This has come up in another thread. Chris, John the Cat @John_Marlow makes a good point about chucks not holding small drill bits. At the next committee meeting I’ll recommend we get a small Dremel type drill press for use in Machine Shop for both metals and plastics.
This would round out our capabilities on the small end of of the scale. Even the Sherline Mill’s drill chuck can’t hold really small drills.
Personally favor the 9100-21 Fortiflex Heavy Duty Flex Shaft Dremel 9100-21 Fortiflex heavy duty Flex Shaft. more power, longer duty cycle, and versatility. Have sent message to Dremel asking what workstation stand (drill press) holds this model.
If you favor this type acquisition, please look around for various types and post to this thread. Key thing is how small a drill will it hold. Very small drills are almost all collect type.
Is there such a thing as a small collet or chuck that would go into the Sherline mill to use tiny drills? Then you would also have the benefit of DRO positioning.
Chucks are not so great at holding large drill sizes either; no surprise that chucks are way inferior to collets for torque transmission.
The setup could fit nicely on the Sherline table where the Jeweling/plastics only drill press sits and always has aluminum shavings around it in spite of the signage to the contrary. That drill press could be donated to fired arts where the interest in jeweling is.
Buy it. (the Cameron drill press from Craigslist).
That’s exactly the same listing I suggested to Jewelry/Small Metals. New it’s well over $1000. It looks to be in good condition. It has a high precision chuck and spindle and will take drill bits all the way down to number 80 (I’ve never tried anything smaller). It will only take a bit up to 1/8", but above that we should be using a different drill press anyway.
EDIT: Mine has a depth gauge on the top, and I’m guessing we could easily retrofit this one the same way if we want to.
Team and Chris: Is this something we want to get? Under $500 so we can decide without a committee meeting, since it is on Craig’s List sort of time sensitive. If we want I can go get it.