So, I went down to Harbor Freight over the weekend and snagged a 12 speed benchtop drill press.
I had been scouring Craigslist and watching the sales for two weeks and found some really good deals on Craigslist, until I found out how far away they were.
I'm not driving 100 miles one way to "get a good deal" anymore.
So I did some homework on what it was I could get by with ,what would do the things I figure I want to do, without spending way too much money and getting way too much drill press for the space I have available.
Not my first instinct by any means.
Harbor Freight had a huge sale over Easter weekend and off I went, to return with my plunder.
The one thing that this unit doesn't have which irritates me no end is a light mounted on the side so I can see what the heck I am doing. My eyesight is failing rapidly and holding a flashlight in my teeth is not an option.
I mean come on, even their $69.00 cheapie has a freakin' light on it!
The plans are forming in my head before I even get home with the thing.
I get it home, unpack the thing and put it all together, then I start eyeballing it. Pretty soon a plan comes together.
That is my target area, now to get a light fixture.
Enter Goodwill.
For $5.00 I found just what I was looking for.
I could turn this Blog post into a tutorial, I took pictures of every step it took to get the light apart, the hole drilled, the layout of the wiring inside the shroud and the actual wiring connections I had to make but it would make this post way too long. Suffice it to say it took me about an hour and a half to get it done.
Let me stop here and put in a disclaimer just for the really stupid people. if you try this at home, make sure the damn thing is unplugged while you are working on it and you have the knowledge to work with electricity safely.
Otherwise buy a drill press with a light on it already.
So here is how it worked out when I got all done with it.
The light bulb is a bit too much, it was what I had laying around. I will probably go down and get something like a refrigerator bulb that isn't so big and won't get too hot.
Not too shabby for a redneck fix though, eh?
8 comments:
Try one of the new LED bulbs. Nice and bright no heat. They work great :)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-A19-Non-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-RLA1027ND/206587566?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D27E-LightBulbs|&gclid=Cj0KEQjwz-i3BRDtn53Z5Z7t4PUBEiQA23q2ALZjkYEwKm4veeNNhSre5cPeb8nrc-qX-D_Y1XPHxcQaAp_a8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds
Excellent!
Thanks for the tip, I've burned the shit out of my arm on these things in the past because the bulb was too big and they get smoking hot.
I did pretty much the same thing to my HF drill press, and I second the LED bulb idea.
Ever since LED bulbs came waaaay down in price, I've been slowly dumping all the crappy CFL bulbs my wife bought.
Nice. Speak of re-purposing, you now have a wood lathe.Pound a wooden peg in the hole in the base and center a dulled 20 P. nail in it. Put a lag bolt with the head cut off in your chuck and you are off. I do it some time for pipe bowls or pipe stems.
Hell of a deal!
I hadn't thought of that.
Even simpler: Battery-powered, magnetic-mount, LED BBQ light. No drilling, 110v, etc. Just batteries. And you can take the light off and use it in other places too. Or put two on the drill and illuminate both sides of the work piece...
I actually did that on my old one with a Cree headlight that the strap had broken on. It worked really good because I could take it off and hold it with one hand to see into tight spots. Unfortunately I forgot to take it off when I gave the little drill press to my Son In Law.
Strongly urge you to pony up the big bucks and get a rough use, coated bulb in 15 or 25 watts. Oil spraying, chunklets of metal flying, and possible airborne objects tend to shatter lesser bulbs with fires a nasty side effect. Just saying. You don't want to burn down the shop, do you? And get a drill press vise -- it's worth its weight in cash.
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