Thread: drill press height

That is a fair bit of weight to raise and lower. You'd need to rig up something like a hydraulic jack under the drill press. Depending on the amount you want to be able to raise and lower your drill press, this could get quite expensive. I imagine you would need to fix the drill press table to the bench so that it acts as a kind of stabiliser for the drill, with the drill column simply sliding through the collar on the table as it is raised and lowered.

As an alternative to a hydraulic jack you could engineer your own Easy-Riser type lifting rig like the one sold by Timbecon.

http://www.timbecon.com.au/details/e...kit-13394.aspx

You'd just need a counterweight matched to the weight of your drill press and some decent pulleys and cable.

Originally Posted by Tonto

gidday all I want to place my drill press and SMCS on the same bench but in such a way that the drill press "table" stays flat with the bench and I can raise /lower the drill itself. (make sense?) Any ideas please Tonto

The idea makes sense , but how to do it :confused:
you would have to fix the table and wind the drill up and down and the lifting arangement supplied with the drill would not be strong enough to do this, seeing as most of the weight is in the top of the drill and pedestall I doubt if the sliding collar that attaches the table would be strong enough either therefor you need to lift the entire drill from underneath perhaps remove the base of the drill and attach a ram and hand pump to the bottom of the pedestall , costly as the ram would have to be able to carry the entire weight of the drill plus the bending moment of the drill , then you would have the force when you are drilling as the ram would be under the pedestall not the table, all in all , it would be in the very hard basket.

Though knowing this forum someone will proberly come up with a quick and easy method

Rgds

You need to make up a bench or base for the drill that will slide up and down.
(rather obvious)
Use a car scissor jack to raise and lower the base.
Then adjust the drill table to where you want it at the time.

These units are readily available, I've seen them at Carba-Tec. The post and head are cranked up by a handle in the cabinet. By memory they were around $800 (?)

How strong is your roof structure ? What about an electric boat trailer winch to lift the drill?

Build a low bench for the drill to sit in and surround the base with a 3+ sided box up to the level of the bench. The 3+ sided box stops the drill from swinging around too much as it is lifted. Lift and pack the gap underneath the drill with sheets of MDF.

You might also be able to adapt an electric boat trailer winch to push/lift the drill from underneath. You could also use a manual boat winch but you would have to get a clutched version to stop it crashing down.

Originally Posted by Tonto

I want to place my drill press and SMCS on the same bench but in such a way that the drill press "table" stays flat with the bench and I can raise /lower the drill itself. (make sense?) Any ideas please Tonto

Hydraulics
Looking at the construction of a pedestal drill (or the bench top equivalent) the motor unit is pretty much fixed to the top of the column which in turn is fixed to the base plate. Assuming you plan on tossing the supplied drill table, you could mount the whole column assembly on a box which you raise or lower with a jack (my choice would be to mount the whole drill on a sissors platform, shorten the drill column so that a typical drill bit just touches the table when the quill is fully extended, then to increase the quill to table distance you aise he platform)

But the really elegant way is to convert the drill column into an hydraulic cylinder, then it's just pump or bleed to get the clearance you require.

However, there's a major disadvatage with this -- as the drill head et higher, to clear the work, the chuck gets further away and it's thus harder to change bits withoiut moving what you're trying to drill into.


ian

Hmmm this might be more difficult than I thought oh well onto the back burner it was just a thought. thanx Tony

Originally Posted by Tonto

Hmmm this might be more difficult than I thought oh well onto the back burner it was just a thought. thanx Tony

Its probably not that hard.
Make 2 boxes. One slides over the top oof the other.
Don't try and make the sliding box a precise fit, use an adjustable mechanism to adjust the play out and you get a nice sliding fit.
Put a jack between them and you have it.

I have a pedestal drill and the head has the ability to be moved up and down using the same principal as the table ie winding a handle attached to a gear. It is bloody heavy but can be very convenient. The drill is a gear head thing made in Switzerland a long time ago so is not available now. It was sitting in a workshop and never used and I bought it for $150, a bargain that I will never be able to repeat.

Bob
I've seen your suggestion of a box withn a box arrangement several times.
Do you know if anyone has actually built one to support the weight of something like a pedestal drill?

Building on the concept, it seems to me that the boxes should be connected by a set of heavy duty drawer slides to keep them properly aligned and to allow the movable part to slide freely past the fixed box.
What you seem to be building is a drawer and drawer case which you then stand on end.

ian

Basically you are building a vertical drawer,
But metal drawer slides will probably introduce too much slop in the mechanism. A box with laminate runners on the sliding surfaces will minimse friction while eliminating slop.

Melamine faced chipboard might be the best material as its rigid and basically inert.

I've thought about this and can't come up with a simple and accurate way of doing it. The column would need to be splined so it slides up & down but doesn't pivot, to maintain a fixed drilling centre? Clamp?
But how about fixing the drill press the floor (even better with a pedestal version), and jack up the table/bench for height ajustment, with the SCMS on it? The standard table on the drill could be fitted in, flush with the bench, so it slides up and down the column as usual. Involves some serious adjustment system, like hand-winched chain drive!!:eek:
Anyway, another one for the mix...

Cheers!