Stub Mandrel's drill upgrades

I read with interest the article in MEW 259 about upgrades to a pillar drill, in particular the attachment of laser cross hairs to indicate drill position. The point is made that the crossing point "probably isn't fine enough to use on milling machines". Having no experience with milling machines I'm not sure how much finer the lines would need to be but wonder if there is scope to attach small lenses to the laser housings to give finer focus (and maybe collimation) of the beam at the distance required and thus improve the fineness of the crossing point.

An obvious downside to this would be the likely need to refocus at every change of distance (though collimation, if possible, might reduce this problem) with any inherent inaccuracies in the position of the crossing point that may be introduced.

I'm sure there are people out there that can add some more 'engineered' thinking to this idea 😀

I use a dressmakers pin in a bit of plasticene on the end of the drill/cutter. Spin at around 700 RPM and lightly touch the pin until it runs true. Known in the trade as a sticky pin and good enough for generations of engineers.

Nige,

Although not impossible, it is difficult [and potentially dangerous and/or expensive] to significantly reduce the size of a laser spot.

For a discussion of a much better way to use lasers on the milling machine : **LINK**

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=92281

MichaelG.

It would also be very impractical to use that device on other than a round column milling machine. While it would help with non-critical milling operations, other approaches have been used for milling machines.

It's excellent for its intended purpose, mainly making sure you hit a scribed cross or centre punch dot with accuracy. It certainly speed things up.

Neil

Thanks guys. I have heard of the sticky pin technique and will try it when I get my drill back into the new workshop. The rest was just musings on possibilities, discussion points if you will 😀