Thread: Tool wear from non designed use

People will no doubt express an opinion on whether or not the horizontal force is enough to cause any extra wear. It would be difficult to be conclusive about it without some sort of testing though. People who use those gadgets will probably down play it.

For what it's worth, I have read discussions about using end mills in drill presses and the inability of the bearings to withstand horizontal force has always been listed as a reason not to do it. I don't know whether or not the horizontal force you put on a drill press by using a drum sander or whatever will ultimately cause more run out, but it seems to be that it might.

How's that for non-committal?

yep,
after a bit of use with sanding drums my chuck decided it wanted to fall out when it felt like it.
So I lapped the taper and don't apply side loads any more.

I was thinking it might be more of a problem with low end presses that use cheaper Chinese steel and bearings. My limited experience seems to indicate that some of that steel tends to wear from friction quite fast.

I've done some light milling of aluminium with my drill press and a cross-slide vise. I haven't measured the runout, but I detect no noticeable wobble. It's an old drill press, and should have experienced some wear; OTOH, it's probably more robust than current production, at least the cheapo stuff from the Peoples' Republic.

Joe

In 3 weeks I'm getting my Sherwood radial drill press. I would like to use drum sanders and something like the WASP sander etc...

But I might try using these on my cheap $100 drill press so that I don't harm my Sherwood.

runout can also be caused by tightening the belt pullies a touch to tight as it not just the lower bearings that go. So in looking at horizontal force check belt tension device also.