Clamp or vise for new drill press

[C.I.TR3]

Just scored my first drill press. It is a 1946 Delta DP220. Looks to be in good shape, runs smoothly although I do not have a dial indicator to check the actual runout. New to using a drill press and have been reading about the necessity of clamping my material down for safety. For general drill of tangs what would you recommend. A drill press vise? From searching the site I also found these Kant Twist Hold Down Clamps. Would these work on my table? Any other accessories the I need? Thanks for the help.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

If you are going to use it a lot and want to drill precise holes, get an X-Y vise. If just drilling random holes in tangs and handle blocks, a hold down clamp will work fine.

 

[lastbrunneng]

Good find! To get started you could use some c-clamps or deep mouth vise grips. I'm partial to having a vise on my drill press, but don't skimp on it. I recently picked up a drill press vise from Lowe's for $20 and the bottom wasn't even flat, took it back and their whole stock was the same way.

 

[Adam Buttry]

I use the Kant Twist clamp on my press. It has tremendous clamping force and would work well for your intended use. I have no worries of blades helicoptering once clamped. My table required a T-slot "nut", but in your case all you would need is a large washer and nut to fit the allen head bolt that passes through the clamp and your table. The clamp comes with the bolt if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Bob Ohlemann]

I am not a fan of cheap tools but, sometimes that is all you need. I use this clamp from Harbor Freight tools, often in conjunction with a 1-2-3 block.

http://www.harborfreight.com/9-inch-drill-press-locking-clamp-36221.html

I also use a 3" precision ground drill press vise frequently.

Bob

 

[C.I.TR3]

Thanks for the advice. I am pretty excited for a press rather than hand drilling especially for the price ($0).

I am not sure what would be precision drilling. Since I have been using a hand drill, just clamping the blade to a table seems like precision to me.

I think I will start with a clamp since they are inexpensive. It looks like the Kant Twist model I need is the base model without the T-slot base.

Any recommendations on a good vise that won't break the bank?

 

[J. Hoffman]

I put a table of 80/20 t-slot on my Powermatic, and just use hold-down clamps. It has worked great.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Keep an eye on ebay as well as the trader papers. A good machining/milling/drilling vise with X-Y axis often comes up at a reasonable price. Avoid the cheap $49.95 units as they are sloppy and difficult to use. A good used price for a quality unit will be around $200-300.

Another excellent method is to get a plain drill press vise and put it on an X-Y table. These parts are often available for very little. Again, keeping an eye on the trader papers and on-line auctions sometimes turns up good deals. If you have an old machine shop around, check them out. I was given the slide table from a mill for free. All I had to do was un-bolt it off an old defunct mill in a corner. It was way too big and heavy for drill press use, so I traded it for an anvil to another shop.
One of this type - http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELTA-4-Inc...286896265?pt=Clamps_Vises&hash=item27e17e9e89
mounted on something like one of these - http://www.ebay.com/itm/HEAVY-COMPO...988?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460fdbf0cc
Will make your "new" drill press very versatile.

Now, if you really want to make that puppy a versatile unit, change the motor to a 3/4HP to 1HP 3Ph unit and run it off a cheap VFD. That will give you true digital speed control at the punch of a button. A change like this can cost surprisingly little with a little scrounging skills and google-fu. Places like HGR Surplus and other surplus sellers are good places to look for the motors and VFDs.

 

[C.I.TR3]

I will start looking out for a table and vise locally. I like the idea of being able to adjust X/Y to get more precise drilling.

I really like the VFD idea as this is the "high" speed version of the DP220 so the slowest speed is only around 600 RPMs. I'm slowly saving up for a 2x72 and would also love a Disc grinder. Might have to invest in a VFD that I can run all of these tools off of. Here is a pic of the motor that is currently on it. I assume I would just have to find a motor with the same frame, hook up the vfd, and leave the belts and pulleys as they are? Is it that easy?

 

[PT Doc]

Zoro tools sells this dayton branded cross slide table. They have 30 or 40% sales a few times a year.

http://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-Compound-Mill-Table-2LKU7?s_pp=false

It is made by Colovos and they make the palmgren goods. It's surprising a really nice table for a drill press. I didn't want to commit to a xy vise since I wanted more versatility. There are other Asian varieties of this table at shars.com and at enco.com.

If you want a nice drill press vise, look at the palmgren 14g. When enco has their 30% off sales this vise would cost around $100. In my opinion, this is the nicest drill press vise in this price range for sure.

Those vise grip looking drill press clamps work well. They will work with a hole through the table or a table that just has t slots. A big pair of vise grips with pivoting flat jaws is also helpful and very fast.

There are many options and I went through them all and use them all depending on why I am doing. Hope this helps.

 

[PT Doc]

I will start looking out for a table and vise locally. I like the idea of being able to adjust X/Y to get more precise drilling.

I really like the VFD idea as this is the "high" speed version of the DP220 so the slowest speed is only around 600 RPMs. I'm slowly saving up for a 2x72 and would also love a Disc grinder. Might have to invest in a VFD that I can run all of these tools off of. Here is a pic of the motor that is currently on it. I assume I would just have to find a motor with the same frame, hook up the vfd, and leave the belts and pulleys as they are? Is it that easy?

What are the largest drills you will be using? Look at a drill press rpm table that shows drill diameter for various materials. You might find that you are ok for now. I like the idea of a three phase motor and vfd for reversing capabilities for tapping but if you are going to be doing lots of tapping a dedicated drill press or tapping head would be recommended. If looking at tapping heads, check out procunier. Tapmatic is another brand that have a variety of Asian knockoffs. The procunier heads are very nice. Ettco is another brand that is still supported by Rockford Ettco Procunier. eBay is a good source for pricing. machinist forums WTB listings seem to be a good place to buy.

 

[Dan Pierson]

For most simple drilling I use a medium size drill press vise with three parallel sides. It's probably technically unsafe because there's nothing actually holding the blade to the table, but the vise is heavy enough that the press doesn't have the torque to move it significantly -- certainly not to spin it.

For precise work I use my milling machine.

 

[jrmy0641]

I will start looking out for a table and vise locally. I like the idea of being able to adjust X/Y to get more precise drilling.

I really like the VFD idea as this is the "high" speed version of the DP220 so the slowest speed is only around 600 RPMs. I'm slowly saving up for a 2x72 and would also love a Disc grinder. Might have to invest in a VFD that I can run all of these tools off of. Here is a pic of the motor that is currently on it. I assume I would just have to find a motor with the same frame, hook up the vfd, and leave the belts and pulleys as they are? Is it that easy?

[video=youtube;23lwqq9uGg4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23lwqq9uGg4[/video]
[video=youtube;Y8yT8-JYIQE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yT8-JYIQE[/video]

 

[catalytic]

Workholding while drilling is something I've spent some time thinking about. Generally speaking, there are 2 things you have to think about:

1. Work wants to twist. This is always bad... and worse when the work is a sword.
2. Work wants to climb the helical flutes of the bit, especially when the drill emerges through the bottom of a through hole

I recommend that you look at:

1. Heinrich Safety Drill Vise. Lists for around $270 when not on sale at MSC. I have one of these on my personal drill press and there are 2 of them in my shop. It's a similar design to the Wahlstrom drill press vise described below. Both use a bar that can be bolted to the table with a quick-release bolt (so it can quickly be moved for another hole) to prevent the vise from twisting. You can also just rest the bar against the drill column. You can download the dimensions of the Heinrich and Wahlstrom, and you'll find that they have the same height jaws...the heinrich opens a little bit wider (but how often do you need 12" capacity...). Here's what my Heinrich looks like (the purple arrow shows the mounting block that you bolt to your drill table with a quick release handle or allen bolt)




2. Wahlstrom Float Lock Drill Press Vise. Lists somewhere in the vicinity of $200 new from MSC when not on sale -- a bit less for the 9" capacity and a bit more for the 12" capacity. People prefer the quick release version. You can buy an optional clamp bracket that you can use to mount the vise WITHOUT drilling a mounting hole in your table.

3. Lassy tools drill safety vise. I haven't used one of these, and they cost more than the other options. They look really nice, though, and I know a couple of experienced machinists who love them.

I believe all of these have shallow grooves milled into the jaws to (like built in machine vise parallels) to allow you to face drill drill flat stock easily.

Lots of people also like the Heinrich gripmaster cam-locks. Other companies make similar ones, too (dayton, wilton, etc...quality varies...but heinrich's are still excellent). I started out with a pair of the monster 8" ones, which were nice. However, I sometimes drill big holes, and I'd still worry about one starting to spin.

Some people also use a really heavy machining vise and the weight stops the twisting, supposedly. I think this is a bad idea...drill press vises like the first two listed above allow you to through-drill without ruining the vise. I've also seen people use mag-chucks to attach parts and prevent twisting. They seem to do this OK, but I wouldn't want a magnet around all of the chips personally (or around the VFD).

I would also stay away from X-Y vises. I know a couple people who like them, but I find them very restricting. The usual way to work on a drill press is to lay the work out, measure it and mark it (dykem or whatever), center punch the hole locations, then bring it to the drill and let the pilot drill find the center punch marks. Using an X-Y vise prevents your drills from finding the center punched locations. With the Heinrich I showed, you can let it move until the drill has found the mark, then lock it down after. It makes for a really efficient and accurate workflow.