Author Topic: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist  (Read 2221 times)

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Offline amecks

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I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« on: November 18, 2016, 06:28:28 PM »
I had a day off today and after my morning stuff was done I was perusing Craigslist and found a small drill press posted for only $35.  I went to look at it and it is really small - I am not sure how drill presses are sized but the work table is about 6 or 7" square.  It's a K&F model 9610 - in very nice condition - runs smooth and quiet.  I bought it for $30.
I don't have a 1/2" drill in my home shop so this should come in handy for those times when my 3/8" Black and Decker just won't do.
Has anyone ever heard of this K&F company?  The guy told me he bought it 30 years ago at Sears.  I looked all over for more info - there is no indication of where it is made or who K&F are.  It most definitely looks like a typical cheap made in Japan or China tool.
Regards
Al
Note the 12" square in the photos for size...

Sorry - phone pictures and this ones blurry...
Al
Jordan, NY

Offline oldgoaly

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2016, 07:39:05 PM »
most likely Taiwan, there was a importer of lathes and mills among other things with a similar name.
Much like Enco lower quality import tools, still better than much of the "china made" stuff now.
 
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Offline turnnut

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2016, 08:25:27 PM »
 if it drills, it's worth it.

 under the top cover, does it have  3 step pulleys for speed change ?
 if it does, that's a plus.

Offline amecks

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2016, 06:31:03 AM »
It has 5 speeds (5 step pulleys) and it could stand to have a new belt.  A similar model on eBay selling for stupid money ($129) has an identical nameplate with Made In China at the bottom - somebody covered that part of my nameplate with black marker or paint. 
I can't find a manual for it anywhere online.  There's next to zero info available.  There are however a ton of similar new drills out there.  I found one model out of five that had a parts list with the belt description.  None of the parts lists had part numbers - only the number of the drawing reference (1,2,3 etc).  My belt may be different but at least it gives me a start - the size was V5, 5/16x26.
Al
Al
Jordan, NY

Offline Bill Houghton

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2016, 11:36:47 AM »
Drill press sizes are called out by the center of the circle that they can drill, or, putting it another way, twice the distance from the center of the chuck to the column.  Yours looks to be an 8" or 10" press.  Not big, but I had a similarly sized Delta drill press for years as my only drill press, and it was quite handy.

The big virtue of drill presses for hole drilling is that they'll drill a hole at an accurate right angle.  For the dollars, if your uses are only now-and-again, you did well.

That looks to have a tilting table.  One issue with cheap drill presses can be a table that's not at a true right angle to the chuck, which will mean your holes aren't, in fact, accurate after all.  To test this, raise the table to examine the angle setting; there's usually a pivot bolt, and a pin to hold it at the neutral (not tilted) position.  Make sure that's all in place, and unplug the drill press.  Take a piece of stiff wire* and bend it into a sort of "Z" shape: a right angle bend long enough to fit into the chuck, a center section as long as half the edge-to-edge measurement of the table (if the table's not square, use the measurement from the shorter side), and another right angle bend down.  When you finish, and the wire is inserted in the chuck, you'll have something that will sweep around the edges of the table, with a finger pointing down.  Move the table up until the finger is just barely touching the table.  If this is too hard, get it close enough to insert something like a feeler gauge between finger and table.  Now, rotate the chuck and test your measurement at various positions around the table.  If the measurement comes out identical or darned close to identical, that's OK.

Test runout by chucking a drill bit that you know to be straight (usually a large diameter drill bit will be more likely straight than a small one).  If you happen to have a smooth piece of rod of known straightness, that's even better.  The drill press is still unplugged, right?  Good.  If you've got a dial indicator, set it up and rotate the chuck by hand, with the indicator against the smooth portion of the bit, as low as you can get on the bit without hitting the flutes.  If you don't have a dial indicator, sort out a way to clamp a smooth piece of steel or hardwood close to the bit, and use your feeler gauge to check clearance as you rotate the chuck.  This is less reliable, partly because there's a fine art to using feeler gauges.  They're called "feeler" gauges because you have to develop the sensitivity to tell when the fit is the same on a particular thickness from one setting to the next.  A couple of thousandths of runout: worry not.  Huge runout: bad chuck, badly installed chuck, bad bearings, or generally poor machining of the parts.
------------
*If you've got a wire coat hanger, that's about right.  Or the wire used for political lawn signs, which is probably easy to find right now.

Offline amecks

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2016, 02:08:32 PM »
Thanks Bill.  I'll check these things out as I find time during the week. 

The table does have a tilt feature.  It does not have a crank to raise and lower, it must be done manually.  There is no adjustable stop.  It must have been removed, there's a place for it.

Regards
Al
Al
Jordan, NY

Offline p_toad

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2016, 03:08:19 PM »
What i found on the larger K&F on the web were all tagged "made in Taiwan"  (as opposed to mainland China)...

Offline Bill Houghton

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2016, 08:31:27 PM »
Taiwanese tools were all over the terrain in quality.  I had a Taiwanese bench grinder that could have doubled as a paint shaker; but the Taiwanese-made bench grinder that Delta sold for a while was steady as a rock.  I could use the Delta without bolting it to the bench.

Offline EVILDR235

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Re: I bought a small drill press on Craigslist
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2016, 06:09:28 PM »
I have a Taiwan built drill press that is small like yours. I bought it in the early 1980's for $79.00 and no sales tax. Being where it was made i figured it might last a few years. The chuck mounted with a Morse taper. In the last 30 plus years all i have had to do was add a little oil to the chuck because it was getting a little stiff. I even modified it one time to make a poor mans lathe to turn down a aluminum distributor housing to fit  different engine.

EvilDr235