Hitachi B16RM Drill Press

[Larry David]

Looks nice - Did you take the saw apart to bolt on the plywood?

I bolted the base of the DP to the plywood and then bolted the column to the DP base and then the head slides right onto the column.

[LCHIEN]

Simple $16 drill press base

Here's the simple Drill press base.

Note to Greencat: I was able to put this on the base by myself w/o disassembling the DP. I just made a set of stepped blocks, tilted the DP slightly and put the blocks under the front or back until it was reaised 4 inches, just enough to put the wheel assemblies underneath and lag-screw into place. A short piece of 2x4 helps lever it up and after the first set of wheels in installed a couple of small wedges to chock the wheels is needed.

Um, It wobbles a little more than I expected, when given small shoves from the side. Not unstable or anything. I think play in the wheels and swivel bearings is to blame. They don't lock but when in use the drill press is solid as force is applied straight down. I actually have a solution for the wobbling.

I can give more detail about the base if anyone wants it.
Total cost: ~$16 (I had to buy the 2" Swivel casters and lag screws)

[KenBurris]

Wobble

Loring,

Would a pair of wedges at front and one side help with the wobbling ?

[LCHIEN]

My solution is that I already put a 45 degree bevel on the front and back edge of the bottom of the cross member.

I have cut a couple of 2x4 blocks whose height is about 1/16" more than the heogh of the caster. I'm going to put a small roundover or bevel on the top so basically I can kick or use a small mallet to drive them under the frame and lift it to be steady if I want. A small rope to pull them out.

[soakes]

Does anybody know what size chuck key this thing takes? I got the floor model from the local Lowes and it was missing the key. I can't find anything that fits and they are backordered from Hitachi.

Thanks,
Steve

[LCHIEN]

chuck key for hitachi

Does anybody know what size chuck key this thing takes? I got the floor model from the local Lowes and it was missing the key. I can't find anything that fits and they are backordered from Hitachi.

Thanks,
Steve

Curiously I was at Sears today and they have a Craftsman model 22925
that is under all those craftsman badges, a Hitachi B16RM. 15", 12 speed
only a couple of bolted on parts are different (laser, table extension). They wanted $289. Anyway, maybe sears parts has a spare key, you can find the number under this part.

How are keys sized? diameter of the pin, gear spacing? I know they're different, I don't know how to tell them apart. Sears also (used to) have a bunch of different chucks on cards. Take yours off and go down and find one that fits.

[greencat]

Does anybody know what size chuck key this thing takes? I got the floor model from the local Lowes and it was missing the key. I can't find anything that fits and they are backordered from Hitachi.

Thanks,
Steve

I would try calling Hitachi and tell them that the key was missing.

[soakes]

Hitachi offered to send me a key but they are back-ordered until at least March 18th. Both Lowes and Home Depot had 6 different sizes on cards and none of them fit. The Hitachi seems to have an odd gear spacing. The Sears web page doesn't have a listing for that part number but I will check in the local store tomorrow.

So, if you have one of these, don't loose the key.

Steve

[THyman]

Bingo! That is the question I wanted to ask but forgot in my previous enthusiasm.

The table is obviously a metalworking style, it has a closed bottom with one threaded drain hole for coolant.

I really like the woodworking style with parallel slots running fore and aft.

It appears that there's a few options:

1 A clamp as Bruce suggested. (sorry bruce, But that's **** ugly in my opinion)
2 Use the T-slots and a captured nut or carriage head bolt which may be difficult given a flat top WW table. They're big slots so a bolt whose head would not turn would be very large (like 3/4" shank)
3 Drill some holes through the bottoms of the slots which is what I'm thinking of because I don't plan to use it for coolant capture.
4. make some wooden T-nuts with 1/4-20 threaded inserts!

Loring, I'm building my own dp table and ondered what option you ended up doing. For option #3, how did you drill the holes and what type of drill bit did you use.

Thanks for the assistance.

[LCHIEN]

I got the woodpecker low profile DP table.
To mount it, I had to use the slots inthe round metal table.
I made 2 small wooden T-nuts reinforced with metal 1/4-20 T-nut inserts embedded in it. Te wood t-nuts slid into the 2 of the four tracks on the metal table. (choose 2 tracks on opposing sides of the center hole).

I drilled two 1/4" holes through my new wood DP table, and counterbored them from the top for 5/8" to allow clearance for hex head bolts. I picked 1/4-20 bolts of sufficient length to reach the Threaded inserts and pull them up to the top of the track w/o bottoming the bolts in the track... you may have to use some washers to fine tune the bolt height.

The location of the holes on the wood table top is somehwat of a subjective thing...
I put them on a 45° diagonal through the center of the drilling insert. In retrospect, I wish I had put the line thru a point about 3/4 or 1" in front of the center of the drilling insert... That way the hole wear on the drilling insert will be spread out over a larger area allowing you to use the insert longer before it gets chewed up too much to use. You can rotate it 3 times to get a fresh backing point.

[LCHIEN]

Mounting woodworking DP table to metal DP table

Someone asked me for this:

if your DP has slotted T-tracks and you don't want to drill holes in it, then you need to make or buy the T-nuts that fit it.

Attached are two pics of a wood T-nut made to fit the tracks of a metal tool table. You need a T-nut insert to provide a threaded base.
I cut the wood piece to size, drill the center to fit the shank of the metal T-nut, then countersink the back slightly to take the T-nut flange.

The bolt and washer in the pics are shown for illustration, the bolt must be inserted from the side shown for the flange to hold in the wood.

You have to drill holes in your wood table to bolt to the top of the metal table and home-made T-nuts. Drill 1/4" holes and then countersink deep enough to hide the head below the table surface and wide enough allow a socket to be used to tighten the bolt.

Installing this is fun, I'll leave it to the gentle reader to discover this on his own... well OK, here's a hint, thread two turns of the bolt into the T-nuts so they just hang on, then drop the T-nuts into the area at the end of the T-slots while holding onto the table and rotating the T-nut to start it into the slot (this takes three hands). You'll probably have to drop one end in then slide to the opposite end to drop the other one in. see the previous post in this thread for more details.

[JillB]

thanks for this information LCHIEN - it is quite interesting and valuable.

I am afraid that the photos are not there - any chance of uploading them again please?

regards,
Jill