Tips for using a cheap drill press.

I recently did a 3 module build and although I have worked in machine shops with quality industrial equipment I forgot a rule when using my cheap drill press at home.

The tip is always orientate your work piece in the same position.
That is mark your north wall and regardless of the hole you are drilling always have the work piece positioned in the same direction, that way if there is a degree or 2 of misalignment, all your holes will be misaligned at the same angle....I forgot this.

So now instead of a triple laser head I have a single with a lot of air cooling.
It's all good though, I will just make another later.

Here's some pic's so you can laugh with/at me, I deserve it for learning the same forgotten lesson .....Again





I had the drill table set dead on zero, but lasers will show any angular deviation, that's why each hole should have been drilled from the same rotational position of the work piece.


Now If I had made index marks at 12 oclock and 3 oclock and made sure the work piece was sitting with those makks at 12 and 3 each time while drilling each hole, then any misalignment in the drill as far as it being perpendicular to the work piece/table would be the same for each hole and all 3 lasers would run as parallel. Also the plank of wood was a rookie mistake as wood is not dimensionally stable and can compress.


I even took a minute and got out the metal polish, even though it has scratches.


Excellent parts from DTR as always. All 3 lasers and drivers worked well after being wired and heat sinked.


After seeing that there was not enough lens thread play to make up for my mistake and get 3 perfectly parallel beams I just made the other 2 holes into heat vehicles by drilling air holes down their length, it has a heck of a long duty cycle now, lol.



Oh well, when I wear the laser diode out I can always use it as a hammer. :crackup:
But as tough as the 7875's are and as heavy as this heat sink is it will likely lase for a long time.

Don't feel bad, others have done worse, former member USAbro once used a drill press to remove the window of a diode that had something burned on to it that couldn't be cleaned.:crackup:It didn't work.:crackup:

Alan

This was much better than I thought when I read the first line. I thought you either did not block up your work and had it fling across the shop, left the chuck key in and had the retracter chain whip you or bent over to see if you were hitting the right spot and got your hair caught and ripped out.
Unfortunately all three things happen more often than they should
Just imagine if it was copper instead of aluminum, you would have a strong wrist and forearm

Laser Chick said:

This was much better than I thought when I read the first line. I thought you either did not block up your work and had it fling across the shop, left the chuck key in and had the retracter chain whip you or bent over to see if you were hitting the right spot and got your hair caught and ripped out.
Unfortunately all three things happen more often than they should
Just imagine if it was copper instead of aluminum, you would have a strong wrist and forearm

Click to expand...

I first thought it was also an accident when first read. It doesnt look that bad but like you said lasers will show any deviation. Im laughing with you lol, your obviously skilled in machining but like me you were excited an just probably rushed it. Still looks cool and you made it into a "duty cycle" machine to boot

^^ Totally agree! Nice smooth surfaces, crisp edges, good looking threads, holes are not all gouged up. Nice job :gj:

@ LC
Ah, I see you know about copper, yes it is grabby stuff, especially when it gets hot.
We really need to set our drill speed right and take it slow and easy.

I do get into a hurry, I wait weeks to start something, then days for parts, then I act like it's a race to see how fast I can slap it together.

When I make something for someone else I take my time, I need to learn to do that for me as well.

RedCowboy said:

@ LC
Ah, I see you know about copper, yes it is grabby stuff, especially when it gets hot.
We really need to set our drill speed right and take it slow and easy.

I do get into a hurry, I wait weeks to start something, then days for parts, then I act like it's a race to see how fast I can slap it together.

When I make something for someone else I take my time, I need to learn to do that for me as well.

Click to expand...

After all we talked about taking are time I just did a stupid thing. After a year of finishing and putting a red laser in my Star Trek toy phaser I took it out about 5 days ago to put a stronger green one in it. This AA model I have is a very thin injection molded prop toy so you have to take your time gutting it and sanding it inside as you try to modify it as you dont have many 2nd chances working on it. I was taking it slow a little everyday. After putting it away yesterday from working on it I guess my OCD kicked in at 9:00 last night. I just "had" to glue something in it. I pull the part out and after mixing the 5 min glue I take a glob with the popsicle stick and as im bringing towards the target that blob falls on the trigger switch, that is the hardest part of these builds "you have to mickey the switch to do 2 things at once", the only thing I could do was try and clean it with nail polish remover but by then the glue seeped into the insides. Ive been up since 12:00 this morning, losing sleep over a hobby that should be fun. I know its not the end of the world but OCD and hobbys is a tough match. Also not to mention how many fasttech modules ive fried by testing them because I didnt used clips and the wires touching