Stalwart readers of this blog (a very elite club!) may know that I have an ongoing project that started off as some Dial Gauge accessories which then expanded to include a tapping stand and indeed on my last post about making the PocketQube chassis I posted a photo of me using it to tap some small holes. It worked great but made me wish that instead of just a big lump of (recycled in my foundry) aluminium as a base I had something that I could put my precision vice on. So to the scrap pile! Within my hoard I had a base off an old black and decker drill press stand (the type you insert a hand power drill into a collar). Despite being a pretty poor casting that has a few marks from some abusive drilling with a few file strokes the base sat level on a level surface and cleaned up well. A lick of grey enamel paint smartened it up a bit as well.
To attach my DTI/tapping stuff I turned a bit of mild steel to the diameter of the old drill column and then drilled and tapped an M6 hole into it. Into this I inserted a short piece of M6 threaded rod with a bit of thread locker to keep it in. It's worked really well. Next on the list is I need to mill some flats onto the piece that screws onto this base and has the clamp slits that hold the uprights and make a spanner so I can nip it up a bit more.
The obligatory before pic!
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