Gear Head Drill Press VS Mill I need some advice

[RMO]

I have a "new" old Jet gearhead drill press with power feed,tapping functions, etc. It is about 10 years old, but had never been used or even hooked up before I acquired it in a trade for some other equipment about a year ago. I have since used it to drill a number of 3/4 inch holes in one inch plate. About 3 hours. The power feed makes this an absolute dream for that kind of work. The head on this unit is virtually identical to my uncles Mill/Drill made by the same company. My question is this: I mainly picked it up because I wanted to learn milling and since finding this site several months ago I have been getting more excited about the prospects. Would it be better to try and use this for milling or should I see if I can sell this and buy or perhaps trade for an actual mill. I am not too worried about the power or strength of the head of this press, it is really overbuilt for the light milling I want to do, but I would need to pick up a mill table and then worry about the rigidity of the whole setup with the table. I have attached a picture from the front cover of the manual. Any advice would be appriciated. Mike

 

[Metal Butcher]

You could add a milling table to the exiting table, but the existing drill press style table will not provide the proper amount of rigidity required for milling. And unfortunately, the few milling tables I have seen were very small and weak. If you could find a proper ( big and heavy) XY table, mounting it to the base would be a more rigid choice.

If it were mine, I would probably sell it and buy a mill suited to my needs.

-MB

 

[Metal Butcher]

I did a little looking around and found this. Its a table that looks better than most of the ones I've seen to date.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/X-Y-Cross-Table/H7659

-MB

 

[coopertje]

I agree, never sell such a beautiful machine! Try to find an X-Y table to mount on the existing table, or when financially possible try to find a nice used mill and put that next to the drill! Tools and machines are the same as women and shoes, you never have enough!

Jeroen

 

[RMO]

I think I will put it up for sale or trade. If nothing happens I will be no worse off than I am now. Thanks for the advice.

 

[user 284]

RMO,
Smart move, Despite people trying, A drill press does NOT have the proper type of bearings to accept the side loads. Doubtful it has a spindle lock either, Never mind a thru hole for a drawbar. You should be able to sell that for enough money to get a smaller proper mill. They make mill/drills, mills and drill presses but they just don't make drill/mills. There are drill presses sold with some pretty good X,Y tables and maybe? some very light milling could be done, But your then still dealing with the rigidity of the drill presses supporting table.

Pete