On Fri, Jun 3, 2022 at 01:33 AM, OldToolmaker wrote:

The Cameron drill press I found online
has a price tag of over $1600.00. I can’t imagine what might make it so expensive.

When you get into serious micro-drilling you can spend many thousands (?/$ - whatever). The last machine I saw (American made) did not have a spindle - drills were held in a sapphire vee block with the drive belt running over the shank to rotate them - all drills had to have an enlarged shank. I dimly recall it was by Najet. The belt was angled to push the drill into the work. My old boss made his own with a PTFE vee block, and the drill horizontal, to drill hundreds of 0.002" & 0.003" holes in dies used to extrude material for the earliest carbon fibres. He said it was slow but never snapped a drill.

With a Unimat consider mounting the job on the cross slide and using the carriage for the feed. It might be worth making a vertical slide if you have many of these jobs to do.

Note that micro drilling is considered (by some) to be using any drill under 0.1" and requires special care. Also drilling a depth more than 10 times the drill diameter is considered deep hole drilling, so when I was drilling 1.2 mm holes 30 mm deep I should have had all sorts of problems, but with the correct choice of drill it was OK. Also with the 0.9 mm holes 15 mm deep - all done on the SL with a bit of a special setup. I have yet to try a 0.05 mm (~ 0.002") drill - smallest I have - but the company who supplied it go down to 0.0002". However, their old catalogue says they do not offer a sharpening service below 0.0008". I'm not sure where I would start with something like that

Carl,
That LMS model is quite interesting. I already have a sensitive drill chuck. It has an Albrect chuck 1/16” capacity. Like new.
Dick

Dick, you might look at this too.


Carl Lantz

开云体育

Hi Gang:

My brother-in-law had one of these HF drill presses:

We did a lot of work with it and it did fine. The video show a cast iron base and table, but the photos show a formed sheet metal table. Get cast iron if you can. $90 isn't too bad.

For little holes, under 0.010" I would suggest any drill press / mill with high RPM and a sensitive drill chuck:

?? $39 not bad.

I found even the return spring interfered with the feel so I would disconnect it.

Carl.

I have one of these type of chucks which I use.
Unfortunately mine doesn't run perfectly true with used in a drill press.
If your using a very small drills it needs to be spot on.

Lez

Why not just get a micro Jacobs chuck adapter? Amazon has this one that
fits 0.3mm-3.2mm bits (0.013"-0.128"). $9.99 with free shipping and free
returns.



Elliot

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Thank you.

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I have a Cameron micro drill and a Vigor (Japan) watchmakers drill press.? The Cameron is a lot better with #60 to #80 drill bits.? Probably because the chuck is better (Albrecht Keyless).? The Vigor is OK up to about 1/16th.

Jim In Minnesota

Micromark has a couple listed that may work for you...

The Cameron drill press I found online
has a price tag of over $1600.00. I can’t imagine what might make it so expensive.
I have been thinking of a way to to improve the Unimat spindle while increasing the travel and better depth control. I have been relying on a dial travel indicator which works well but adds more apparatus to the setup.

Dick

Beware of drills with collets - some of them (EG Poxxon) only hold a limited number of sizes. It's OK if you have drills with 3/32" shanks, or similar, but if you have plain number drills many will not fit. If you have ER collets the smallest you can hold is 0.5 mm - I have some very small drills (0.05 mm) which are on a 1 mm shank.

I am looking for recommendations for a small drill press for the smaller
number drills.

--
Don Bowen --AD0NB--

FYI I saw at least 14 Unimat motors on EBay today. I have never seen so many for sale at one time.
Dick

I have one standard OEM motor bracket and two low speed motor brackets to use with my two 24 v motors. That should cover most any need I may have.
Dick

Not sure what the distinction is. It is best to obtain low speeds using the pulleys, and then use the variable speed on the motor for fine tuning. That way you get the maximum available torque for any given speed, You could use the usual motor bracket with one idler pulley or the less common low speed version with two idlers. Or you can make up some equivalent system, whether a motor bracket or not.

Is it best to use the standard original equipment motor bracket with the three pulleys or to use the slow speed accessory ?motor bracket with the 24v motors?
Dick

These are very useful photos.? I am currently working on something similar , as per attached photo.? However, I machined an aluminum block to fit into the Unimat mount and am securing with screws.? Am I to assume that the screw is 1/4-20 and the support rod is 5/16?
Please note that this device is supported with a cut off Unimat bed.? When I did this previously, some here were crying and complaining what a sacrilege it was to cut up a Unimat.