H.F. drill press: how to adjust slop out of spindle?

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Bill Crowell

Bill Crowell

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My Central Machinery 12-speed drill press, which is about 2 months old, developed some wobble in the spindle and I'm not clear on how to adjust it out. Maybe tighten up the spring on the left side of the spindle body (part nos. 57 & 58)? Or adjust something in the spindle and spindle sleeve (part nos. 31, 33 & 36) or somehow change the mesh of the shaft pinion (part no. 12)?

I do have a phone call out to H.F. customer service, and haven't really given them enough time to get back to me yet.

In the meantime, though, all advice would be appreciated. If substantial disassembly is required, what is the order of disassembly? Thanks.

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It's probably in the part#31-33 range.
 
Hi, toolman, and thanks for the reply. I am thinking that maybe as you tighten the M20X1.5 mm. nut, part no. 44, in turn it tightens up the internal spindle sleeve, part no. 41(?)
 
Bill Crowell said:
Hi, toolman, and thanks for the reply. I am thinking that maybe as you tighten the M20X1.5 mm. nut, part no. 44, in turn it tightens up the internal spindle sleeve, part no. 41(?)
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Possible but that's on the drive end and not the chuck end. If it is loose side to side (wobbles) it should be loose up and down if it's an adjustment or bearing. If it is tight side to side it would probably be a shaft or the chuck itself.
 
"but that's on the drive end and not the chuck end"

I know, but there's no place else to adjust it. That's the only nut on the spindle shaft, I think.
 
I'd look to all the ball bearings and the places they seat and what shaft goes through them. Is it loose or wobbly by hand with no belt on? Might just take it back to Harbor Freight
 
I honestly don't think there is a way on those units. Standing by though in case I'm wrong.
 
Normally there is a bearing at the top of the feed sleeve, and at the bottom of the feed sleeve. The spindle gets pushed up into the lower bearing, through the feed sleeve and then through the top bearing. Once the spindle is pushed all the way home (sometimes a light pressed fit), a collar gets tightened down just above the top bearing to keep everything in place. I don't think there is any adjustment to take out wobble.

Is the wobble observed with a chuck and drill bit in place? I would suggest removing the chuck and arbor, and putting a dial indicator on the spindle itself. If you find wobble in the spindle, then the bearing(s) and/or the spindle are junk. If the spindle runs true, then the problem will more than likely be the chuck, or arbour.

Worked on lots of drill presses, but never a HF.

Good luck.
 
I recommend keeping your eyes out for a used or old stock Taiwan manufactured King Feng Shui drill press marketed through the eighties and nineties under several different names (mine is a power king, Lowes, craftsman, and other retailers even sold them under their own brand name . You can usually find them for $50 for table top models to $250 for floor models with crank operated work tables. My table top model has a 6205 bearing mounted in cast iron in the top of the spindle and uses a one piece quill shaft with no Morse taper. The lower end of the spindle has a JT-33 taper on the end and M18-1.5 right handed threads and nut above it for removing the pulley for ratio changes. I haven't found one yet, but the threads doubled for a collet that could hold 1/4 inch shank routing bits and light usage end mills. Several of these presses have been successfully modified for light milling operation in aluminum and some lighter ferrous metals.
 
Does the drill chuck have runout or the spindle itself? The only reason I ask is one time I got some debris on the chuck taper and it wouldn't fit squarely in the spindle. Cleaned everything up good and the problem went away.
 
The free play was in the "quill" (spindle) itself, not the chuck.

I did figure out how to get rid of the free play in the spindle. Found this video from Ereplacement.com to be very helpful:



If you remove the spindle return spring (58), the pinion shaft (12) and the entire spindle and chuck will come out. (The chuck will fall out, so hang onto it.)

I remember when I bought this drill press, one of the HF employees told me that it had been sitting in a shipping container behind their store for about 2 or 3 years. During that time we had some quite wet winters, and when I opened the box I found surface rust on the exposed part of the spindle. I wasn't too happy about that, but the rust went away after rubbing it down with PB Blast. Then upon disassembling the spindle and pinion shaft, I found that all of the lubrication applied at the factory had dried up and gone away. The same was true of the splined, top end of the spindle where it slides through the drive pulleys. So I cleaned and lubed everything up well.

Then I adjusted the side-to-side motion of the spindle with the screw and locknut (65 and 66) on the left side of the machine body ("head"). The screw has a square end that fits into the square slot that goes from the top to the bottom on the left side of the spindle sleeve. You adjust this screw in as far as possible, until just before it starts rubbing on the bottom of the slot. (You can't turn this screw when it is engaged in the slot. In order to turn the screw in far enough, you need to lower the spindle down until the end of the screw is no longer engaged in the slot, make a trial adjustment, and then lift the spindle back up, engage the end of the screw in the slot, and check it.)

I'm pretty happy with the big HF drill press now. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
 
Mines like that too, its 15 years old, what size belt does it take K-27? Ill have to take look at mine now.....
 
The big HF drill press has 3 pulleys and 2 belts for more different speeds, pishta.

This video on the same subject is really super:

 
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