Thread: Drill press - wonky chuck?

A lot of the cheaper drill presses have a slight bellmouth in the spindle bore of the head casting. This is normally caused by either poor casting technique or machining the bore with an inadequate boring bar which springs or deflects as it works deeper into the bore. Ultimately, instead of getting a straight parallel bore you get a bore with a slight taper in it. To ensure that the quill fits at the middle of the bore, the ends are slightly oversize.

To test for this, feed the quill down until it is about 12mm from max extension, grip the chuck and try to wobble it with a circular motion. Any motion you can feel will always replect back to the bit when the drill is in use. If a unit seems OK at this point check at a number of points throughout the extension range.

The motion may not be obvious with the quill retracted or extended fully as in these conditions the stops employed will provide addition support to disguise it.

From my shopping experience over a few years, about 95% of the machines on display priced under about $400 have this problem. I have found three machines in the past 2 years that didn't, one of five at Carbi-Tec a month ago, one at a tool factor six months ago and one about 18 months ago.

Once you clear the hobby workshop range and get into the Industrial machinery class, the problem seems to disapear fairly quickly.

I would strongly reccommend to anyone considering buying a dp under about $500 to examine the unit being purchased before it leaves the store. Its a hassle, but its the only way to know what you are getting. If one unit of model x has the problem, it is extremely likely that all others of the model will as well, although the extent may vary. Therefore taking it back for exchange for another unit unit is unlikely to help.