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3D printed sensitive drill press
- Thread starter justin1
- Start date
Saw that video. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Does look interesting but why not just buy a $100 Princess Auto mini drill press.
Depends what your doing with the drill I guess, the princess auto drill probly doesn't go past 10k rpm so any drill bits under 1/16 is probly not recommended. Also runout becomes an issue I would think with low quality bearings/spindle design.
I don't usually drill anything smaller then 1/8 so I don't have any use for micro drill but they are neat none the less.
Ah. Watched it. Didn't understand that he filled the forms with cement. Much more stable. Not sure his moving table is stable enough. Might be why he broke the drill bit. Still... interesting project.
pdentrem
Active Member
Surprisingly these little cheap drill presses are pretty functional. We have two on the shop floor. Can not be ham fisted but for the money pretty good.
With tiny drill bits, your layout has to be right on, center punch the locations etc.
Pierre
With tiny drill bits, your layout has to be right on, center punch the locations etc.
Pierre
I had a MF-70 mini mill. Proxxon makes some neat little stuff. Also it's came down in price compared to when I bought the mini mill. Ok machine for small stuff but aluminum ways so not really a production machine.
Yes, thanks. Brilliant idea imo using 3D printed parts as a mold like that. imo cement is a poor choice for the fill concrete, it never stops moving. Instead, why not do what best machine tool makers do and use epoxy granite concrete (epoxy + sand) (e.g. Harcrete by Hardinge)? Perfectly stable and vibrating damping that is 2x (or more) that of cast iron. Granted, epoxy is expensive, but that machine is a small volume.
Here is a lifting device I made ages ago based on a design that appeared in Home Shop Machinist or maybe Live Steam ages ago. I've never found better. No force of a spring to overcome and while very light to start with, there is a counterbalance so you're not applying force to overcome gravity. The most sensitivity comes from trying to get to a zero force motion, this comes very close to that. I can't remember the designer, but kudos to you!
Very simple to make and it works really well. For fixturing, masking tape works well and I did make a mini v block that sits on top.
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Does the table turn on that lifting rod? Is that an advantage or disadvantage?
Yes, its not keyed, but I can't say I ever thought about it (although could be) There would be a slight bit of friction between the bottom of the post and roller stopping it from turning I guess. i use I've either taped the work to the table or hand held it like the little V block and look in two directions to centre things
I agree with epoxy + sand recommendation. I've used it for mold tooling in the past. A few more thoughts. When applied to typical steel body frames, there is pretty good mechanical adhesion to the steel itself. We don't want filler to part ways with the membrane here & there otherwise its just a dead weight rattling around. Some designs have cross tie members to provide the the cured slurry matrix something to mechanically lock to (think re-bar). An ordinary 3DP cavity would not normally have these features but you could (and probably should) contemplate this. Plastic is kind of a slippery, self releasing material. Some people use 3DP parts to make rudimentary molds, popping parts off with no releasing agent. It also has higher thermal expansion/contraction coefficient. Maybe the easiest thing to do is have some tapped holes for cross tie rods. Or webs with holes in them so the slurry flows through them & locks everything together.
either or, or loctite. Can't remember how I did mine it was so long ago. I was probably more hung up on super accuracy in everything I did (now its just where it needs it) so probably was press fit .....today for sure it would loctite lol. Which ever way, afterward put the shaft in a collet and face the table top and it'll be perfect
