<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Drill press</title></head><body> <div>At 11:51 AM -0500 9/15/04, Richard Oliver Snelson wrote:</div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>I have the Jet mortising drill on a heavy steel plate that is hinged to raise and lower up to 10 degrees. By reversing the drill it extends out from the base and can easily reach the full block area in its pivot. I don't have it on any sort of air float, but that could be easily done.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Here's my set-up (along with the pneumatic feed I made back in March after seeing the picture of John Hartman's). The head belongs to my 32-year-old Sears floor model.  I found a short column, some sort of tube stock left over at a machinist's from some by-gone project. I had a friend who was working for me at the time, make a base out of marine maple pinblock stock (including the reinforcing collar). The 7º angle is permanent. (When I get ready to bore a block, I simply pull the head off the original column and plunk it on the new one.) The block rides on maple scraps with 1" roller bearing attached to their underside, three per piece.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The block rolls around freely on these large ball bearings. There are shims between the bearing and the scraps to set the underside of the block a bare 10 mils above the "table" portion of the drill press, (actually a piece of maple scrap to throw away after it has had too many holes drilled in it). This way, it is free-floating while you're positioning it, and locked in solid contact with the "table" as soon as the drill bit touches it. (Actually you can close the 10 mil gap with your elbow.)</div> <div><br></div> <div>(I donn'nid no steenkin x/y positioning track!.......) BTW, I think there's something wrong with this picture. The piano came out fine, however.</div> <div><br> <br> </div> <div><img src="cid:v04220800bd6eb76675cb@[192.168.1.100].1.0"></div> </body> </html>