Mild Steel Tube for Upgrading Pillar Drill

[MartinHobby]

I have a much treasured Nutool pillar drill with a 13" column. Having bought a reasonably meaty drill vice for it, I find there is insufficient height in the column to use the vice mounted on the drill table. I would like to get a taller column and have scoured the internet for 46mm mild steel external diameter [or indeed any] tube for this purpose. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[NickWelford]

"Much treasured Nutool pillar drill" - sounds like an oxymoron to me......,

 

[RogerP]

Can't help I'm afraid. I went down that route 4/5 years ago - never did find anything 46mm.

The answer is to buy next size up and get someone with a lathe to skim it down.

 

[Bod]

Repeated advice removed

Bod

 

[flh801978]

I did the same job with a floor standing startrite
I needed 65mm dia 6ft long
I ended buying solid bar
it nearly broke me carrying it but about £65 as i remember

Ian

 

[Wildman]

get 50mm and have it ground down

 

[spinks]

You wont get pipe with an OD of 46mm....but if you get a piece of 1 1/2 (40mm) nominal bore it has an OD of 48.2 so you would have enough wall thickness left to be able to turn it down....how much strength will be left is anyones guess though!!

 

[Hitch]

I extended one for FIL a few years ago, used a bit of heavy wall 48mm and turned it down.

 

[Shrubby]

Scaffold tube is 48.3mm outside diameter
Matt

 

[heimlaga]

The pillar has to be turned to the correct dimension. That means that you will have to start from a piece of solid shafting or very thick walled pipe of the kind used by machinists as raw material for various turnings.
The cost of the raw material plus the cost of having it turned would be nearly enough to buy a new low end Chinnese drill press with a longer stem. It would simply not be worth the effort in my oppinion.

 

[woodpig]

As a point of interest the last Chinese drill I saw (Jet) had a very thin walled tube for a column. Less than 1/8" as I remember. In contrast my Progress No 1 has a solid column. On that basis anything over 1/8" final wall should do and you could always fill it with epoxycrete to damp it down if you wanted to.

 

[chaoticbob]

Another possibility might be to make a riser - turn down a bit of say 1 and 7/8 inch bar to 46mm, then turn a smaller diameter length at one end to slip inside the existing column. Even replacing the entire existing column with say 18" length solid steel would only be 15 quid tops for material and however many beer-tokens you might be disposed to dispense to someone with an engineering lathe to turn it to diameter - not a difficult job!
Robin

 

[graduate_owner]

I like the idea of scaffold tube. If it's 48.3 od then skimming just over 2mm won't weaken it much, and it would be much stronger than my existing Nutool pillar. I just need to decide what length to go for.

K

 

[Monkey Mark]

Does your table run on a rack and pinion or, like mine, slip up/down then tighten with a bolt?


If the later, rather than turing down the full length you could bore out the clamp on the table. May still need to turn down the ends but the majority would be left with a thicker wall.