Drill press to mill conversion using tapered roller bearing spindle support

[Bkhart]

  Been wanting a mill for a long time but it's just not in the budget right now. I bought a Clausing drill press that was made for production work mounted to a bench.  This drill press is nice because the whole head unit is adjustable up and down the column for height adjustment.  The spindle shaft extends about 4" below the bottom housing so I made a bearing support utilizing two tapered roller bearings.  The tapered roller bearings have flanged oil lite bearings in them for the shaft to pass through. The spindle shaft didn't have a hole through it for a draw bar to retain the end mill holder so I used a piece of bar stock through the hole in the spindle for the tapered wedge to drive the taper out of the spindle.  There is a screw that threads into the bar stock from inside the end mill holder. The spindle is MT 2 so it was easy to get end mill holders for it.  It is far from perfect but so far it has worked fine.  Spindle travel is only about 1.5" but I mostly work on small aluminum parts.  Sure I would like a Bridgeport but for now this will do.  Thought someone else might find this project helpful.

  Bill

[rsterne]

Nice piece of "backyard engineering".... I'm impressed, and it it's working for you, that makes it perfect....

Bob

[Rob M]

nice work! looks like you got some good rigidity which is key to all machine operations

[Bkhart]

  Thanks guys.  I did try using the drill press before I built the bearing support.  Even taking light passes in aluminum the end mill was wandering all over.  Now with the support it seems to work fine.

  Bill

[Bkhart]

  Tried to attach this picture to the first post but it only took one picture.  This shows the whole set up.

  Bill

[Rob M]

yep,, a huge factor if anyone wants to imitate this is the quality of the older presses, the new ones are chicom garbage.. but with that massive reinforcement bracket and the bearings, id say even a 60 dollar harbor fright would work

[rualert]

    Too cool, I had thought about trying my drill press, but it has way too much side play. This might work, great idea.

Casey

[crispybacon]

Thank you, that is a great idea!