When do you drill with your mill?

[jocat54]

I do almost all of my drilling on a drill press. I have 4 of them. A 16" and an 18" swing and two around an 8" or 10" swing. A pair was in my garage shop in town and a pair in my basement wood shop. Since selling our in town shop I built a new shop at home to work on my cars and play with my toys in the machine shop. I have a 6" vice on the 18" almost all the time bolted loosely so I can shift it around as well the table rotates so I can quickly line it up. Once lined up I tighten my vice jaws. If it is a long piece and the drill bit large I try to also let the stock rest against the column, other times when the drill is small I hang onto the vice screw to hold it. I like the small drill press as it has higher speeds and use it when drilling holes under 3/16" and use a small vice for small parts or just hold the piece by hand on the long pieces. Of course it also only has a 1/4 hp motor.
However when drilling a large hole or in hard material I find the drill press tables flexes too much to get a good square to perpendicular hole or when drilling through both sides of square tubing when a pin must go through to hold an inner part I switch to my mill/drill. I still have the quick quill available like with the drill press but there is no flex between the head and the table. This makes all my holes line up. So I wouldn't be without either of those.
The biggest scare I ever had was with a high torque hand held 1/2" drill. I had to drill a centre hole in a car leaf spring and had the spring clamped fairly secure in the bench vice. (This was before I ever had a drill press) The drill had a little button in the handle by the trigger that you could lock the trigger on with. Well the hole had to be 7/16" so the bit was quite strong and when it grabbed my grip pressed the little button and could not stop the motor. The spring pulled out of the vice and I had to let her go. It banged around on the bench until it pulled the plug out. Of course this happens in a mere second. The first thing I did was nip that little button of and that is how it still is after more than 40 years.
Nick

That wouldn't be a Milwaukee drill by chance--I have one and it CAN hurt you. Don't ask how I know that!!!

 

[GK1918]

I suppose all I can add is, I think it depends on the job. For example I had to make a set of front
shackles for a F900 Ford truck. This will be 1/2 X 2 1/2x 6" with two one inch holes. (thats 8 pieces)
In two operations , drilling and cut to lenght. My drill presses too fast, Mill not happy with its speeds
either, only way is big lathe in back gear. Put wood on my ways (I have a 2"ID crotch center) and
drilled 8 1" holes like butter. Of course the stock was long enough to set on the wood, but the unused
just goes back to stock pile. I just feel most drill presses run to fast for this size work. sam

 

[AR1911]

I have 2 DPs, a benchtop and a floor model. Both are the Big Box store variety, Craftsman and Ridgid respectivly. They are decent tools, but better suited to wood working IMO. A metal shop needs a HD drill press. Right now I'm shopping for a Powermatic.

I have 3 mills - minimill, Rockwell, and Millrite (sm, med lg). Only the mini has seen a drill chuck. The rare times I use the bigger mills for drilling is when I want an very accurate hole, both in placement and diameter. A good drill held in a collet with minimal runout can drill a hole that is almost as good as a reamed hole.

And frankly, I'm scared to death of running a drill through and marring my mill tables. All 3 tables are pristine, and I aim to keep them that way.
In contrast DP tables are less accurate, and cheaper to replace. And they have a hole made for the drill to pass through.