Upright Drilling Machine

The Drill Press is one of the most frequently used machine tools. They are used mainly for drilling holes but reaming, countersinking, and boring can also be accomplished with the drill press. There are two upright drilling machines in the shop along with an assortment of drills and reamers of various sizes and types.

THE CONTROLS

POWER/RANGE
This switch has three positions, high range, low range and off. Low range is used when larger holes or harder materials need to be machined while high range is useful when small holes and softer materials are being drilled. Some Machines may have separate switches for power and range, or only one range, as the second picture shows.

SPINDLE SPEED
Both the high range and low range spindle speeds are changed using this control. The speeds should only be changed while the motor is running.

FEED LEVER
The Feed Lever is used to raise and lower the spindle.

Upright Drilling Machine

USING THE DRILL PRESS

Parts being machined with the drill press must either be in a vise or clamped to the table. A piece of plywood must be used under parts that are clamped to the table. This prevents drilling into the table top.

After a part is secured it must be aligned under the spindle. The part should have all lines and points laid out with a scribe or punch before moving onto any machining, this will help align the spindle to the proper locations on the part.

The first step in drilling metal and plastic requires a center drill to start the hole. The center drill should leave an opening big enough to give the first drill a place to start cutting. Note that making a large hole requires multiple drills of increasing size. As a rule you should always start with a 1/8th" drill and increase the drill size by 1/8th" increments until the required drill size is approached, then use that final drill. If a hole must be an exact size at finish then a reamer must be used. A hole approximately 1/64th" smaller then the size desired should be drilled before finishing the hole with a reamer.

If these precautions are used the drills will last longer and there is less of a chance that a mistake will be made. Starting holes with small drills can also help avoid breaking the drill off inside your part or cracking plexiglass parts. The speed of the drill is also inversely proportional to the size of the drill, so small drills require a high spindle speed and as the size of the drill increases the speed of the drill press should be decreased.

One last note should be made about drilling plexi-glass. A brand new drill is not always better when cutting plexi-glass because it tends to bite into it and may pull it out of the vise. There are special drills that are dulled in order to avoid this problem.