Sterling/ Richardson drill press spindle

[china eyes]

Sterling or Richardson drill press spindle ..
Runs true .selling with original jacobs chuck england no.34 13 mm capacity.. this comes from my sterling floor standing drill but has replaced mine with a richardson spindle mt2. So guaranteed to fit either press.. $ 50 . Pick up to 2759 .. its a good swap for the bench top drill press of this kind as it would give more work clearance .3 spline .

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[wheelinround]

China can you give me dimensions of the shaft please? Dia of bearing area, length over all & distance between centres if bearing seats?

Ray

[china eyes]

About 160 mm end of spline to the thread...360 to the end of the inner bearing .. about 17 mm dia. For both bearing.. 3 spline

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[wheelinround]

Thanks China will get back to you asap.

[JoeB]

Hi China, is this spindle still available?
Thanks
Joe

[china eyes]

Sorry for this late reply, but yes still is.


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[JoeB]

Great. Can I arrange to collect this from you. Let me know contact details, or you can call me on 0438.787.944
Joe

[china eyes]

Sold

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[Metalmachine]

Sorry to drag up an old post... Hope its not a problem.

Have a couple of odd questions...

The photo of the two spindles in the OP.... What taper is the shorter spindle? And what chance have I got of finding and fitting annular contact bearings and adding some preload? I have a couple of used Richardsons that I am considering, one is the long spindle, one is the short spindle, E39. Wondering if I could do light milling using an X-Y compound slide table. Or if it will be a frustrating pursuit. I know I'll have to find a way to lock the collet chuck to the spindle (so it doesn't fall out) and sort out rigidity issues (may or may not be doable). Its not the only option I'm considering, and yes, its a little wild and unconventional but without funds or room for a proper mill its something I've been thinking about. (I have a feeling I'll be embarrassed that I asked this!)

Thanks,
Steve.

[kafie1980]

I personally think its a lot more effort than one should put in converting a drill press into a milling machine.

Most cheap import mills just use regular ball bearings although often people replace them with the angular contact type, which adds its own set of complications in that the angular contact bearings have to be a machined pair and you need to work out a bearing preload mechanism.

The other mechanism that needs to be worked out is the drawbar setup without which you will constantly be fighting with the pain of the tool being pulled out of the taper. This will require serious modifications of the existing spindle or making a new spindle.

The XY compound table will need to be fastened to the drill press table and the drill press table rides on round column that is locked in with a clamping mechanism. How rigid is this setup going to be?

And then the inherent issue of a round column mill in terms of its alignment with the head while adjusting the vertical height. (I am sure several round column mill owners are reading this with raised eyebrows). Round column mill owner threads online will give you an idea how they have experimented with various modifications to work around these issues.

After all the hard work you will put in, you may just realize that you only have the ability to take light cuts in soft metals.

I am happy to be proven wrong as I am only speaking based on my research rather than actual life experience as I have tinkered around with this idea in my mind a few times in the past.

[BaronJ]

Hi Steve, Guys,

I own a FOBCO Star drill press, an excellent machine !

Way back the F O Brian company made a much modified drill press machine, still a drill press, but redesigned to be able to mill with it. If my memory is correct, it had an MT2 taper socket with a 10 mm or 3/8" drawbar, more likely 3/8" inch. I don't recall if the spindle bearings were changed or upgraded. It used the MT2 taper collets, the same as the Myford Lathe did. It also had a nut on the spindle just above the tapered socket so that you could use it to remove items that were fitted into the taper.

I originally considered buying the mill/drill version, but on advice stuck with the 1/2" chuck press drill. They are quite rare machines nowadays, they didn't make too many of them.

[kafie1980]

Arboga made a similar mill drill with a screwed on ring that would retain the MT3 tools in the spindle. So we can use such a workaround instead of a drawbar mechanism. And they have a tool release mechanism on their drills and mill drills.

The spindle bearings on most cheap mills as I mentioned earlier are regular ball bearings but they don’t last too long in terms of the axial loads which is why angular contact bearings are a suggested alternative. I actually did this several years ago on my Sieg SX2P as well but there was already a preload nut on the top of that spindle in the original design. With the preload properly set, the axial runout is remarkably improved else we start to pay the price in broken endmills

[kafie1980]

Hi Steve, Guys,

I own a FOBCO Star drill press, an excellent machine !

You mean “pillar drill”

[BaronJ]

Hi Kafie,

Yes pillar drill, I originally bought three of them two floor standing drills and one bench drill. The bench drill I still have and regularly use ! Its now bolted to the top of a steel cabinet along with an X - Y table replacing the original one that is now swung to the back and used as a shelf.

13-02-2021-001.jpg

[kafie1980]

Yes, I remember reading about Fobco pillar drills when I first developed an interested in tools and machines but I have never seen them in the flesh.

Beautiful design and appears well made.

I also chased that Record drill vice for sometime here but never found the original ones here, we have the Irwin branded ones.