Subject: Request comments on Use of Drill Press as Vertical Mill

From: [email-masked] (Hortvet, Douglas Richard)
Date: 30 Dec 1993 10:59 CST

Hello,

As will be apparent from my question(s), I am not a practicing or experienced
hobby machinist.  Being in the very early stages of a project to scratch build
an O scale steam locomotive, I found in a Model Railroader article a discussion 
on using a drill press for light duty vertical mill work.

I would appreciate any comments offered regarding the pros and cons of this 
practice.  In the best of possible worlds, a Bridgeport 2J would certainly fill
the bill - but is not cost wise feasible.

Specifically, what would be the limitations of depth of cut, mill size, and 
other relevant parameters when using a drill press for vertical milling?  How 
would these relate to the dimensions of the drill presses' vertical support 
column? 

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Doug

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From: [email-masked] (Andy Dingley)
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1993 17:33:31 +0000

> would these relate to the dimensions of the drill presses' vertical support 

It's not the column thats the problem, it's the bearings. Drill presses are
designed for an axial load, milling generates large radial loads. Obviously
it depends on the design of the drill, but it really isn't a good idea. For
making 0 gauge engines, you're not going to damage the drill, but you will
notice a lot of play in the cutter that didn't appear serious for drilling
but does make a difference now.

I presume you have access to a lathe. You'd be much better off doing your
milling in that, rather than the drill press. Apart from some limits on
workpiece size, lathes make good mills.

   _                              Andy Dingley
 /  ) ' ,_  _,  /   _ ) _/_       Codesmiths of Newcastle
/_ / / / / (_) /_) (_)  /_        [email-masked]
          (_)                     +44 091 230 1695

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From: [email-masked] (James Kirkpatrick)
Date: 30 Dec 93 14:17:13 MST

One reason for a milling machine as opposed to a drill press
is that a real milling machine comes with well-calibrated dials
for X, Y, and Z movements.  On a drill press you only have a
coarse Z motion, and any X and Y motion is left up to your
ingenuity.  One solution is to use a vise that has X and/or
Y travel built in, but it will hardly be calibrated in
thousandths of an inch (or fractions of a millimeter if
you are metric).

As another person pointed out, radial thrust/flex is another
concern.

Some milling-machine tools might not fit well in a drill
press chuck, if they are designed to fit a mill spidle taper.

Milling machine beds have "T" slots designed for attaching
work in a fairly standard and flexible manner.  This might
be a problem on a drill press table, depending on the work
and what you have at hand for holding the work.

Jim