[TheForge] Drill Press etc

[Andrew Vida]

Bob Ehrenberger wrote:
> Woolley,
> 
> Of course the main reason I like old equipment is that I can't afford the 
> same quality of new equipment.  Besides if something is 30 or 40 years old 
> you have a pretty good idea how it is going to hold up over time. With new 
> equipment it's kind of a gamble until you have used it for a while, and then 
> if it is junk you are kind of stuck.

	Very true.  There is certainly good stuff being made today, but it is 
very costly.  If the apparatus is necessary to business, then the cost 
should not really be an issue.  How it is to be financed is, but that 
should be an academic issue... at least in theory. :)

	However, there is a lot if herniatingly expensive equipment out there 
that will not last the 100+ years that many of the old timey machines 
have.  CNC machining centers have comparatively low service lives.  They 
are built differently - a lot of fabrication vis-a-vis casting.  OTOH, 
those machines also have far tougher operational lives in many cases - a 
factor that cannot be reasonably ignored.

	All this aside, most of the mid- to low-end machinery out there is 
crap.  I have had to affect repairs on some of these things, drill 
presses included, and have observed that the quality of manufacture is 
pretty much atrocious.  Consider the quill feed mechanisms.  The gears 
that engage the rack to lower and raise the quill are almost 
unbelievably lousy on many of these machines, all made in China I will 
add.  The feed spindle (hub into which three handles are usually 
threaded) to which the gear is affixed is soft steel.  The threaded 
holes often get all waller'd out and the hub must be replaced.

	The head stocks are usually very rough castings and often the machined 
surfaces are of very low quality.  Castings also tend to be flimsy, as 
someone observed here in terms of the table strength.  And of course 
there is the frequent encounter with unstable castings, which have not 
received the appropriate post-process treatments to ensure dimensional 
stability.  Forget about Meehanite treatments. :(

I have observed that usually the best built part on these presses is the 
column, which is usually built from ground stock - a commodity item not 
manufactured by the machine maker.  When the machine goes away, the 
column *might* find a second lease on life as part of another bit of 
home brewed equipment... or perhaps a cutler's anvil.

	-Andy