) I found that I could get an angular contact bearing with the same dimensions as the lower ball bearings. It's worth looking into. Greg

That bar that makes the drill press top part rigid is the solution i've been looking for. Stealing that idea! :-) Thanks!

One great solution after another . Great video thanks from dublin

Great video..I've seen a few more worthwhile modifications..like a 80/20 sand/epoxy mix to fill in columns and base castings to dampen vibration / chatter..a car scissor jack to raise and lower the drill press table with just a turn of a handle..but the best was to dramatically stiffen the chuck head from sideways flex with a ball bearing fitted to the outside of the chuck then a sleeve on the outside of the bearing that then U bolts back to the column with a fitted metal spacer in between the sleeve and column..2 to 4 U bolts are used..making sure to tighten but over tighten causing flex back towards the column..the chuck usually needs to be fitted to fit exactly snug inside the ball bearing with some sandpaper or a lathe if available.. afterwards ZERO flex..I was thinking about using a old 10 to 18 speed bicycle for the gears and a shortened chain to replace the slipping belt and pulley system and gain more speed control and possible torque..also seen a old treadmill motor and controller used with great results..

I have a HF round column gear head mill that is basically the big brother to your rig. When tramming the tool to the table I use a 150mm cut off of 8mm rod from one of my 3D printer projects. The rod is totally straight and is easy to line up with a square.

Finally a solution to my problem, I have a very old Arboga milling drill, it is a beautiful machine but in reality I could never use it as a milling machine because the tool falls off every time, I even broke a gear because I pinned the arbor and the pin popped out. I think I'll put a collar like that one Thank you very much, greetings from Mexico!!!!

"That's not the drill, THAT's the drill" "That's a spoon." "I see you've played drilly-spoony before!"

1:00 yep that was savage and here is a thumbs up and a sub.

Bloody good video Mate. My BS Ometer never flickered once. On that basis its time to subscribe, so I did. Its nice to run into some one from my home town, "Smartsville". Your advice of " don't go fooling if you got sloppy toolin" holds to true. Hope to learn more from you Bro. Love your work. My pet bunyip & I are gonna have a cold beer on your behalf. Cheers Mate.

Well done !!!

Great video, thank you.

Was looking to send you a drawing of a dual cam bushing that I use to reposition bolts and shafting on conveyors after the bushing/bearing hole has been wallowed out. I also made a larger version for a friend to relocate his Pinon Gear closer to his Milling Machine Spindle Column. It had zero back lash in the gears to column afterwards.

Trevor, Excellent! A great overview of your conversion. As I mentioned I have most of the components already such as a milling table identical to yours plus a milling vice but it’s a bit different than yours. Mine is an import clone of the Kurt which gives super positive locking power to the movable jaw with the angle lock feature so it should serve well, especially after I enlarged the surface area so the thrust bearing on the screw makes full contact. (Import versions skimp on the metal on the jaw side allowing lap over of the inner surface of the bearing which over time will cause the outer rim of the bearing to fold over a bit causing bearing failure. ie:”Eddie the Grouch) Anyway I have a bit more modifications as my drill press is a floor model. It’s a seventies model Craftsman so it’s a super heavy cast iron model. I also have the treadmill motor though it’s currently powering my metal lathe. I originally had it on the drill press and was very pleased with its power and speed versatility. You are right about the flywheel that comes with these dc treadmill motors. The flywheel provides the needed torque for these applications. I tried it on the drill press without it and could easily stall it. Once I put it back on I had no worries on torque. It’s great you responded so quickly with this conversion overview as it gives me information I was needing to get started. Thanks so much!

Now you just need to make a power feed attachment for the table. You can use a windshield wiper motor or a small stepper. Banggood sells a $3 PWM controller that has 2 channels and will control a stepstick stepper motor driver and a NEMA 17 stepper. Use one with 2 shafts and there you go, Power and manual feed for under $30. Really makes facing jobs like that, easy. Some people just make a coupler that fits over the wheel hub and uses a cordless drill to power it. Really saves on the wrist action on those repetitive surfacing jobs.

Holy Shit Mate, this is an awesome video! very informative. I basically have the same drill press, but mine is a floor mount. But with video I know what to look for and what to beef up!!! Thank you.

Finally got around to making a that collar for an M2 taper ER32 collet. …easy as! As well as taking lots of steps to reduce all movement, re your ideas. All in prep for a light mill conversion as you’ve set out. The bonus, even at this early stage, the drill function has really improved. Ta mate. R

Anxiously awaiting more footage on the mill as well as the lathe. Thanks for sharing. Good content!

If you could find someone with a foundry, the cavity of the base could be in-filled with an aluminium/brass alloy to help gain some decent rigidity. The base may even act act as a "chill" plate, which get used for making castings with minimal to no shrinkage.

I have an old drill press head about the same size as what you have there. I was going to try to rig a light mill out of it....Now I will pass. You did a great job...well explained lot's of creative mods...However, I do not have either the skill or access to needed parts or money to build one. You saved me a nightmare project. Have you ever seen any of Dan Gelbart's videos? You may get some inspiration from watching them. A particular that video you may like is "Building Prototypes Part 15 of 18 mill and lathe"

You had me in the first 30 seconds! New subscriber. Might I suggest filling the drill leg with steel sandblasting media? I assume its hollow and this should help with any additional vibrations. Brilliant videos! Cheers.

You have had more thought than I had, I thought the overhead was a difficult, I will try it your way. Great video!!!!

This is a really great video on the subject. Thanks for taking the time. How come the set screws don't slip on the morse taper of the tool holder?

I have a 16 speed rexon tiwanese drill press that I used to do light milling in aluminum. Interesting solution to the taper dropping out during milling, I wish I could find a solution that did not require a Lathe. I ended up putting a small tack weld on mine in order to finish the light aluminum piece I was milling and left it that way for years. Though that tack may have introduced more runout in the chuck, hard to say because I only checked runout after the fact. +/- 5 thousandths if I remember right. I also have a really hard time with hole saws in the drill press which is causing me to try and improve runout and rigidity as much as possible.

Just found your channel. 👍🏻 I have just got a good treadmill motor to make a variable speed on my drill press. What pulleys and ratio did you use on your drill press. Ps I might be trying to do the mill conversion on my pedestal drill press as well after watching your video. I was also thinking of making the pedestal out of heavy box to stop flex, what are your thought on that?

You have the best drill to mill conversion I've seen, and I've hunted a long time. Yes I have done what I shouldn't have done - tried to run an end mill in the drill chuck - and it shook out. Fortunately it didn't do any damage. My bench drill is about the same size as yours and I would still like to try and do some light milling on it. The problem I seem to have is that the spindle has a male Jacobs JT 2-1/2. It's an old fashioned taper it seems, and there's no attachments available. I'm not even sure if one could get a JT-2-1/2 Collet fitting it would be safe to use. What I am thinking of is to take the quill out (replace the bearings at the same time) and to convert the JT2-1/2 taper to a 1/2"-20T thread on my lathe. The small end of the taper is over .6" so this could work. Then I can at least use a new standard 13mm threaded drill chuck. If I do this my question is -- can one get an ER25 collet chuck that has a 1/2' thread in the back? Are there other options you can suggest? It seems to me that I'm probably going to have to make the collet fitting/adapter to the newly threaded spindle.

"This type of milling vise..." "Hey, I've got one exactly like this one" "... it's shit" 🙈🙈🙈🤣

Pretty cool rig I would recommend a knee level E stop or even build a full width E stop bar

On the collar you made to hold the collet holder in, how do the grub screws grab the taper to hold it in?

Hi, nice job on the Drill press conversion. How do you remove or reduce the quill play? I have a cheap drill press similar to yours and it seems to have excessive play of the quill to body of the drill press. I would think this would be an issue for this type of conversion. Thanks

the tapmatic drill tap adapter will allow one to tap with a drill press safely if your drill press has enough horse power for the tap that you are using, I have tapped 1"-8 11/2" deep in mild steel in production line with tapmatic, good vid thanx

Interesting, good job. I have a floor model heavy duty Powermatic that I want to convert to a milling machine. Need all the help I can get. Thanks

Perhaps changing out the quill bearings for tapered rollers would help too. Maybe a few machenist jack type shims under the hollow base at the root of the column to aid rigidity also..You've inspired me to have a go at my drill press now. Thank ya kindly...B^ )

Tip,to square the quill to table.use a d t I mounted on an arm in the quill and a piece of glass on the table

Are you going to make more videos on this conversion? I have an old Taiwanese import Drill press allot like yours that I am trying to convert and am really interested in how you hooked up the treadmill motor. Mine has a JT 3 taper to the chuck though, so not sure what the best way would be to prevent it from coming off under lateral load. I don't think I'll have enough meat to do a collar like you did, any recommendations?

Excellent! You have inspired me to do some work on my drill press. Also, I really like your videos. Very well done and entertaining.. Keep on keepin' on my brother....

Very impressive....repuposing a machine to go to another spectrum is the way of the Ingeneur or as they're know an engineer.….. the height of ingenious applications. BTW....if you look inside say an ER 32 chuck with a Morse or parallel shank you'll find it's got a hole all the way through. With this you can stick the chuck up into the quill spindle taper and push a long cap head screw with a washer up the hole in the chuck to reach the cross slot where you normally drive the tang down with a drift. If you fit a round pin in the cross hole and drill a cross hole through the middle of it and then tap it to suit the long screw you can pull the taper tightly into the spindle by using a long Allen key up the inside of the tool shank.

I’m just getting to the pointy end now of my drill mill conversion and wondering if you ever did the update video you mentioned where you would give a more in depth look at your collet lock collar and spindle lock collar ? Many thanks 🙏

These aussies diy machinist Demi gods

Would love to see how you made the collar and the aluminum part for the quill and how it all goes together.

Subscribed! Gonna watch em all. Curious what price point you would put this machine if assembled? Is there any existing machine that compares to it? I'm guessing $1200?

finally serious info

question, with mini mills now costing around $899 range, is it still worth converting a drill press over a mini mill?

SOLID!

Just an idea if you go on to eBay you can get a milling machine spindle head with a selection of ether MT2-MT4 or BT30-BT40 or ER18-ER40 they have 5 ball bearings and is a bolt on ready to go and can use a drawbar with some modifications you can remove your drill press spindle and bolt one of these in its place and they cost around $100-$400

Hey mate! Did you end up making the video about the SCR-based DC motor controller?

the long way round but worth every step. a lathe is said to be able to build itself there is no reason a beefed-up drill like this one can't get you to an excellent DIY mill with a little research. the Germans, and you know them,i here told, have taken to building reinforce concrete bases and swear by the results. no one on earth more pragmatic about metal. the word anal comes to mind and i agree the heavier the better. the denser the material as well. where masonry and machinery meat is heavy and the very basic of anchoring it's parts Valhalla , i can hear the sharp ring of superb drawn sword steel now

How did you build the collar ?

know it been a long time, but with some manipulation, you could just simply make it operate right off the quil that takes all the lateral pressure of the quil and mills anything your motor size will allow you to and it all bolts to the work table/ ... essentially a quil driven mill attachment

Please consider getting a mini mill and rebuilding it like you did with the lathe. Cheers

Try starting with an old Shopsmith 10ER set up in the drill position.

First I have to say incredible conversion and great video. But if you could please help me with the type of end mill holder or chuck used. Would you recommend R8 size? I’m new to machining and just seeing your machine tapping threads was incredible. You sir are a day dreamer. Greetings from South America Quito Ecuador. “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”

Maaate......that collar thingy is the ‘genius’ solution I have been looking for, thank you. Someone elsewhere suggested filling the post with metal sandblasting grit, whatd’y’think? I’ve stacked some rare earth magnets down from the main motor body to an eye guard brace to hold the Chuck down and it’s been solid. I have some of varying thicknesses to alter distances.

[BTW: ....I LIKE THE HARMONICA MUSIC, TOO ]

Hi Aussie...I am not sure if you will answer anymore questions on the video. I am needing to mill 2 short 1/4" slots on aluminum 1/4" thick x 1" wide flat bar stock. I need 2 milling slots about 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch in length and going all the way through the 1/4" bar.. I will make a many passes as needed. That will be all I will need. I can't see spending a $1100 just to do 2 short runs. I already have a compound table but the drill press I have is to weak. Is the a drill press that could handle 1/4 aluminum stock? Or will I need to spend a $1100? Thank you

Just thinking about the need for serious rigidity. The Gingery Lathe was a big success and made of concrete, and possibly a cheap way to create rigidity around a drill press conversion would be to make up the profiles one needs out of light weight steel etc and fill the cavities with concrete - ??

Nothing like a Bridgeport. Heavy castings make for precision, ability to take heavy cuts. This is fine for home

Bloody maaaarvelous!! (said this Pom in his best cod Aussie accent!). At last an accent that isn't a hillbilly Yank sounding like a character from Deliverance! AND the same drill press as mine! Can we have a Yank free youtube channel please? This conversion looks the dogs proverbials, I'm welding up triangular 40mm x 40mm box section to brace mine to the wall top and bottom as I type this... Now all i need is an affordable No2 morse collet chuck with affordable collets and end cutters.... Yeeeehawwww! (just to make all you Yanks feel at home!)

I love the calipers as a depth gauge

i tried to setup this same box. trying to figure out how to get the 12 volts for the rpm display. did you somehow get yours from the scr output?

Wonder if a palm router could be built into a drill press?

Excellent! i'm trying to mill with an extremely heavy stand drill press , have an excellent cast iron proper miling machine compound table but my nemesis is the N 3 Morse taper which gets loose everytime, would appreciate a lot if you can show the design of you collar. thank you in advance your material is Superb!

Concrete and brass shims. With enough of both of those you can turn a toilet into a CNC lathe/mill/ass scratcher combo. Technically, epoxy/granite is better but it's kind of expensive.

How can I buy a collar similar to that one that will fit my Home Depot El Cheepo Ryobi drill press? Never mind I see now that it is just a pipe section. Still would be nice to be able to buy it. Maybe sell em on ebay? Video was very informative, thanks!

I made some one with some old pallets and a makita

I will learn from you

If you want to make your base more stable can't you make a sleeve for your upright and fill the rest of the base with metal. Or you can take the base off of the press to make a sand casting and machine the new one it to fit properly

So everyone I've talked to says that the bearings can't handle side loads (radial) because they are made to handle vertical loads for drilling (axial). The issue with this is that every drill press I've taken apart has typical deep groove ball bearings which are in fact made for radial loads and NOT axial (iirc deep groove bearings can usually handle three times as much force in the radial (sideways) direction so this doesn't make sense to me). Even so it's pretty easy to find matching sizes of tapered roller bearings to replace the ball bearings if one wished to make this type of conversion more effective.

Normally taper bearings or angular contact bearings are the best option for bearings. Really need bearings that can handle a side load.

no patreon voce ensina a fazer todas essas modificações ? sobre o motor é dc 180v ? qual nome dele só encontro motores de 48v

Hi, where can I find more of the drill press mods as I only see 2 videos?! Thank you.

Very nice job! How much did this cost you tho?

Have you considered Epoxy Granite for strengthening that area to remove flex?

haha..good job... im looking for a solution for same issue..

Indepth video on components for Drill/machine?