Milling with a drill press?
 

I'd like to use my drill press as a cheapie mill. Looking for a recommendation for where to find milling bits and a 2-axis vise that can be clamped/bolted to the drill table.


Thanks!

MSCdirect.com


Or for cheaper imported stuff, i have used Shars.com

Be carefull - most drill presses aren't built to handle heavy lateral forces.

I was going to give the same recommendation. You can accomplish light milling work with a drill press and a 2-axis vise, I've done it myself for a long time.

But like the Scientist says they're not really designed to handle lateral loads, they're designed to exert force on one single straight axis. There's a limit to material thicknesses and what you can accomplish accurately because things will start to flex as you side-load the shaft of the press.

As long as you don't load it too hard laterally you'll be fine. And don't expect absolute micro-presicion. But as long as you're not manufacturing parts that require very prescise fitting that won't be an issue either. Also bear in mind that you'll only be able to perform 2-axis work - straight cuts and angles are not a problem, but curved cuts are an absolute bee-atch...

I've done it with my drill press...but only in acetal and only small amounts at a time. Never tried with anything harder like aluminum...and probably wouldn't advise it.

Harbor Freight has the vises. Of course you get what you pay for, but if you'll only be using it for small things only once in a while...they carry a somewhat decent one.

Thanks for the info guys! "thumbsup" I won't be doing anything heavy duty, just thin aluminum plates that are too small to safely cut on my bandsaw. I was planning to use a sanding drum to handle the cleanup on curved sections.

You can get a small vice with x and y travel screws on it. Works just like a mini mill.

Ive done cutting board, delrin, and some really dense plastic with carbite bits, and router bits and i do curves and everything without a problem.

I'd say be very careful or don't do it at all! Like Mike says, a drill press is not designed for those kinds of loads. More importantly though, a drill press usually has a morse taper holding the chuck in.....not all, but many do. When they start vibrating the morse taper can let loose, and then you have a fast spinning hunk of metal with an endmill attached that wants to cut something.......it doesn't care if it's metal, skin or bone.

We had a guy here at work try to mill with the drill chuck in our knee mill. It loosened up and fell out. He wasn't hurt, but could have been. His part, the endmill and drill chuck didn't fare so well.

There was a discussion about this not too long ago here, but I can't find it.

it also depends on how great and big your drill press is, we have one at work that we can do milling with it takes longer but we can do chunks of aluminum and such, but its also a heavy duty drill press not something you would have at home in a hobby room lol:mrgreen:

Found it.

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...ht=drill+press

.

Beside the fact that it's not at all safe to try and put side loads on a drill press....it's allot harder or nearly impossible to be as accurate as a decent mill. Risk loosing a limb and/or poorly cut parts,not worth it in my opinion.

I'd rather have a itty bitty bench top mill over the biggest drill press you can buy."thumbsup"

I also found out the hard way.

You DO NOT want to put a side load on an end mill while holding it in a Morse taper holder. Sooner or later it will come out. In my case it was sooner rather than later!:shock:

I agree that milling with a drill press is probably poor. Doing so with only aluminum and plastics seems to be way better than steel.

endmills can be found here.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/products...99601094&Nty=0

Just be really careful cause I was milling plywood, makin' a sterobox for my car. I thought its just wood, it'll be ok....It weren't:-(.

Thanks for the link and the info. I'm glad I haven't spent money yet...I'll have to figure something else out.

Does anyone know of little (maybe bench top style) mill and where to get one?

It's been discussed ALLOT in this very section.....



http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/searc...earchid=805001

I know sorry I should of searched just looking through this thread and posted without thinking. But anyway thanks for posting that's a ton of info.