Repurposing a tired drill press

[Jesse Smith]

My brother got an old drill press from the dump for $0.10 per pound. For a couple of years it worked well enough for me to make holes angle iron to build targets and stuff, but it had some issues with the bearings and shaft and wasn't precision enough for knife work. So I replaced it with a new one. An now am repurposing the old one for whatever I can get from it.

I bought a 9" disk from Beaumont and built a frame for the motor from the drill press to make a disk grinder. I thought I had a picture of it, but can't find it.

Now I'm starting to make folders and needed a good way to cut locks in some 15n20 liners with my Dremel. So I kind of made a mini-mill out of the base of the drill press...

Works great for slotting screw heads too...

I actually saw a thread on Fogg's site from a knife maker in Australia (IIRC) doing this with a similar cutter chucked in his drill press, running at top speed. So I it's not like I came up with this idea all on my own. Plus, I know they make a kit to turn your Dremel into a 'mini mill' but I already had the drill press sitting in the shop waiting to find a use for it.

 

[Frank Niro]

A good tip.
Frank

 

[JG Custom Metal Works]

My brother got an old drill press from the dump for $0.10 per pound. For a couple of years it worked well enough for me to make holes angle iron to build targets and stuff, but it had some issues with the bearings and shaft and wasn't precision enough for knife work. So I replaced it with a new one. An now am repurposing the old one for whatever I can get from it.

I bought a 9" disk from Beaumont and built a frame for the motor from the drill press to make a disk grinder. I thought I had a picture of it, but can't find it.

Now I'm starting to make folders and needed a good way to cut locks in some 15n20 liners with my Dremel. So I kind of made a mini-mill out of the base of the drill press...

Works great for slotting screw heads too...

I actually saw a thread on Fogg's site from a knife maker in Australia (IIRC) doing this with a similar cutter chucked in his drill press, running at top speed. So I it's not like I came up with this idea all on my own. Plus, I know they make a kit to turn your Dremel into a 'mini mill' but I already had the drill press sitting in the shop waiting to find a use for it.

What are you using to hold the dremel and where did you get it?

 

[Robert L Sr]

Looks like the old table mount.

 

[Jesse Smith]

Looks like the old table mount.

Yes, that's right. The drill press was missing the table when we got it, but the table mount happened to be just the right size for the Dremel. I was planing to wrap the Dremel with some cork gasket material if I needed to, but it fit perfect without anything.

 

[5seven]

Love it, great idea! I use to mount mine in a mini vise that I shaped for the dremel, yours is much better.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Good idea, bud. You could also pick up a 2/3 axis machining vice to get all "hi-tech"... lol.