# Don't lose your set-up by raising or lowering your drill press table.



## Tmate (Aug 10, 2020)

I have a 75 year old Walker Turner drill press without a hand crank to raise and lower the table.  Whenever I changed from a center drill to a drill bit, or from a drill bit to a tap, I would lose my alignment by raising or lowering the table.  The simple fix was to use a smaller secondary chuck with a straight arbor to gain any extra length needed.


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 18, 2020)

Nice, VERY nice!!

b


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## AmericanMachinist (Sep 22, 2020)

Thanks for sharing.  I do have  hand crank.  How does that help me keep exact alignment around the column as i raise/lower? 

Thanks!


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## brino (Sep 22, 2020)

AmericanMachinist said:


> How does that help me keep exact alignment around the column as i raise/lower?



I believe it means that you no longer need to raise and lower the table.
You just need the foresight to put your shorter tools into a holder of some kind to give them extra length.
Then the normal quill feed it enough.

-brino


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## AmericanMachinist (Sep 22, 2020)

brino said:


> I believe it means that you no longer need to raise and lower the table.
> You just need the foresight to put your shorter tools into a holder of some kind to give them extra length.
> Then the normal quill feed it enough.
> 
> -brino


I understand that.  The original message seemed to imply with a hand crank you could keep your center located.  So was wondering about that and how i could take advantage of having one.


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## Tmate (Sep 22, 2020)

Perhaps I could have stated it more clearly.  With no hand crank, I have to wrestle with the table and twist it to raise it, thus ruining the setup.  The crank eliminates that difficulty, but doesn't necessarily maintain a perfect alignment.

My suggestion makes the whole problem moot, as it removes the need to adjust the table height.


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 23, 2020)

Does anyone know of a rotary or axial DRO?
I have looked, OK half heartedly, I have found nothing that would indicate these even exist?

b


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## Flyinfool (Sep 23, 2020)

You could Add a couple set screws to the rack so that it can not move while raising and lowering the table, That will act as a key to maintain rotational position. You may have to add some shims to the rack channel to remove slop there too.

The other way is to use the hole that you drilled in the first op to relocate for the next op. The distance from the column will not change so you are only having to locate rotationally. This can be done by putting a piece of drill rod in the chuck to drop into the hole to get the alignment.

I will admit I have done it but putting a chuck in a chuck multiplies the run out of each piece and can get pretty far out by the end


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## pontiac428 (Sep 23, 2020)

Bruce Billett said:


> Does anyone know of a rotary or axial DRO?
> I have looked, OK half heartedly, I have found nothing that would indicate these even exist?
> 
> b



That would be a good project for Arduino.  You can use a resolver or a rotary encoder (sounds fancier than it is) through the Arduino, which would simply convert pulses to degrees, drive a small output display, and maybe manage a reset switch.  You'd just have to work out the most reasonable way to integrate the sensor into your rotary table, either direct drive or via gears or cog belt.


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 23, 2020)

Pontiac 
True, the electronic part the arduino would work fine. I would hope that I could use one of my existing DRO ports to read this out? At least for my mill head movement. My table doesn't move that way. Might be interesting on a drill press, but that setup I work around very well when I need to move the table. The issue I am looking at is how to attach some sort of accurate encoder between the main support and the head? The gear idea is interesting, but I don't see how one could attach something to the column the would a) not rotate b) be out of the way as I raised and lowered the head? As such, I suspect that is out of the question unless I can come up with some way of accurately etching the entire column? I shutter at the very thought!
I could use something for my rotary table though , and the gear/pulse counter might just work. I would think a bull gear that fit the table and and a hall effect would be fine for that.

b


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## Sparweb (Sep 24, 2020)

Another way to skin the cat...
If you add a separate piece that clamps onto the column, it can project out an arm that locates the table by moving the table into the contact with the arm.  
A bit like a bench dog for your drill press.  The fixed reference is the column, so clamp whatever you need to make a permanent reference on that.
I find that even my crank-up drill press allows the table to move around too much horizontally.
I don't have a picture handy, I hope my description is clear enough.


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## mikey (Sep 24, 2020)

Flyinfool said:


> I will admit I have done it but putting a chuck in a chuck multiplies the run out of each piece and can get pretty far out by the end



I've used a 3/8" Albrecht mounted to a 1/2" straight shank that fits into a 1/2" Albrecht like the OP has done for over 20 years and you are right; stacking tolerances are an issue when doing this. Still, using a drill press is not a precision machining operation and I have successfully drilled a lot of larger holes using this exact set up so, Tmate, good post.


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## whitmore (Sep 24, 2020)

Bruce Billett said:


> Does anyone know of a rotary or axial DRO?
> I have looked, OK half heartedly, I have found nothing that would indicate these even exist


One could mount a laser pointer parallel to the spindle, and hit a target affixed to the table.
As long as it stays clean, it means the rotation is controlable.


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 24, 2020)

whitmore said:


> One could mount a laser pointer parallel to the spindle, and hit a target affixed to the table.
> As long as it stays clean, it means the rotation is controlable.




Tried something like that. Sounds very reasonable. Unfortunately beam divergence in the laser doesn't allow for much in the way of accuracy. There might be a laser out there that has better control over the divergence, but it would be out of my price range.  The laser in an autocollimator really isn't used to achieve accuracy of placement, but is used to determine perpendicularity of the target to the beam.
Thanks for the thought!!

b


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 24, 2020)

mikey said:


> I've used a 3/8" Albrecht mounted to a 1/2" straight shank that fits into a 1/2" Albrecht like the OP has done for over 20 years and you are right; stacking tolerances are an issue when doing this. Still, using a drill press is not a precision machining operation and I have successfully drilled a lot of larger holes using this exact set up so, Tmate, good post.



I woke up this morning with that very thought. Only I think I would try to mount that as close to the column as possible. and then have a similar ring I could mount to the head. Two rods that slip fit into two matching holes on the upper  ring. Maybe even making both rings with slip fit holes then rods of different lengths that could be put in the system to allow bringing the head not only back on center at the original placement but also at a different elevation. May  not be ALL that accurate, but I would think it will be VERY close.

b


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## markba633csi (Sep 28, 2020)

The older drill presses like W/T often don't have a crank system for the table,  unlike most modern imports.  
I guess they were designed in the 40s for production work whereby the table doesn't need to move often
-Mark


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 30, 2020)

markba633csi said:


> The older drill presses like W/T often don't have a crank system for the table,  unlike most modern imports.
> I guess they were designed in the 40s for production work whereby the table doesn't need to move often
> -Mark


Mark:
This isn't for my drill press. It's for my RJ round column mill.
I have had a kind of break thru yesterday. I ordered some lenes out of desperation to TRY something, The collimator for the telescope I think is worthless :-( but a concave and convex lens set I got has my laser at about 2 feet down to about 2-3 thousands dia. And that is holding all the parts in my hand. So now I'm building a sort of light rail to mount everything on and see just how tight I can keep the beam. I'm also thinking if I do need to refocus the beam for different heights, that shouldn't matter as the beam axis should be the same and therefore I can return to the exact same spot. The next hardest part I think will be after I get the head in position, holding it there as I tighten down the head. Ahhhh. What a wonderful problem that will be to have after getting to this point!
And yes  will send pictures when it is time.
b


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## Bruce Billett (Sep 30, 2020)

I'm also thing that if I set the head perpendicular to the bed, Do I need to tram the head? Assuming the bed moves as it should, Setting any one spot perpendicular to any spot on the bed should yield the same for all spots on the bed?
Has anyone anything to say about that before I run down THAT rabbit hole?
Thanks either way.

b


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## Bruce Billett (Nov 10, 2020)

Bruce Billett said:


> Does anyone know of a rotary or axial DRO?
> I have looked, OK half heartedly, I have found nothing that would indicate these even exist?
> 
> b


Well thanks anyway. I have looked as well. That is why I asked here.
Although I have come up with a simple way to recenter my head optically, accurately, and very inexpensive. It involved a throw away  rifle scope. If your interested let me knoe.

b


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