Improving the Harbor Freight Drill Press Locking Clamp

[metric_taper]

Rick, very nice mods. The hand crank is a much needed improvement.

A safety story. Back when I was a kid (probably have said this story before here), my first job was a lab technician working for The Trane company in LaCrosse, WI. I was using the workshop drill press and holding the part by hand. An old timer stopped and showed me what happened to him a few years earlier. The part grabbed, took his fingers around the drill, grabbed the tendon that pulls the 4 fingers closed, as it yanked it from the muscled part way up the forearm. He had multiple surgeries to give him back some use. He was left with all 4 fingers pulling together with no individual finger control. And he did not have much pulling force.
Anyway, it changed the way I used drill presses from there on out.

Thanks for the tool improvement ideas.