X / Y Drill press table

[loghead69]

New guy here. A little about me.
I am nearly 74 years young. I spent 41 years in the Air Force and Ohio Air National Guard.
I worked on and maintained the Boeing KC- 135 in-flight refueling tankers for that entire time. I joined the US Air Force in 1966 and retired in 2007. During my time at Rickenbacker ANG Ohio, I had the privilege of working with a brilliant machinist. I marveled at the things that guy could do. I am getting a pretty late start but I sure would like to broaden the many things he taught me ,oh so many years ago.

Back then ,my hobby was British motorcycles. Mostly Norton Commando's, complete with the Whitworth thread profile. During that 30 years or so , I rode ,collected ,restored and raced the venerable vertical twin. Thanks to my friend the machinist, under his guidance, I was exposed to many facets of machining. He is gone now and so are the motorcycles.
Since retirement, I have taken up competitive rifle shooting. Needless to say I am keenly interested in threading and chambering my own barrels. I have owned a grizzly 14x40 gunsmith lathe for a few years. I made an absolute mess of my first attempt. Luckily it was already a shot out junker.
Due to some health issues I had to take a step back from the lathe. Now ,too many years later, I want to give it another try.

Now that we are caught up to today, Here comes my question. I do not own a mill. I need to locate and drill holes with some degree of accuracy. +- .005
Please lead me to a X/ Y table that is NOT a piece of junk and waste of money. Might as well add a quality mill vice to that as well. I am leaning towards the Grizzly G 8750 compound table and the G5761 cam lock vice. Of course ,that may just be lack of knowledge driving that thought. Yes, I would prefer an old American made Palmgren, Atlas or Mastercraft. Unfortunately I don't have the time it takes to attend all those tool sales and estate auctions. Remember, I am soon to be 74. Gonna have to be currently available. I also have a NOVA Viking D/P that is very much up to the task.
I eagerly await your guidance. My Thanks in advance
Ed

 

[NC Rick]

New guy here. A little about me.
I am nearly 74 years young. I spent 41 years in the Air Force and Ohio Air National Guard.
I worked on and maintained the Boeing KC- 135 in-flight refueling tankers for that entire time. I joined the US Air Force in 1966 and retired in 2007. During my time at Rickenbacker ANG Ohio, I had the privilege of working with a brilliant machinist. I marveled at the things that guy could do. I am getting a pretty late start but I sure would like to broaden the many things he taught me ,oh so many years ago.

Back then ,my hobby was British motorcycles. Mostly Norton Commando's, complete with the Whitworth thread profile. During that 30 years or so , I rode ,collected ,restored and raced the venerable vertical twin. Thanks to my friend the machinist, under his guidance, I was exposed to many facets of machining. He is gone now and so are the motorcycles.
Since retirement, I have taken up competitive rifle shooting. Needless to say I am keenly interested in threading and chambering my own barrels. I have owned a grizzly 14x40 gunsmith lathe for a few years. I made an absolute mess of my first attempt. Luckily it was already a shot out junker.
Due to some health issues I had to take a step back from the lathe. Now ,too many years later, I want to give it another try.

Now that we are caught up to today, Here comes my question. I do not own a mill. I need to locate and drill holes with some degree of accuracy. +- .005
Please lead me to a X/ Y table that is NOT a piece of junk and waste of money. Might as well add a quality mill vice to that as well. I am leaning towards the Grizzly G 8750 compound table and the G5761 cam lock vice. Of course ,that may just be lack of knowledge driving that thought. Yes, I would prefer an old American made Palmgren, Atlas or Mastercraft. Unfortunately I don't have the time it takes to attend all those tool sales and estate auctions. Remember, I am soon to be 74. Gonna have to be currently available. I also have a NOVA Viking D/P that is very much up to the task.
I eagerly await your guidance. My Thanks in advance
Ed

Welcome and thank you for your service! I was never in the service but started my career in aviation maintenance with an A&P.
I may have something here for you.

 

[mickri]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your service to our country. We are a friendly bunch. A lot of newbies like me and a lot of really knowledgeable people who can answer your questions and guide you in the right direction.

What are you trying to drill holes in. A lot of forum members have made drill holders (wrong term??) for their lathe so they can drill precise holes in whats in the lathe.

In order to drill precise holes in the drill press you will need to be able to tram you drill press so that you are drilling straight vertical holes relative to the table and dial in the x/y table so that the X axis is square to the quill on the drill press.

 

[NC Rick]

I totally agree with the tram statement. Holding drilled hole patterns to five thou isn't trivial at all!
this original Palmgin is a bit small. It's got to be more than 50 years old.

 

[Mitch Alsup]

Here comes my question. I do not own a mill. I need to locate and drill holes with some degree of accuracy. +- .005
Please lead me to a X/ Y table that is NOT a piece of junk and waste of money. Might as well add a quality mill vice to that as well. I am leaning towards the Grizzly G 8750 compound table and the G5761 cam lock vice.

I hate to break it to you, but what you really want is a mill..........

 

[loghead69]

Welcome and thank you for your service! I was never in the service but started my career in aviation maintenance with an A&P.
I may have something here for you.

Thanks Rick,
I nearly went to AP school in 1974 when I left the regular Air Force behind. I thought I was tired of travel and being gone all the time.
I found out the local ANG flying unit was converting to KC 135.'s. The rest as they say was" History."
My mentor showed me how to tram a vice. Been a while ,but I could probably stumble through the process. Not sure I get your drift. Are you offering me the rotary table pictured? Maybe a private message would be more appropriate

 

[loghead69]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your service to our country. We are a friendly bunch. A lot of newbies like me and a lot of really knowledgeable people who can answer your questions and guide you in the right direction.

What are you trying to drill holes in. A lot of forum members have made drill holders (wrong term??) for their lathe so they can drill precise holes in whats in the lathe.

In order to drill precise holes in the drill press you will need to be able to tram you drill press so that you are drilling straight vertical holes relative to the table and dial in the x/y table so that the X axis is square to the quill on the drill press.

mickri,
I am well aware of everything you said and I agree. What I am drilling is Savage Target action. A few years ago Savage arms changed the screw spacing from 4.41 to 3.40. One screw hole remains unchanged. I need to relocate 2 of the holes The reason for this need, so I have the versatility of using any of my actions in either the 3.40 or 4.40 stocks. It is a convenience thing for me instead of buying three more stocks.
Thanks for your response.
Ed

 

[loghead69]

I hate to break it to you, but what you really want is a mill..........

Mitch,
Your right about that. I do want a mill. Unfortunately not in my immediate future. Just trying to get by with something in the interim.
Thanks for your response.
Ed

 

[mikey]

I have this one and it's not trash, fairly solid, has adjustable gibs and the handwheels are calibrated in 0.001" increments. They can be adjusted to work pretty well. The table itself is about 36# and is cast iron. I use a Palmgren drill press vise on it and can easily get 0.005" accuracy with this set up. No, not as good as a mill but for drill press, yeah, its pretty okay.

 

[mickri]

Went online and looked at the savage target action. Interesting that it has 3 trigger guard screws instead of the usual 2. I take it that the middle screw is still in the middle and that you need to move the two outer screws closer to the middle screw by .505. Hence the need for .005 accuracy. I think that there are several ways you could do this on your lathe. If there is no barrel on the action you could make a fixture that would hold the action crosswise on your tool post. Then you could move the action using the cross slide to the correct position to drill the holes. Or you could hold the action in a truing fixture with a drill chuck fixture on the compound and use the compound to move the drill chuck to the correct position to drill the holes. By using your lathe you can save the money for the x/y table to go to a small bench top mill.

Here is a thread on a truing fixture https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...chuck-for-truing-receivers.90726/#post-831023

Here is a thread on a drill chuck fixture. https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/shop-made-axa-toolpost-cross-drilling-fixture.49064/

By using the compound and cross slide you can get .001 accuracy.

You could also drill the new holes in the stocks. That would be easier than drilling the action. Put a transfer button (wrong term) in the two outer screw holes and tighten the action in place with the middle screw. Then drill your holes. Make the holes slightly oversize and epoxy bed the new holes. I would try this first before trying to drill action.

Just thinking off the top of my head on ways to do this.