Drilling Hole in Ram on Arbor Press?

N

nordhaus

Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
39
Hi,

From reading the archives, I know many of you are using an Arbor Press from Harbor Freight or other basic unit, and that you're using the Die Sets from USA Knifemaker or Knifekits to set your Kydex rivets.

However, using those Die Sets requires modification of the Arbor Press Ram to accept the die set. The modification requires an exact-sized hole to be drilled into the ram (upper bar) of the Arbor press.

My question is - How are you guys drilling the hole in the Ram while keeping the hole true with the ram bar?

I have a benchtop drill press, but the Ram looks a bit too long to fit in the drill press for drilling.

Are you guys using a drill press jig of some kind, or freehand drilling the Ram bar?

Would appreciate any tips.

Thanks in advance!



Nordhaus
 
If your bench top drill press is too small to accurately clamp the ram in, try this alternate method:

You can use a hand drill with a bubble level in the butt. Mount the ram in a vise, and use a small carpenter's level to make it plumb. Then drill a pilot hole with the hand drill, maintaining the drill at level. After the pilot hole is done, use the hand drill again to enlarge the pilot hole to size with the appropriate drill bit.

Or, take it to a friend and drill it on a larger drill press. Either way, make sure the ram is parallel with the bit as close as you can get it. Slight divergence probably isn't a problem, but getting it close will be a good idea.
 
I did mine in a lathe with a 4 jaw chuck. Any of the methods Stacy mentioned would be fine. I also drilled and tapped a 1/4-20 hole in the side for a set screw. Just in case.
 
I did mine on a shopsmith using the horizontal boring feature. However, if the only thing I had was a benchtop drill press, I'd clamp it vertically to the side of the table and rotate the table to the side until the bit was centered. It will take a little bit of trial and error to get the exact right position, but it shouldn't be difficult.

You may need to clamp a 2x4 (or other suitable straight edged blocking) to the face of your table to clamp your ram securley and squarely to the side of your table. Make sense?
 
I skipped the arbor press altogether and use my mini mill to set the rivets.

I mount the die set in a collet and the bottom piece in a piece of aluminum clamped in the vise.

Works like a charm.

You might try doing the same for the drill press and use it to set the rivets.
 
I have been using my drill press for the few I have done do far, probably less than 50 1/4" eyelets. If I were to start using it for this purpose more than I am now I would probably get an arbor press. I am concerned about possibly damaging the drill press. Cost of buying arbor press is small compaired to the cost of repairing or replacing my floor standing drill press.

Greg
 
I drilled mine by clamping the ram into the drill press vise flat ( horizontal) then laying the drill press vise on edge and clamping that to a 90 degree angle block. i just scribed an X to find center and checked everything with a bubble level. My drill press is floor model though, so you might not have the clearance.
 
I just finished doing this and had the same issues working with a small drill press, as I came across this post trying to see what others had done I’ll share a picture of what I came up with based on the recommendations above.

arbor_press_ram.JPG



I clamped a scrap piece of wood to the lower portion then clamped the ram to the wood a second clamp goes right from the upper table to the ram, I had to do both clamps as the upper clamp was trying to slide off.. In hindsight using the same setup as the bottom with the wood on the top would have worked better but sometimes trying to overthink something blinds me from the obvious!

For the drill bit I got a stubby 3/8” aircraft machine screw bit it is 3 1/8” long super sharp and worked great! The drill bit was key because a standard bit was still too long, I was going to chop a standard bit but for once decided to get the right tool for the job!

Now the press is ready to do flares I just have to figure out how to make the handles but that is another story.
 
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