ee_chris
Aluminum
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2003
- Location
- Derwood, MD
I recently finished cleaning up a Wilton-Strands 25" drill press I picked up over a decade ago. I built a converter box back then to run it, with a transformer, VFD, and filter so I could run the 480V 3-phase motor on 230V single-phase, but after that the project got put on the back burner.
I got a Chicago Quadrill quill turret that is made for this drill. It's handy for some projects, but it costs you 2 of the 5 inches of quill travel, and the chucks are 1/2" capacity vs. the native MT3 spindle. With the original setup, it is a real PITA to take off and put back on, so I made and modified some parts and now I can do it in a couple of minutes.
I made a simple wood fixture and a stand to make removal and installation of the Quadrill easier.
I modified the depth-stop screw so the knob on the bottom is removable. A pin in a cross-drilled hole is retained by a circlip in a shallow groove. Original one is on the right.
The big part of the project was making a new collar for the depth stop screw that is easily removable. The factory part is held on to the bottom of the quill with set-screws, and it has a lip on the bottom that makes it captive above a protective cap at the bottom of the spindle. To remove it you have to pull the quill, which means removing the pinion, which requires pulling the downfeed gearbox off the side of the main housing. And you have to dismantle the spindle. Not a process you want to do, ever. The depth stop is a must-have, because this drill has a 4-speed power downfeed with an electric clutch. You can drill to depth with a button press, and the drill retracts by itself after it hits the stop.