Drill Press Bearing

 I bought this Drill Press in July, 2010, and have been using it continuously since then.  It has been a cornerstone of my Metal Shop in fabricating multitudes of projects for many jobs, and home projects.  So, I was kinda of sad to see it loose a bearing in the drive motor.  It should be a simple fix, just replace the motor.  Well, that is where everything got difficult, and I had to get creative.  This is a shot of the Drill Press when it was new in 2010.

 It's nothing special, just a cheap bench top Drill Press from the import store.  This one got some special attention for fabricating my nefarious plans, LOL!  I added a Cross Slide Table to it so that I could do milling.  This was before I know what was possible for the little Drill Press.  Side Cut Milling doesn't work very well on a Drill Press because it's bearing are setup for plunging into the material (drilling), and not side cutting (milling).  So the Cross Slide Vice wasn't a good choice, but I soon found something that would be helpful.  This is the Mini Mill configuration with the Palmgren Milling Table.

The Palmgren Milling Table allowed me to do some limited milling, and really opened up what I could do on a Drill Press.  I could now do side cutting to clean up slots, edges, and do chamfering.  I could also now do milling processes in soft materials, like plastic, and wood.  One of my latest projects was making countersinks in a one inch thick aluminum plate, which it did easily.

So, over the last week I noticed the drive motor started making a knocking sound.  I spent some time trying to diagnose, and remedy the problem, but after a while it became apparent the bearings in the drive motor were worn out, and I needed to replace them.  Simple right?  We go over to the import store, and buy a new set of bearings, and then install them, LOL!  Your Drill Press should not make this sound...

I tried to find a replacement motor first.  Well, the import store doesn't sell a replacement motor that fits this drill press.  Huh?  Well, that's convenient...  So, I went to another place to get a replacement motor, and they had one, but it was $200.  The whole Drill Press was only $150 at the import store.  Uulgh...  So, I was kinda stuck there for a while.  I looked at replacing the entire Drill Press, perhaps a little better, and was fascinated with that for a while.  Ultimately I decided to buy the same drill press from the import store.  It was the cheapest option that would get my Mini Mill working again.

Why the heck would you want to do that?  This Drill Press has done everything that I needed it to do for 11 years.  What happened to the drive motor is an expected breakdown, and would have happened eventually, and I guess last week was it's time.  So I get a replacement motor, but also a full set of spare parts.  I can repair the bearings in the first drive motor at my leisure, and then I have a backup motor.  Also this gives me an opportunity to disassemble the spindle, and look at its bearing configuration.  Maybe I can change the bearings, and make my little Mini Mill even better at side cutting.  I have also been toying with the idea of adding stepper motors to the milling table.  OK, mo later, back to the Metal Shop...