Drill Press -- Any Tune-Up Advice?

[imported_Greg Nold]

Hello All, haven't been on since my hard disk drive crashed, burned and was reformatted about 6 months ago... since then, all has been well in my shop until this week.... so now I've come crawling back! :)

I have a basic Craftsman Benchtop Drill press that is not drilling square with respect to the table. It was fine until my designs needed more precision and my poor drill press just isn't supplying it. I need to know how to square up the table to the spindle. I've tried chucking a precision rod and using a combination square against the rod and the table to see how out-of-whack it was, then trying to shim the table accordingly... but none of this has worked. It seems like such a simple thing to do yet I haven't been able to accomplish it... My dowels seem to 'lean' slightly when inserted into their drilled holes... and the more I look at it the worse it looks! So does anyone have any advice? I would sure appreciate it! It sort of has me stumped at the moment.

FYI, the instructions for squaring the table found in the manual are worthless... they simply are not worth the paper they're printed on. On that sentiment, I generally don't touch Craftman products with a 10 foot pole, but this press was on sale and didn't seem any worse than anything else offered for sale for the same amount of $$$.. (it's nearly all made in China anyway) so I went with it. No regrets until possibly now. Thanks!

Greg

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

GREG, NEED SOME INFO ON YOUR TABLE. IS IT ROUND OR SQUARE? DOES IT USE A RACK AND PINION GEAR TO RAISE THE TABLE? IS THE DRILL ROD SPINNING TRUE?
NORMALLY THE TABLE WILL ONLY TILT LEFT TO RIGHT. NOT FRONT TO REAR. IF IT'S A ROUND TABLE TRY REMOVING THE TABLE AND CHECK FOR SQUARE WITHOUT THE TABLE. IF THIS CAN'T BE DONE, YOU MIGHT NEED TO SEE IF THE COLUMN IS TIGHT TO THE TABLE.
ANSWER SOME OF THESE QUESTIONS AND MAYBE WE/ THE FORUM WILL FIGURE THIS OUT.

[imported_Greg Nold]

Here's the additional info: It is a square table, it does use a rack and pinion for raising and lowering, and the rod is spinning true. It is square left to right (in other words, it is set to zero degrees tilt and that is proving accurate.) Thanks Plumber Rick!

Greg

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

IS THIS TABLE ABLE TO ADJUST FROM FRONT TO BACK?
LEFT TO RIGHT TILT WAS OK. HOW DO YOU ADJUST FOR FRONT TO BACK? THAT'S THE ISSUE.

[imported_Greg Nold]

There isn't much to it. Loosen bolt below table, according to manual, then lift up or push down table until it is square. Only trouble is, as soon as you re-tighten the bolt, it goes back to exactly the same out-of-whack position as before.... the bolt just pulls it back to square one. Makes me roll my eyes. Appears like I will have to mess with shims or come up with something on my own. My conclusion is, although the instructions say otherwise, there really is no adjustability front and back. If anyone has an idea, it would be welcomed! Thanks!

[imported_wbrooks]

Since you will likely want to use the table tilt feature at some point and a shim there would be a royal PITA is there any way you can shim the head on the pole to fix the skew? I had that very problem but took the easy way out and fixed it like this ....
http://www.general.ca/mini/75-200-100.jpg

[imported_Greg Nold]

That's an idea Wbrooks... thanks. Probably stuck with it though... at least until I can provide my own solution... a Grizzly Mill Drill... no problem with square issues then. Until that day arrives however, gotta find a way... thanks again.