I have a Steel City 17" drill press that has an issue I'm struggling to resolve. Once the drill bit makes contact with the wood, the spindle has a tendency to shift slightly to the left when I apply much pressure. This model has the split-head feature, and I've tightened it as much as I can while still allowing smooth operation. I can see and feel this shift when I lower the drill bit and it engages the wood with the machine turned off. I just cannot figure out why it is happening and how to prevent it.
If I take a very light touch approach, I can keep the shift from being problematic on short holes in soft wood. But if I'm trying to drill something like a pen blank where I'm doing a 2 1/2" hole through a harder wood, I end up with a hole that is larger than the drill bit and at times it has caused a pen blank to split.
Any suggestions?