Drill Press Head Assembly
With the drill head part made, I now move on to the head assembly. I have the Quill Top Plate roughed out and have started the fitting process.
I have drilled and tapped for three 6-32 set screws. Flats have been ground on the ends of the return spring guides to help retain them in the quill top part. The drill head block will slide up and down on the quill shaft and the spring guides.
Here the guide holes are being transferred to the quill bottom plate. The dummy shaft is used for alignment purposes.
Lower quill bracket with windlass shaft and locking screw. Only mistake made here was having the lock screw come in from the top. Cuts down the travel by the height of the head. I have no plans to disassemble the press to correct this. I could pocket the screw. I may just change it out to a button head Allen, but I am somewhat un-trusting of the socket strength...
Here are all the parts collected in one place! The unit is clamped in a tool maker's vice to keep from having to chase it around the bench when the time comes to thread the windlass. I enlarged the pocket on the back of the head block to make this part easier.
I used some 80# test braided fishing line as it is much more like string than the suggested Spider Wire line. Cheaper too, as the guys at the fishing department gave me 15' so I did not have to buy 1100 yards and only use 16".
It took two of use with two pairs of tweezers and a couple of hemostats to get it threaded. The line is looped through two holes on the top quill bracket, comes into the pocket where each makes 5 turns around the shaft and then out the bottom to the windlass. The two lines are pulled through the two holes and knotted. This shot is before I wound the line tight.
The system works well, even without a return spring. The big problem arose after a bit of use. The line I used has been waxed, something I now recall the guy at the fishing store mentioned.
Here is a rewind using radio dial cord from Antique Radio Supply in Tempe (right around the corner from my house).
I glass beaded the center portion of the shaft to get more grip. I also had to go one less turn on each side due to the larger size of the line.