When I purchased my lathe it came with a Brown and Sharpe magnetic chuck, unfortunately it didn't come with a back plate. I figured some day I would make one for it as a project, but until then it was just going to sit unused.
Earlier today I was working with my drill press and was struggling to get a piece aligned exactly where I wanted it. I looked at a Palmgren vise I had sitting there and thought that would work perfectly except that those vises don't come with mounting holes, and b/c of the shape of the bottom of the table it's a real p.i.t.a. to try to clamp a vise to my drill press.
If only I had a way to hold that vise in place....
....You can probably see where I'm going with this.
I screwed a couple of studs into the back of the chuck, set it on the table of my drill press and fastened it in place. After clamping the piece in the vise and aligning it where I wanted, I turned the magnet on. It worked like a charm. I can foresee many instances when I'm not through-drilling that I'll be able to set the piece in place, turn on the magnet, and drill away, with no vise required.
Of course I'm not the first person to think of putting a magnetic chuck on their drill press, but most people aren't going to spend several hundred dollars to do it. I figured there are probably other forum members who have a drill press they use and a magnetic lathe chuck they don't and here's an option to make them both more useful. It only takes a few minutes and requires no modifications (at least mine didn't). If you don't have one but come across one for cheap, it might just be worth picking up. Knowing what I know now, if I didn't have this magnetic chuck I would buy one just for this purpose (there was one just like it on eBay the other day for $100). This is going to make it so much more convenient to use my drill press.
Earlier today I was working with my drill press and was struggling to get a piece aligned exactly where I wanted it. I looked at a Palmgren vise I had sitting there and thought that would work perfectly except that those vises don't come with mounting holes, and b/c of the shape of the bottom of the table it's a real p.i.t.a. to try to clamp a vise to my drill press.
If only I had a way to hold that vise in place....
....You can probably see where I'm going with this. I screwed a couple of studs into the back of the chuck, set it on the table of my drill press and fastened it in place. After clamping the piece in the vise and aligning it where I wanted, I turned the magnet on. It worked like a charm. I can foresee many instances when I'm not through-drilling that I'll be able to set the piece in place, turn on the magnet, and drill away, with no vise required.
Of course I'm not the first person to think of putting a magnetic chuck on their drill press, but most people aren't going to spend several hundred dollars to do it. I figured there are probably other forum members who have a drill press they use and a magnetic lathe chuck they don't and here's an option to make them both more useful. It only takes a few minutes and requires no modifications (at least mine didn't). If you don't have one but come across one for cheap, it might just be worth picking up. Knowing what I know now, if I didn't have this magnetic chuck I would buy one just for this purpose (there was one just like it on eBay the other day for $100). This is going to make it so much more convenient to use my drill press.
