Sensitive drilling platform

[Ed Weldon]

Marv - Your fixture looks very nice for someoe who is already committed to the small drill press in their shop. For those not at that point Sherline has a sensiitive drill accessory that works similar to the common milling machine accessory you refer to and fits their spindle. It ought to work nicely when the spindle is set up in a milling machine configuration. Nice thing about the Sherline spindle is that it gets up to a pretty good speed approaching 5000 rpm. They have a 10,000 rpm pulley set as an accessory. Tiny drills like high speeds as long as they are used in a decent quality spindle and headstock. I have seen accessory adapters for both the Sherline and the Taig spindles with a female 3/4-16 thread on one side and a female .500 diameter hole and set screw on the other for holding a 1/2 dia endmill. This would also hold the common sensitive drill accessory although it's overhang would be troublesome if the .500 diameter hole in the adapter isn exactly made.
Years ago Dumore made small drill presses with lifting tables. I have one I like a lot and another one waiting for me to set up the new switch/speed controlling dimmer/light. I use the small jacobs 5/32 chucks on them. Albrecht chucks are an overkill for most model work and putting a tiny drill into one of them in close quarters is a difficult 3 hand operation.
Dumore drill presses have fine quality motors but you are likely to find ridiculous prices on eBay. I found both of mine at swap meets for less than $100; but they are rare in such venues. Even piecing together a rusty used Cameron from eBay sources is likely to be $300-400 venture. Cameron sells parts but they have made design changes over the years and their folks at the parts sales desk are almost as likely to send you the wrong part as the right one. Servo is another brand of mini drill press of similar quality to the Cameron mostly available on the West Coast where they were manufactured and sold into the Aerospace industry.
I've heard good and bad things about the cheap tiny Chinese drill presses for model building. They are popular with the jewelry making hobbyists for diamond drilling holes in ceramic beads. Another point worth mentioning is the super cheap (like $60) small drill presses from Harbor Freight. I can't comment about their quality or whether they have usable high speeds or chucks sized for small drills. But they seem to have space for Marv's lifting table design and are short and light weight enough to store on the floor under a work bench in a cramped workshop.
Ed Weldon