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Does anyone have any other inexpensive suggestions? Thanks

Does anyone have any other inexpensive suggestions? Thanks

(post is archived)

[–] • 2 pts

a drill press is NOT a mill

[–] • 0 pt

This. Drill presses cannot withstand the lateral forces that occur in milling and your chuck can fall out because of the taper on the arbor being only a friction fit. A milling machine has an arbor that locks at the top with a nut or other fastening system to keep it from falling out. The taper of the drill press arbor will loosen and cause chatter, wobble and completely fuck up your accuracy of cutting not to mention it lacks the torque needed for milling and is generally too slow to work properly.

[–] • 0 pt

I can make my drill press mill instead of drill in my multi-verse.

[–] • 0 pt

A drill press and an expensive XY drill press vice that is true (cheaper ones won't be as straight, if you get a bad one youlld know what I mean). Also look into modular jigs

[–] • 0 pt

Thx, I have no machining experience so bare with me. Is the X Y compound vice also called a cross slide? Would something like this be suitable. I'm not sure what the price range for decent would be. Not trying to drain the bank but would like to get something before the Joe Biden ban. https://files.catbox.moe/c17gyw.png

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

A modular jig might fall under any temporary unconstitutional "ban" but the cross slide/X Y compound vice should be available for ever. Just do research and look up the specs. They should all come with some form of specs for margin of precision/error. Use machine forums or even fbook pages. A tool like this opens more doors to you than just to mill out a lower. It's an investment in yourself more than anything

[–] • 0 pt

No, you need the tooling. Best to have a high quality router, as well.

[–] • 0 pt

I have a router as well, but for some reason this 80% jig looked really cheap in comparison to the ones for routers which were more in the $200+ range.

[–] • 0 pt

I would not recommend using only that kit and a drill press, by themselves, to finish an 80% lower. The way that kit works is to use the drill press to drill holes to a certain depth in the 80% block. Notice the jig piece that has all the holes in it. That is the top of the jig, once the jig is assembled. You use your drill press to drill down in all those holes in the jig. This removes most of the material in the block that needs to be removed, but not enough to complete the lower. Then you swap out the top of the jig will the other template to finish the job. However, this requires you to use a drill press as a mill. I would not recommend, as others in the comments have also said, using your drill press to try and mill out the remaining material. Your drill press was not designed for lateral forces.

From this point, you need a router (wood router that is) that allows you to set the depth on it. You then need special milling bits that fit the router to clean out the rest of the material by making small passes at increasing depth. Do not buy regular machining mill ends, those will not fit in the router. Other vendors sell the milling bits you need for a router with their jig kits, or you can buy the bits separately.

Obviously, the finish will not be as nice as a properly machined lower, but it will work.

[–] • 0 pt

Thank you for taking the time to explain this. It explains why router jigs are suggested more frequently.