Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello friends
im planning to purchase a drill press machine.
i want to know are there any used of it rather than only drilling holes?
can i use it for making slotted headstocks. or truss rod sluts
or use to shape headstock like mr.robie o brien
or any other uses in luthiery?
some pics or videos may be appreciated
waiting for ur consultaions.

Look for a product on the internet called the luthier's friend. It allows you to use a drill press for thicknessing nuts and saddles with a fair amount of precision.

A Wagner Safe-T Planer allows you to thickness larger pieces of wood, like neck woods.

There are attachments that let you rig up your drill press as a small vertical lathe.

Whether you can use the drill press for other things depends a lot on what size and quality of drill press you buy. Look for the measurement called swing, which is a number twice as large as the distance from the support column to the spindle. If you want to cut soundholes with a fly cutter, for instance, you need enough swing to reach the middle of the top at the soundholes area.

So, there are a number of useful things you can do other than drill holes. However, be careful about getting too fancy with it. The more you try to substitute a drill press for a router, for instance, the more chances there are for disappointment.

You can use it for thickness sanding small things with a Luthier's friend.

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- Keith

"can i use it for making slotted headstocks."

You can buy a mortising attachment to quickly slot headstocks.

A radial drill press offers some advantages (with the loss of some stability).

Probably one of the most used tools in my shop. I use a 5" sanding disk to thickness sides, backs and tops, after rough planing. It's also used for tapering finger boards, thinning purflings, thicknessing veneers to 0.5 mm for use in rosettes and purflings, thicknessing nuts and saddles, not to mention for shaping headstocks, ala Robbie O'Brien, and I used to use it for slotting headstocks until I got a LuthierTool headstock jig. I have a Luthier's Friend, but have never been able to get it to work well.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Mostly drilling holes.............but also cutting saddle slots, some small drum sanding, pattern routing of brace radius. Some thicknessing with a larger router bit. Can be used as a light press.............frets, tuner bushings etc.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Waddy, would you mind mentioning how you use it for the things I highlighted in bold? I have a drill press but rarely use it, but those all tasks like things that could breathe some life into it.

I would like to see the 5" disk for thicknessing tops and backs! I can't even imagine how you feed the sock, how you set up for precision, everything. Please share.


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I use mine only for drilling the truss rod access hole in the UTB, tuner holes in the headstock, but most essentially, for using the Wagner planer to cut the taper into the neck blank, for which it is presently indispensable.

I learned (recently) about using the DP to install threaded inserts in the neck tenon (bolt on necks). Dam, that was pure genius. Of course, no electricity needed for this app. I adapted the Luthiers Tools neck jig for this as well.

I have a copy of the Wagner Safe-T plane because it has been discontinued. I flatten, thickness head stocks and shape Archtop guitar bodies with it. I use a router bit at highest rpm to hollow the insides.
A Robosander ( the drum part of a luthiers friend ) for copying templates.
I also have a fret press attachment that I use in the press.
Oh and for holes : )

Oh yeah, I press frets with mine too.

To answer a few of the questions above, here is one example of thinning veneer to specific thickness.
Here, I used a fence. I don't always use one. I just free hand it under the sanding disk, holding it tight with both hands and pulling through slowly. Can't take very big bites doing this, it'll grab if you do, and you can't hold it - not to mention it tears up you piece. Same method for purflings, etc.

For nuts and saddles, I just do it free hand. I do always put a vacuum hose in a strategic place to catch dust.

For tapering fingerboards, I mean tapering from 7 mm at the nut end to 5 mm on the treble side and 4 mm on the bass side at fret 19, I made a carrier with the proper overall taper, 7 to 5, then put a 1 mm wedge on the bass side. I just tape the fingerboard to the carrier with double stick tape, and run it under the sander. I do start with something like 60 grit paper on the early passes, then progress through 80 and 100 as I get closer to thickness. For things like purflings, bindings, and veneers, I always use 100 grit. I don't think I've ever used anything finer than 100.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I know many folks find success in using their drill press for a variety of jobs it wasn't designed for, but I guess I'd put myself in the camp of advocating for using it just for drilling, and perhaps minor pressing jobs in line with the quill. Most drill presses just weren't built or designed for any kind of serious lateral force, and aside from issues of clean and precise operation, there can also be concerns for safety. Unless you have a threaded lock on your chuck (both my Dayton and Rockwell presses do), putting any kind of lateral pressure against it can leave it prone to coming loose. A regular Jacobs 33 taper (or whatever size yours may have) just isn't designed to resist sideways forces, especially with any leverage and vibration. If you have a more industrial press with a longer Morse or B&S taper on the quill then it can be a bit more tolerant, by the short taper Jacobs chucks on most household presses just wouldn't leave me very comfortable with things like a Safe-T-Planet attached.

Different tools often include very intentional design factors critical to different jobs. The idea of space and money saving crossover all-in-one systems can be appealing, but also potentially dangerous (both to quality and safety) if you don't look carefully at the compatibility of design and limitations with demands and expectations.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I will say that my drill press is a Delta/Milwaukee that was built in the '40's - about my age, I guess. It's a 14 inch with some disadvantages, like no rack and pinion on the post to move the table up and down, and a small table. That said, it's seen a lot of heavy use for milling as well as drilling for, mostly, metalwork, by my father, who was an interminable tinkerer and inventor of sorts. He was the kind of guy who'd make a screw if he couldn't find the right size at the hardware store, or if the store was closed. Didn't really matter if it took hours.

I don't think twice about using it for things like a safety planer, or for sanding with a disk sanding attachment, or for pressing frets. If the tool is properly sharpened, and the bite is not too aggressive, the side pressure is not that terrible. Certainly not as much in wood as it would be for milling in steel. More modern presses may be made more cheaply and with poorer tolerances.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Best points made is a GOOD quality drill press is a fantastic tool. Not all drill presses are the same. Bearings and chuck are the big variables. Best advice I can give you is this , A cheap tool is a cost a quality tool is an investment. Look if you can find the older Delta , Rockwell , Walker Turner. Most of today's harbor freight type tools are at best hit and miss. I bought a Shop Fox , it took 2 attempts to get a drill press that worked. the first one was a piece of junk the motor was dead and the bearing on the shaft were not seated . The 2nd one wasn't any better. The 3rd one is still working. I have a grizzly before that that lasted about 3 yrs and before that an old Craftsman that was about 40 yrs. I also suggest a mill drill if you can find them. One of the most used tools in my shop.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks friends for ur advice
i will wait some days and buy a good and heavy duty drill press

I have a Wagner planer that I use on the drill press to thickness the headstock. I'm wondering what you mean by cutting the taper into the neck blank. Maybe there's another use for the planer I don't know about.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

If you put a shim under the nut (this is just a scrap to demonstrate, the actual one is smaller), you can get it so the back of the neck us parallel to the table, allowing you to put the taper in.

I think there's a demo on the stewmac site...

Thanks a lot, Ed. That's a good idea I hadn't seen before. I'm starting a neck right now so I'll give it a try.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

It's awesome, cause it gives a flat plane on the back of the neck from which to begin.

I take it that you cut across the grain, Ed?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Or along, whatever. Just take light passes.

I do the same thing and it works a treat...............think I first saw this in the David Russell Young book.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

This support used in conjunction with a robo-sander stabilizes lateral movement and opens many possibilities for necks and bridges. I use it with a template for initial neck and bridge shaping.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.a ... at=1,42500




Here is another example. This technique does not use the support so avoid pushing laterally too hard.

http://www.kennedyguitars.com/heel-prof ... empla.html

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.