Member
Originally Posted by Myk Rian
Wow.......
I guess I'm not free to ask questions. I was just curious. Please don't ask the mods to shut down the thread, no need to punish the creator of the thread for your misinterpretation of my post. That's all we need anyways, is more and more threads being shut down. You are absolutely correct, you answered his question. Forgive me for inquiring about your answer....
Contributor
I presume Mr. Wixey has discovered some reason that >1/32" accuracy isn't possible.
That being said, do you currently have some set-up that allows you to get better accuracy? I'm genuinely curious.
In Memoriam
You probably did not ask me but I do have a positive stop that won't slip and can be used at any depth. Small changes are made with feeler gages.
The cylinder on the stop has a set screw. Plunge drill to desired depth, stops slides to zero, a quick twist of the set screw, depth is set.
Hi Barry,
My DP can probably be varied a depth of 1/64" with the stop set so I would see this as OK. Perception has a way of driving the buyer sometimes though. Look at the replacement of the Grizzly G0513X bandsaw with the Go513X2; same saw, same gear teeth but, cast iron vs. steel trunnions. You are doing well by asking this question up front from forums like this as "We" are your potential customers and you need to know what "We" may see as a go/no-go issue. ;-) Good luck.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Member
That fellow would be me, and thank you.
The idea was using the Wixey remote router lift readout on the drill press. While it works well, it requires some creativity to fit to different types of drill presses. Mine was rather simple, but other DPs would not be easy to do this with. If Barry can market one specifically for drill presses that is more easily adapted to all the different ones out there, that would be a great help. It's refreshing to have someone seek feedback from actual woodworkers. Barry will do it right.
Member
As Barry knows I am a big fan of all things digital (Hey, Barry) but I see a number of issues with a digital unit on a drill press.
- First, as already has been mentioned you will need to recalibrate each time you change bits. That can be often if drilling thick, hard metals. Unlike end mills etc. which often mount at the same depth in a mill, it is not as easy to do the same on a drill press.
- Second, in relation to the first point, what is the reference point you will use to calibrate the gauge/stop? The tip of the bit, or the shoulder of a twist drill, rim of a Forstner, paddle or paddle tips of a speed bore, flute of a brad point, etc. etc.- you get the point (pun intended
) How easy will it be calibrate for the various bits?
- You will need to use a stop, or you will be unlikely to control the depth reliably or repeatably with a the readout alone, especially drilling a series of holes. Without a stop, your eyes will need to be on the readout, when they should be on your work.
- Even if you use the digital gauge to set the stop, your depth may not be reliable to 1/32". The angle bracket on my Delta is flexible enough that when I put pressure on it when drilling tough material, I suspect that it easily flexes 1/32" or more when I first reach the stop! - and the resulting hole is likely deeper than intended. Actually, just as common and more annoying is having the speed nut type stop slip a thread or two.
For the above reasons I question the need for just an add-on digital depth readout. To be useful it should be a combination readout and stop, that replaces the existing stop, is easy to calibrate and set, and does not slip.
Member
+ 1 for this, being a machinist in my previous life, if I can get it to less than .010 variation, I do. The more accuracy I strive for, the less variation I have to deal with.
Steven
Member
I have a 12" Craftsman DP with a built in DRO that I find a pleasure to use, every time I drill a counter-bore or a hidden hinge I find the DRO extremely helpful. One of the big reasons I haven't upgraded is because none of the floor DPs I have seen come with a DRO (I had been watching the Delta models but they were discontinued).
My father-in-law has been a machinist for 30 years, first thing he noticed about the CM DP's DRO is the resolution may read down to the .001", but it skips by 1/32" to 1/64". Next thing he said was if you need better resolution than that you should be using a mill, not a drill press.
If these come out and work, I will definitely pick one up for a larger floor machine.
Friend of the Creek
I installed a cheap digital height indicator on my DP a few years ago. The main reason was for drilling holes for those little 5mm barrel hinges, the depth is critical on those things. That indicator died a while ago and I have not replaced it yet, mainly because I wanted to come up with a better solution.
I do production work and a lot of my drilling is stopped holes. I would be glad to be a tester of a prototype!
Perry
[OP]
Member
As usual you guys come through with excellent discussions. Thanks for all the input so far. To clarify things a little, we could make a readout similar to what Brad did with a readout that would accurately measure quill movement to within .001" or .002". The issue is that this would be difficult to fit on every drill press and would cost around $60.00 or more. The idea we have stumbled on would fit every drill press in about 10 minutes and would cost maybe $40.00 or less, however, the accuracy just could not be counted on to be better than 1/32".
In any case you would calibrate it by touching the tip of the drill to the surface to be drilled and push the zero button and for repeating holes a stop is always going to be the way to go.
So ( not to rile anyone up ) I am still looking for examples of operations that require greater accuracy. I understand the machinist view point that "more accurate is always better". Also, chamfering holes in metal or plastics makes some sense if you want a 1/64" chamfer. The 5mm deep hole for hinges is an interesting one but does that need to be closer than 1/32"? Any other operations you can think of that would be done on a drill press instead of a milling machine?
Thank you all again!
Friend of the Creek
The 1/32 is more than enough for my particular needs. Mine was set up as you mentioned, touch, reset then drill to desired depth. I don't know that my needs are typical, but I also drill a lot of stopped holes using 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 forstner bits that need to be within 1/16" accurate. If you are wondering why I don't use the stop, the reason is that the stock is not uniform thickness, can vary +/- 1".
Another reason for my interest is the that it is much faster with the digital scale than having to fuss around with resetting the stop.
Perry
Contributor
Certain hinges require an accurate cut depth. I would never rely on a gauge + hand feeding... using the stop collar would be a requirement.
A better use of Wixey technology (IMO) would be to create an X/Y clamp mechanism where mortises could be quickly cut with a high degree of accuracy. Instead of stopping the drill, aligning, etc. you could plop your wood down, clamp it, align to one corner, and then use the X/Y table to accurately move the workpiece left/right & forward/back to hit all drill locations for the mortise. For example, if you needed to cut a 3" x 3/4" mortise and you were using a 1/2" forstner bit, you would make cuts up to 2.5" in X and 1/4" in Y.
Member
Musical instrument makers use a drill press to thickness their plates.
http://owyheemountainfiddleshop.blog...n-of-back.html
Here is a rather expensive adjustable post that is mounted in the DP for accurate thicknessing.
http://www.cremonatools.com/product_...77e789adfa67cf
http://www.cremonatools.com/images/SpessTrap.JPG
Also to drill out peg-boxes.
http://osnesviolins.com/Smallcello/1407.jpg
Violin plates are thicknessed to something like 1/10th of a mm which is in the area of 1/256th of an inch.
That though is the final accuracy, and the drill holes are a guide to reaching that final thickness, but are usually 1 mm thicker than the finished thickness. I think that instrument makers would gladly though pay for the higher priced unit. Have you considered offering both units?
Delta offered for a short time, on their now discontinued drill press, the 20-959lx a digital readout, along with a table designed for doing woodworking. It will be interesting to see what they replace it with.
Grizzly is also suppose to be coming out soon with a new DP, but I can't say if it has a digital readout or not.
I have found that I use to be able to live without digital readouts, but once I got them, I now wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Perhaps this will be the case with a DP readout as well.
Last edited by Danny Burns; 03-30-2010 at 4:37 PM.
Definition of an expert: Someone more than 50 miles from home with a briefcase.
Member
I'm of the opinion that for woodworking purposes 1/32 is way more than sufficient. Most drill presses that were designed for woodworking have enough slop in the quill(both side to side and vertical) that you're likely not going to get any better than that anyway. For someone who actually NEEDS repeatability(not the same as resolution) tighter than 1/32 they're likely not using wood(and if so I question need of tighter than 1/32), will not be using a standard type drill press and likely won't be looking at $40 solutions for depth readouts.
Contributor
It would work for me!
That's plenty accurate enough for my needs. Now when you want to bring out the deluxe version-- since the drill press isn't a real noisy machine, how about a settable depth with auditory feedback as you close in on your set depth.
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