Mill Drill - Drilling arms

[Maryak]

Hi Guys,

I noticed a picture in student machinists post re Analog Readout that his mill drill has drilling arms in place on the quill mechanism and a milling cutter in the head.

I usually remove the 3 levers when milling and only screw them in when using the machine as a drill. Mine are pretty long and it's fairly easy to get them contacting vices, rotary tables and all the other bits, including my head when I get up close and personal with the workpiece. :

What do others of us do with these indispensable but often annoying levers. ???

Best Regards
Bob

 

[SAM in LA]

My mill has two levers. One lever was always in the way so I removed it. The other one I leave installed since it does not get in my way while using the lathe.

SAM

 

[Lakc]

That may just be camera perspective in the pic you mentioned, I never had a problem with the arms on my mill head getting in the way.

 

[jim216]

I just leave one attached, it's at about the 2 o'clock position when the quill is full up.

 

[cfellows]

I wouldn't go so far as to say mine never get in the way, but it happens so rarely that I generally leave them and only take them out if they happen to get in the way.

Chuck

 

[cidrontmg]

My mill was a one arm bandit from the factory... ;D

 

[bentprop]

Since I have a separate drill press,I don't use the drill mill for drilling.I fitted them when new,but they were so annoying,I removed them after a couple of days.Hence the handles living permanently in the stand cabinet.

 

[shred]

Mine is a one-armed-bandit too (I like that phrase), but where the handle pivots, there's a circle of holes and a pin on he handle. Don't like where it is, pull it out a bit and relocate the pin (and thus the handle angle) to another of the holes. I think there's supposed to be a setscrew holding things on, but if so, it's long since fallen out.

 

[kcmillin]

My drill handles are only used when drilling small deep holes that require a lot of retracting of the quill to clean the bit. Other than that, they are always sitting on the shelf.

Kel

 

[Blogwitch]

Shred,

Mine is the same as yours, but from new, never had any sort of locking, just push it in to use, pull it out to have it hanging limp (I'm still talking about the handle).


Bogs

 

[kwoodhands]

Hi Guys,

I noticed a picture in student machinists post re Analog Readout that his mill drill has drilling arms in place on the quill mechanism and a milling cutter in the head.

I usually remove the 3 levers when milling and only screw them in when using the machine as a drill. Mine are pretty long and it's fairly easy to get them contacting vices, rotary tables and all the other bits, including my head when I get up close and personal with the workpiece. :

What do others of us do with these indispensable but often annoying levers. ???

Best Regards
Bob

I have left the three levers in place even though I have two drill presses. Thinking about it after reading the posts I'll remove all of them. They do get in the way sometimes, especially when using compressed air to cool and blow swarf from the cutter. I have a lever valve on the end of a hose and it is held by a post screwed into a Tee nut in the table slots, The hose gets caught on a lever sometimes.

mike

 

[Wizard69]

The Bridgeport at work has a single lever arm that slips on and off with ease. The hub has a pin that engages a maying surface on the attaching shaft with a number of holes drilled around the circumference. This allows positioning the lever arm for best leverage or clearance with ease. In a repair shop that lever gets used a lot but is never in the way