Record drill stand — setting up advice

[Ulsinus]

Hi!

I’ve just bought a Record Power DS19 Universal drill stand.

A quality product let down by a poor instruction manual.

I’m sure many forum members have and use such an item and I would be grateful to receive guidance and advice as to how to set the drill stand up for proper operation.

Your help and guidance will be much appreciated.

 

[Sideways]

It doesn't look very complex and won't be intended to be precision machinery.
The drill collar in these can tilt so that may be the main thing to check. If you have a length of round rod that you know to be straight, you can grip this in the chuck and use a square to check that the axis of your drill chuck is at right angles to the base. Turn the chuck by hand while you do so and you'll see if the end of the rod or point of your drill draws circles instead of staying in one place.
Probably good to lubricate whereever the moving part slides along the column once ina while. Some sort of PTFE "dry" lubricant spray maybe if you use it with wood or a regular wipe with a little oil to protect the column from rust.

 

[Bm101]

What Sideways says. It's a drill press designed to work as well as possible within a price range. Most drills that you can attach to it will have some degree of runout (which is the point Sideways makes about testing to see if you get circles. Runout is the degree from perfectly central that your drill will spin your bit at ). That means the quill (that spins the drill bit) is innacurate. Most hand drills are by the nature of construction. In normal use this is not an issue. It's well within the parameters you would expect and fine for most tasks especialy for woodworking unless you demand very high accuracy.
The only way you will get an engineering standard drill is to buy one.
That means hello Remortgage or hello buying second hand and everything that entails.
Forgive me if I'm teaching the suckin of eggs. If you are completely new to pillar drills I'd stress a few basic things.
Clamp whatever you drill. Even on a handheld drill you might be surprised at the torque when the drill is fixed in a press. There's various available.
This one will even colour match for that on trend Post Easter Racing Green look. :wink:
https://www.raygrahams.com/products/141 ... glcr_d_bwe
There are plenty of lighter clamps of this sort of variety available:
https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-d ... ps-ax23568

Screwtipped bits such as some augers can go from 'handy' when done by hand to 'Christ on a bike, We've Landed!' moments fairly rapid in a clamped drill assembly.

Never EVER wear gloves. EVER.

Good luck and welcome.

 

[Sideways]

Never EVER wear gloves. EVER.

Amen to that !
Gloves and rotating machinery don't mix.

 

[sunnybob]

Bolt it down.
Do not try to drill anything unless that press is firmly bolted to a substantial bench. Even small power drills have incredible torque and will twist that thing off the bench if something gets stuck.

A simple way to check for vertical is to put a 135 degree (approx) bend in a bit of metal rod that will fit inside the chuck. Tighten it into the chuck and lower the press down till the sticky out bent bit is almost touching one corner of the base plate. Slowly rotate the chuck by hand. The point of the bent rod should be the same distance above each corner of the base plate. As you adjust the angle you can move the press lower untill the rod is just scraping all four corners.
job done.

And if your an office type, what they said about gloves goes DOUBLE for ties and loose shirt sleeves.
I've worked with dangerous machinery for well over 50 years, I wont even wear rings or any other jewellery.

 

[novocaine]

I've worked with dangerous machinery for well over 50 years, I wont even wear rings or any other jewellery.

spoil sport. I love my manacle, granted it started out as a watch with a lovely metal strap, till I put an arc through it when MMA welding a 1/4 plate. I did cut it off later that day, left a nice ring round my wrist for a few months, can't see the scars anymore though.

When I went to uni, we got sent to the local technical college to learn how to do some stuff (because even managers need to know a few basics apparently), day 1, I turn up in workshop clothes, because I grew up in one, so a light weight shirt with a button half way up the arm to hold a sleeve out the way and hard wearing trousers/safety boots, most the rest rock up in hoodies and trainers (excluding a mate who was working in a metal punch factory at the time so had learned the hard way), anyways, by the end of the day I still had my shirt on (granted I'd been laughed at in the morning though), in the most part, they went home with sleevless hoodies. they didn't catch them in anything, but the lecturer (foreman of the shop really) wandered round with a pair a sheers in his pocket, if he caught you at a machine with your sleeves down he cut them off. the next week everyone turned up in T shirts or shirts, we did hand filing that week because he was a turnip with an evil sense of humour, nice guy though.

anyway, cool story bro and all that, back to the drill stand, checking run out as above will work but won't tell you what is out of square, if it's the drill in the collar, the chuck, the head on the column or the column on the base, all of which will be adjusted in different ways and flex in different ways. I'd mark a line down column then set that forward, clamp a square on the bed then measure back to the line with a caliper, adjust to square, thats part 1. fit the drill. Clamp a rod of known straight (roll it on a flat surface) in the chuck and use a square to get as close as possible to perpendicular to the bed. now use those calipers again to measure back to the column, rotate the chuck and do it again for both things. adjust to as close as you can and that's part 2. now move the head up or down the column and repeat part 2, see if it changes, thats part 3. so part 1 is obvious, it gets the column and the bed at 90, part 2 is about the drill being at 90 to the bed and parallel to the column. part 3 is about the head travel being parallel to the column and is the hardest to adjust.

have fun, I have a cheap version of that which I use with big clamp and the base spun round for drilling holes in big stuff that I want to be close as possible to 90.

 

[Lazurus]

I use a similar stand with a small trend router as an overhead router for some jobs, works really well within its limits, a shop made table and fence add to its usefulness.

 

[Nelsun]

I had one a while back and it took me a wee while to come to grips with it. As I remember, you'd get it set up, turn the handle to lower the drill and the bit responsible for resisting the force of the big spring would invariably start to creep down the column and subsequently knacker your carefully set up depth stop. The knob that clamps the main body to the pillar was a bit small and wouldn't tighten tight enough in my experience. So I stuck a [please excuse me] big knob =P~ on it and that helped tightening it it right up.

I didn't want to bolt it to my bench as space is very tight so I bolted it to a board which I'd then clamp to the bench. A homemade table and fence with t-track in it also made it more versatile.

Ultimately, I ended up selling it on and bought a cheap drill press as it was a lot less faff and a bit more precise what with the chuck run-out on the mains drill I had being "very poor" #-o

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I have a cheap version of that which I use with big clamp and the base spun round for drilling holes in big stuff that I want to be close as possible to 90.

I have 35 year old Bosch S7 (a very good bit of kit) that bolts down to the bench through dog holes allowing it to swing out over the vice - a 53e so huge holding ability - to drill anything not flat or odd shaped.
It also mounts in a small "table" with a fence allowing a 43mm collar router such as the small Bosch POF50/52 to be used in it. The fence is fixed at the back, with a gap on the middle so the adjustement is provided by swinging the router towards and past it.

 

[novocaine]

I use mine more for stuff I couldn't get in the workshop at all, like 12" pipe, trees, logs or in one case a concrete pole. I can chuck a ratchet strap round it then, great for really slow holes, like a mag drill but on the cheap (because I'm cheap), saves me using a brace for wood. don't use it much though, it lives in a box in storage these days, along with my scroll bending jigs and

 

[Ulsinus]

Wow!

Thank you all for the time and well considered advice that each of you have provided.

Much appreciated and be assured nobody is guilty of 'telling granny how to suck eggs'.

This is particularly true in the case of the safety advice. It can never be restated enough.

Novices and tyros note!

Once again 'thank you' to everyone for sharing their knowledge and experience.

 

[Racers]

My Bosch drill stand is bolted to a 2x2 that gets clamped into a work mate, it comes in handy some times but having two drill presses it is a bit dusty these days.

Pete

 

[Ulsinus]

Another question about the Record DS19 drill stand from a novice.

The headstock angle is adjustable rather than fixed.

It can't be for drilling holes at an angle can it?

So how can this adjustable headstock be used?