Drills and change of plans

chim

Well-known member

Equipment
L4240HSTC with FEL, Ford 1210
Jan 19, 2013
1,738
823
113
Near Lancaster, PA, USA
I've always wanted but never owned a drill press. Seemed like the ones with real grunt were always a lot more than I wanted to pay.

I have some projects from time to time that require drilling holes up to about 1-1/2" diameter in steel as thick as 3/8" or so. The tool for these should be an annular cutter in a mag drill. So far it's been different handheld drills, hole saws. unibits etc.

That triggered a plan. Buy a mag drill and then do as this guy (
) and whip something up to use the mag drill as a drill press. The mag drill would have a lot more power than any drill press in my budget range. Two drills for the price of one for taking some time to fab the press.

Scoured Craigslist and FB Marketplace for a suitable donor drill press with no success. Called my ex-employer to see if they had any broken drill presses gathering dust. "Yup. Got one out back that's older than a lot of our guys. Come get it." Stopped in today to pick it up. It's a Delta 17-900 with a 3/4" Ridgid Supreme chuck. It has some "character" but when I plugged it in, it ran smoothly. Chucked a 1/4" round rod about 8" long into it and turned it to see if it runs true. It does. Drilled a few holes to verify it's OK. It has a dozen speeds that range between 295 and 3,000 RPMs. The old Delta will remain just as it is, and I'm very thankful for this change of plans.

Was able to test the new mag drill - a Vevor MD40 - on my loader bucket today for a small reinforcement tab on a bucket-mounted receiver. I was a little surprised the magnets held on the narrow edge it was stuck onto. It wasn't difficult to rock it loose by applying up/down pressure. It did hold better in the other axis. With sensible force applied it went through the bucket in about 10 seconds. The tab was drilled by clamping it onto a piece of 1/4 x 4 flatbar the mag drill was stuck on. Some reviews on the mag drills claim there's not enough travel to use the (included) Jacobs chuck without using some sort of spacer. This particular drill doesn't have that problem. Plenty of range for standard bits.

Need to do a little cleanup and paint (and put all the bolts in of course).

EDIT - Added pic after touchup. Rustoleum on bucket and zinc-rich grayish on the receiver stub and galvanized angle iron.
 

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Yooper

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Lifetime Member

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3901 LA525
May 31, 2015
1,456
429
83
NE Wisconsin
Enjoy your new toys! Had that same Delta at my fab business and never had an issue with it. Was on its third drill chuck and still going.
 

D2Cat

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Lifetime Member

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L305DT, B7100HST, TG1860, TG1860D, L4240
Mar 27, 2014
12,901
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40 miles south of Kansas City
It's always an additional pleasure when you make something useful out of something someone discarded! Nice work.