Mini Drill Presses

[cheelwheels]

If you have a relatively new Dremel tool they make a drill press attatchment for it. Works on a table top.

[Sappington R]

Ichiban,
Ther are some very nice reasonably priced drill presses at Harbor Freight that will take the larger bits, yet they are still small in size. If you have a store locally check it out- + they also have a store online.

Sappington

[Parrot Racing]

Don't waste your money on the dremel press, it is a glorified tool holder. I have one and am now looking for a small press also.

Enrico

[ProQuest]

Hey Ichiban:

I have a small Craftsman (3/4 hp) table top drill press that is plenty big enough to do the job you described. I don't recommend the Craftsman, but if this one can drill into the end of a 7" block with a 3/8" drill (with room to spare), I imagine any drill press that is big enough to hold a 3/8" drill can do it.

By the way, check your pms. I sent you one a few days ago.

ProQuest

[Barga Racing]

ichiban said:

I ended up getting a Ryobi 10" table top drill press with laser sight, bullets extra. Picked it up today and haven't had time to set it up. My cars will have straight holes from now on, yeah!

No matter how good your drill press is your axle holes still won't be straight if you don't go about it right. If you simply lay block on side and drill holes then flip over and drill other holes that is all wrong. Because then each sides axle holes will be referenced to the other side of block. And trust me almost no blocks have both sides square with each other. And don't even think about trying to drill all the way through block to have all holes referenced from the same side. You need a good quality fence to clamp car to. That way all holes will be referenced to the bottom. I had a local machine shop mill the bottom and side of a 1 1/2 x 8 in bar of stainless and then I bolt it to my drill press table. I then use a digital caliper to measure the width of the wood block at both ends. You will find they are almost never exactly the same across the width either. I then mark the measurements on block for future reference. I decide which side looks the straightest and drill block with that side down first (clamped with bottom tight against square fence, of coarse. Then I flip over and put correct amount of feeler guages under the end that was smallest. Then clamp bottom to fence and drill holes for that side. I usually drill raised axle hole on this side. If you have an adjustable table you can tilt it slightly to put a controled amount of camber on your axles also. Good Luck and happy drilling.

[ohsofast]

We have a drill press but struggled because of the differences in the block not being parallel so now we build everything with a Pro Body Tool and reference all from one side. We lay a piece of sand paper on a piece of glass on the work bench and long sand one side of the block, this becomes our base reference side and dominant wheel side. We mark the block and square the body tool to this side, clamp it and drill both rears with a pin vice (got that from Builder Jim) then move it forward for the front dominant wheel then rotate for the raised wheel. After reading the posts above I kind of guess we are doing the same thing squaring one side of the block is kind of like squaring the press table but doing both sides in one set up.

Terry