ordered a Milwaukee drill press today

[Tom King]

Not exactly woodworking, but this is the Power Tools forum.   I've been looking for this particular model for a good while, and was almost ready to order another one, that was up on ebay.  This one is actually the nicest looking one of this model that I have run across.  The magnetic base will apply 1,600 pounds of force.  It's two speed, variable speed reversing, and the base is adjustable after kicking in the magnet.  Rated capacity is 1-1/4" diameter twist drill in steel.

This particular motor has 12.5 amps, and a no. 3 Morse taper.   There are all sorts of things that can go in that Morse taper, but I really only need the 3/4" chuck for now.  That chuck normally goes for about a hundred bucks, and doesn't come with the machine, but this one has one in it.

It came up on ebay today, with free shipping, and I jumped on it while I had the chance.

I need it for some work I'm doing on a tractor, and for drilling holes in steel plate that will be part of left in place concrete forms on an old house we are replacing the too close to the ground sills with concrete.

[wtnhighlander]

That's a great machine, Tom. We have a couple like it at work. Beasts.

[Steve B Anderson]

That’s one heavy duty drill you got there Tom. Be sure to use drill drifts when changing out bits with the Morse taper.

[Coop]

Looks like it came from a pawn shop or tool rental company. Looks like a mean mofo! 

[Tom King]

21 hours ago, Steve B Anderson said:

That’s one heavy duty drill you got there Tom. Be sure to use drill drifts when changing out bits with the Morse taper.

I don't think I'll be using any bits with Morse taper.  For the jobs I have for it, the chuck is all I'll need.  I may never need to take the chuck out even.

I have a bunch of Morse taper bits, that came with a lifetime accumulation of a machinist friend of mine, but I don't know enough about this stuff to know even if the Morse taper for a Bridgeport is the same as this.  I'm fairly good at figuring stuff out though.

  The only reason I can think of needing to take the chuck out,  is if I decide to use Weldon shank annular cutters on the plates I need to cut some holes in.  I will need some holes to reach through to tap some opposing wedges, but may just cut the holes with a torch.  They'll never be seen again, but there are a bunch of them, and I would like for them to be fairly smooth, to reach through.  Need to figure out if cutting a smooth hole would be less worry than a bunch of grinding.  I'll be sure to use the right drifts (wedges) for the job.  I don't think this comes with anything else, even the chuck key, but I have a 3/4" chuck key.

It's some place in Louisiana that buys, and sells industrial equipment.  That one doesn't look nearly as beat up as every other one that I've looked at.  It looks like it's worth half the cost of a new one.

I'll post pictures of the work on the tractor.  I needed to enlarge, and rethread some holes that hold the front end loader onto the engine block.  I have two done on each side, but the third one on each side needs a precision hole drilled, before tapping.  I have two good holes rethreaded on each side, but the third ones need something besides handheld drills.  I bought a beast of a 3/4" drill, but after bending a couple of bits with it, and it locking up, it's too dangerous for both me, and the tractor.  So, long story short, I went looking for one of these.

I'll bolt a 3/4" steel plate to the sides of the tractor, using the two good holes on each side to mount the plate.  Then this drill will drill the last holes.  Since the holes in the block have been enlarged, the holes in the mounts for the loader will be reamed with this drill.  I have some tapered reamers.

The holes have needed to go from 5/8" to 3/4", and 3/4" to 7/8" and maybe 1" for one of them.  It's been kind of a long job as I've figured out what I need to do, and kept buying tools just for that job.  Otherwise, it's tens of thousands of dollars worth of tractor that is useless to us.

Once I have those holes finished, I'll build a splitting frame that uses those bolt holes, to split the tractor to repair the forward clutch pack.  That will actually be the easy part of fixing this tractor.

It's actually not real hard to cut threads in good quality cast iron with a good starting hole, even these large ones.

edited to add:   I read the manual, and no drifts needed for this 3MT holder.  The whole collet assembly that holds the 3MT socket is held in place with a large knurled knob.  copied, and pasted from the manual:  the picture didn't copy

These drills are supplied with a No. 3 Morse Taper Socket. To insert a bit or adapter into the socket: 1. Make sure the taper is clean and lightly oiled. Foreign material can cause misalignment. 2. Insert the taper into the socket and rotate the taper until the bit tang slides into the slot at the top of the socket. 3. Press the taper firmly into the socket, or use the feed handle to press the bit against a piece of wood. To remove a bit or adapter from the socket: 1. Unscrew the knurled collar and remove the entire Morse Taper Socket. 2. Strike the bit tang firmly with a soft metal mallet or strike the bit tang firmly on a wood or soft metal surface. 3. Replace the Morse Taper Socket by aligning the notches with tabs on the drill. 4. Replace the knurled collar and tighten. 

[drzaius]

Those big old school Milwaukee tools are incredibly tough. They'll last many years of hard everyday use.

[Tom King]

Yeah, I'm still using some old, made in the USA milwaukee tools that are close to fifty years old.  This one is a current model, and fairly new.

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Power-Tools/Drilling/Magnetic-Drills/4208-1

[Tom King]

It showed up today.  I was worried that I might have to replace bearings, or something, but it's like new!  I plugged it in, and everything works perfectly, and quietly.  The shipper did an amazing job packing it in a large box, with medium density foam all around it.  They screwed the handles out too, and they were wrapped in the plastic wrap, and tape around foam rubber surrounding them.   It could have been dropped out of an airplane, and probably still have been okay.

The one issue I did see was that there was some runout on the Huge 3/4" chuck.  I knew how to take the 3MT chuck mount out from reading the manual online before it came.  They don't come with the chuck, and 3MT adapter.   Someone had just stuck it in without wiping the tapers.  I didn't even have to use a Scotchbrite pad.  A rag cleaned both up easily, the chuck went in, just tightening the big knurled knob by hand, and the runout was gone!

I think someone who didn't spend their own money on it thought it was defective, and was sold off whatever job it was on without doing anything.

I'm anxious to use it on the tractor, but it's too cold to work in that building now, so it will have to wait a while.

[Mark J]

Hey congrats, that's a good day.

[Brendon_t]

Great job. You're a great example of what I consider real American Grit.  

Not sure I've ever seen you end a sentence with and I didn't know what to do, so I quit.

[Tom King]

Here's the picture.    I have a 3/4" 12x12 plate of steel coming.  I have two good holes on each side of the engine block now, so the plan is to drill the three holes in the plate, mount the drill press to the plate, and use an engine lift to get it into place for bolting to the two good holes.  Then once it's in the perfect position, the third hole will be drilled out to the next size up, and threaded.  One side has to take a 3/4" threaded hole to 7/8", and the other side a 5/8" hole to 3/4".

I was able to redo one hole on each side with the big 3/4" drill, but bent, and broke several bits in the process.  The last hole on each side has other problems, and it didn't look like it would be possible to hand drill those.  I might have been able too, but then the holes in the big steel mounting frames, that bolt to those holes, have to be drilled out, and I decided I had gambled enough with the big handheld drill.

It's surprisingly easy to cut the threads, even with those large holes.  I'll take pictures with it mounted to the tractor when I get to that point.  It's too cold for me to work in that building now, but hopefully it'll warm up pretty soon.  The tractor has been in there most of the Winter, and I had to fix the fuel tank before I could get it in there.

Once I get those holes rethreaded, that drill press will be used to drill some holes in 1/2" plate, bolt those to the block, and weld up the rest of the splitting frame, so I can split the tractor to get the forward clutch pack out.  Still should be a lot better than buying a new tractor for 60,000.  This one had the motor rebuilt several years ago, and is in good shape other than these current issues.

I thought I would resell this drill press after I get finished with this job, but I may end up liking it too much to get rid of it.  So far, I am.

edited to add:  The white button turns the magnet on.  The motor won't run without the magnet engaged.  green button is forward.  Yellow button is reverse. Red button is stop.  Knob is speed control from 0-250 rpm, or 0-500, depending on which way the little lever seen through the handles is flipped.  The lever on the back, lower end of the red part lets you slide the whole thing, above the black base, around for positioning after the magnet has a 1,600 lb. hold on the metal it's stuck to.

 

[Tom King]

I don't remember when we did this job, but I just downloaded some pictures these were taken with out of a Casio camera I found buried in the truck.

This is a Bad Ass machine.  The electro-magnetic base is Strong.  The machine weighs about 85 pounds.

First, we drilled some holes in a foot square 3/4" steel plate.  Those holes were used to bolt the plate to the two out of three holes, on each side of the tractor, where the front end loader bolts to the engine block.

Each side originally had two 5/8" threaded holes, and one 3/4" at the top of the row of three holes.  The left side had the top, large hole severely screwed up, and one of the 5/8" holes.  I was able to get the two 5/8" holes on the left side good enough to bolt the plate to it.

On the right side, I was able to get some 7/8" threads in the top hole, and the bottom 5/8" hole rethreaded good enough to hold the plate.

I had thought that we would need to rig up an engine lift to get the magnetic drill press in place, but it turned out not to be too bad for both of us to man handle it close enough, and then there is an adjustment that lets you slide around the drill press part, after the magnet is engaged.

Pictures show it in place, on the left side, redrilling the top hole out to 7/8", so we could thread that one up to 1".   second picture shows the 1" threaded hole, and yes, it was a bitch to cut, but more on that when we get back.

More story to come, but we have to go.....later.