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22nd November 2020, 12:33 AM #1SENIOR MEMBER
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New Nova Viking Drill Press - Initial thoughts and an old Stanley 803
Ok spoiler alert..... WOW mind you I am coming from a very low base as you can see in the photos.
I had sort of planned to use mini mill for doing accurate drilling work but whilst it can be done I found I milling cutters always in place and it became a chore to swap over to a drill chuck plus the nice keyless chuck cost some height so I went searching for a drill press with a key criteria of electronic speed control and no belts ..... and we arrived at the Nova Viking.
So I waited patiently for stock to arrive in AU and then a few more weeks of "really do I need this" till again got frustrated with the baby Ozito not being able to drill through 45mm of timber.
Kudos to Carbatec warehouse for shipping the drill and the jointer I also got on the same day, lucky I have a business drop point with fork lift so didn't need to have a tailgate service and the gear was delivered two days later on Wednesday.
I cleaned up some of the bench.
One of the measurements that is not in the spec sheets is the total height, with the motor on top you need around 1150mm from the bench.
XB210251.jpg
Son brought it around today still strapped done to the shipping pallet and we man handled it off his ute and onto an outfeed table to unpack.
It is basically in three parts, base, main unit and the table, plus all the various spanners etc you need. You get a FULL size printed manual making it easy to read. The AU units also ship with the chuck guard and out of the box the drill will not start without it connected. Glad it was in place for the first spin up as the chuck shed excess oil that didn't get wiped off initially. I would recommend installing it just for this.
XB210256.jpg
This thing is HEAVY and top heavy at that so whilst it is possible to do it yourself I would highly recommend one to hold the top in place whilst the bolts to the base are installed, it's pretty stable after that.
Out of the box the head unit was not square to the base, it wasn't even close and I would have expected it to be better but two set screws on the right hand side loosen the head assembly and it's quite simple to line up after that. Went a little bit high tech and used laser level to get it lined up, more because it was handy and quick.
I had read that others said the table and the chuck were not centered but at least on this shipment and my unit the drill chuck is exactly centered front to back on the table.
XB210260.jpgXB210262.jpg
That is a 8mm hardened steel shaft reclaimed from a high end printer and is near as damn perfectly straight and round.
Checking the table and spindle angles, the table was 90 deg to the rod out of the box, didn't have touch it at all.
If you spotted the dial indicator in the second photo yes I did do a run out check. The first check was just a quick dirty on the outside of the chuck and it had around 0.02mm and then my son pointed out the obvious that the outside of the chuck was hardly the place to measure it so we chucked up the 8mm shaft and measured against that.
The needle on the indicator moved...... so little we check it three times to ensure it was in the middle of the range .... I would call it effectively zero right at the chuck, we then measured at the other end of the shaft, well past the 100mm distance in the spec sheet and got back to 0.02mm of runout on the shaft itself.
Those readings never changed regardless of the spindle speed.
We got perversely curious about this time and decided to repeat the exercise on the old Ozito..... the less said about the widely swinging needle about this time the better
So what don't I like. Quite honestly the only thing i'm not liking yet is the sheer height, i wouldn't give up the chuck the table, chuck to base distances to lower it but may serious consider building a dedicated base unit that drops the whole drill unit down 150/200mm, guess i like looking down rather than across.
The cross laser seems to be correctly centred but i'll check that better when i get a chance with a small spot drill.
I have yet drilled anything yet and suspect that i'll build a top for the table as a priority.
Just before we unloaded this from the ute, my son hands me the Stanley hand drill from a crate of "junk" he had been given for recycling and says merry christmas
XB210273.jpg
I thought if made a good time line contrast photo, the old with the uber new high tech and classic belt drive tech in the back
The Stanley No 803 seems to be in good nick and even had about a 2mm drill bit in it so seems to have been used right up to going in the crate.
XB210274.jpg
Summary: I do not regret spending the dollars and looking forward to using the Nova Viking. The cool techno features have been covered in the various youtube reviews so they have covered it.
I'll add notes to this as I use this to drill some holes in things, one of the first will be 6mm holes in 32mm tubing for pool steps, have the jig half made for this task.
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22nd November 2020 12:33 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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22nd November 2020, 01:58 PM #2
It is certainly the best value for money in drill presses under $2k. I certainly have no regrets.
I was going to buy a keyless chuck for it but in the end decided not to. I have a magnet position above the capstan and just hang the chuck key on that.
So far I have kept the guard on, but it really is a nuisance and I have plans to build one of these which is a guard in itself: Drill Press Dust Collection - YouTube
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22nd November 2020, 11:31 PM #3SENIOR MEMBER
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Thanks for the link to the video, that has given me a couple of ideas for a variation of that idea, need to draw it up in fusion for the rear section to be 3d printed and the front to be curved persplex magnetically attached to the back.
My guard is now off, it had already driven me to frustration yesterday
You can spot my chuck key holding solution in one of the photo's in the next post, basically just a magnet from a hard drive on the column.
Cheers
Phil
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23rd November 2020, 12:15 AM #4SENIOR MEMBER
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Today we built what is likely just the first of a couple of tables, the next one will be for holding longer workpieces. The one today is just covering the existing cast iron table.
Whilst i was waiting for glue up of the layers to dry i clamped up some temp fence and stop block and had a go at drilling out an air plant holder i had seen last night.
Timber : 40x40 section from a glue laminated 45x90 waste section over length/height is 60mm
Holes : 30mm through holes in the sides, 20mm in the top, drilled using cheapish forstner bits
45 deg bevel done on the router table ... cut before the holes drilled
XB220291.jpg
Features used on the Viking
Variable speed to set the correct speed... wouldn't have bothered changing belts on something else.
The DRO depth gauge to understand exactly when i was going to break through.
The self start function ... that is just awesome, but you need to remember to turn it off when setting zero depth
In making the table below, the bolts coming from below thread into screw in thread inserts set in the bottom of the wood layers. well the make believe MDF wood
The drill depth auto stop and reverse was used to drill an exact 16mm deep hole for the inserts. It did seem to stop 1/2mm short of the set depth. When i get a chance i drill some counterbore holes and measure the depth accurately.
XB220278.jpgXB220280.jpg
Just a close up of the t-nut style bolt holder under the table, these were used to mark the holes with everything upside down on the bench and then the holes were finished on the Viking.
I've just realised I checked for 90deg left and right on the table to the spindle but not front to back.
XB220283.jpg
The T-Track used is some i sourced from ebay and is 19mm wide and something deep, i honestly didn't measure it as i routed the grooves on the router table and used the track itself for setting the bit. The track is deliberately around 0.2mm below the surface to ensure things are pulled down to the table.
The track is glued in with 2 part epoxy.
This is one of those times were having a mill is a good thing, T-Bolts for track like this seem to be scarce or expensive, with just a little bit of time i removed 2.5mm from the heads of standard 8mm bolts and they are a near perfect fit and still slide well. Now for a fence and hold downs
XB220286.jpg
The sacrificial insert plate to go in the middle section is 80mm wide to cover up to the 65mm hole saw I do use at times.
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29th November 2020, 10:35 PM #5SENIOR MEMBER
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So a week on and quite a few holes drilled.....
The initial view it was too high just got more solid and i was going to build a mobile base but as I moved stuff to get space for the new bench an office desk draw unit actually seemed close to the right height and it was wide and deep enough.... just need some strengthening.
So whilst i didn't grab any photos the base got two laminated 16mm MDF sheets glued and screwed on providing vertical support for the sides, to spread the load out to new 50mm locking swivel castors these were mounted to two hardwood sections spanning across the carcass, putting the castors outside the load area of the Nova.
XB290304.jpg
The top got an additional layer of 16mm MDF glued and screwed to the old top, the base is bolted to M6 threaded inserts.
This puts the Nova around 180mm lower than it was on the 910mm high bench and consequently for me at least a lot more user friendly.
My most used feature is the auto start, it is just so simple, just need to mentally pause as the motor spins up to full speed.
I also find myself actually varying the speed setting.
Cheers
Phil
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