Thread: New Drill Press Runout

Take it back if they can get it to run true then all is well otherwise you should go home with a replacement

It is common for a lot of Chinese drills to have a poorly bored spindle bore in the cast iron head casting. Often the bore is bell mouthed (larger diameter at the end of the hole than in the middle), which allows the quill and spindle to move horizontally in the bore.

A simple test for this is to feed the quill and spindle down part way and grip the chuck nose and try to move it side to side and front to back. You should not feel any movement either way at any degree of quill extension. If there is just walk away from that model, as it indicates poor quality control and machining caused by flexing of the boring bars used for the machining task and will occur on most units of the same model. The excess clearance will not be evident when the quill is fully raised or fully extended, as the quill assembly is pressured against stops in both these positions which tends to bind the quill mechanism and hide the problem. Haven't checked ther units for a couple of years as I lost interest in them, but last time I checked, the only CT unit that did not have the problem was their biggest model, 1.5 to 2HP with a very large table.

You may have a unit with the spindle taper not truely concentric with the outer diameter, due to poor machining or subsequent damage, but the poor machining is normally the cause of the problem.

thanks malb, did the test and found about 1mm when you extend the quill halfway down.

I will be taking this back to carbatec and seeing what they can offer me.

I have a wobble as well but I found it's coming from the chuck itself. Is the chuck supposed to have some play in it? When I tested it with the align it deluxe it read 7thou to the left and 3 thou to the right, when I took the chuck out and measured it against the shaft it was about 1 or 2 thou on both sides.

this is a problem with a lot of chinese drill presses in the lower end of the market
i bought one from total tools that wobbles all over the place but got used to how it works
with care i can drill a reasonably accurate pattern of small holes
it is not critical with woodwork to have a highly accurate drill press

many a day wisht i hadda spent more money on a heavier industrial grade machine -
i seen one at waughs for $1000 a few days before i bought mine - rock solid beautifully built machine
i thought poo to that price and bought mine for $300 in a box sight unseen - sad thing was i could have easily afforded it - i cant these days
i was pretty green when i bought it and it has taught me a lot about sizing up a machine before dropping my readies

I bought mine from Gary pye which I'm sure most of you know him, it isn't a low quality machine it's average a little pricy at $500 but at least it's made in Taiwan. I bought a new chuck from Nigel at the wood turners club a while back for the lathe. Anyway Nigel came around to have a look at the chuck that came with the drill. There was a lot of play in it and the jaws didn't close up evenly and were wobbly, unfortunately this is a low quality chuck that comes with the machine, we swapped it over with the keyless one that I bought from the club and the wobble although not all eliminated got down to less than a thou which is more than I can ever hope for.

if I ever buy another pedestal drill the chuck will be the first thing I look at. Happy days it could of been worse.

Hi guys just an update, ended lugging the machine back to carbatec and the next one was a lot better. Tested it out in the dock area and a huge thanks to Phil who helped with mounting the drill and letting me test it there.

next task is to build a table!