Drill press slop

[wizard69]

Some drill presses have a extended casting at the front long enough to support a clamp bolt. You would need to disassemble the quill assembly, slit the casting and drill and tap for a bolt. This would give you some take up but probably not enough if you need more than a few thousands (you wouldn't want to stress the cast too much).

Another option would be to have the outside of the quill hard chromed and then hand fit it to the bore. This of course depends upon having a near by plating lab that knows how to hard chrome machine tool parts. In any event you may be able to get a decent build up.

Do be aware though that some drill presses are inherently bad design wise. The support for the quill is often marginal relying upon the drive pinion to keep it in place. There simply may not be enough meat there for proper quill support. Sadly you have to take the drill apart in most cases to see how much support is there for the quill. As for the spindle don't dismiss some slop in the spindle bearings contributing to your issue. Especially at the low end the cheapest bearings possible are often used in these drill presses.

In any event unless you have a well equipped machine shop it might take more work that the drill press is ultimately worth to fix it up. One example of a guy doign an elaborate rebuild of a cheap Chinese drill press is on Youtube. Basically he made a entirely new quill out of steel that was precisely fitted to the casting bore