Drill press

How it works

Joshua Rose describes the power drilling machine as consisting essentially of a rotating spindle to drive the drill, a work-holding table, and means of feeding the drill to its cut. The spindle speed and the force with which it is driven are varied to suit the work. Feeding is given either to the spindle or to the work table, and in either case the feeding mechanism should be able to vary the rate of feed and permit quick withdrawal of the drill. Rose says the spindle should be supported as near to its drill-holding end as possible.

The drill is held in a chuck or in a tapered socket in the spindle. The work is clamped to the table, which on the column type is carried by a knee that can be fixed at any height and swung out of the way, the column serving as a pivot. The Science Museum Group describes a drilling machine by Whitworth, made in 1846, in which the spindle is driven by bevel gearing and fed downward by a self-acting mechanism while a hand wheel withdraws it rapidly, and a table with T slots can be rotated and moved transversely.

Anatomy

Column: The upright that carries the head and the table. On the machines Rose illustrates, a round column serves as the pivot of the swinging table.
Head and spindle: Contains the rotating spindle that drives the drill, supported close to the drill-holding end.
Feed lever or hand wheel: Feeds the drill to its cut and withdraws it quickly; on the Whitworth machine of 1846 a self-acting feed and a hand wheel for rapid withdrawal are both present.
Table: Holds the work; on Whitworth’s machine it has T slots and can be rotated and moved transversely.
Drive: Bevel gearing or a belt from a cone pulley turns the spindle; speed is changed to suit the drill and the material.
Chuck: Holds the drill at the lower end of the spindle.

Variants

Hand-driven drilling machine: The Science Museum Group holds an early small machine in which a handle turns the spindle through bevel gears at about twice the speed, mounted on three iron rods on a wooden base, with a hinged lever for the feed over one inch of travel.
Sensitive drill press: A light machine for small drills. Rose says that in using small drills the pressure needed to feed must be plainly perceptible at the feed lever, so the parts must be light and easy to move.
Column or pillar drilling machine with power feed: Whitworth’s machine of 1846 had a self-acting feed patented in 1837; the Science Museum Group also holds a drilling machine, c.1840, resembling the larger power drills of Nasmyth, Gaskell & Co. and driven through bevel gears, with a ratchet and eccentric cam feed.
Radial drill: A machine in which the drill head travels on an arm that swings about a column. Rose illustrates single and double column radial drilling machines. Roe says the Universal Radial Drill Company of Cincinnati built the first round column radial drills, to G. A. Gray’s designs, after 1880.
Multiple-spindle and turret drilling machines: Rose describes a turret drilling machine by A. D. Quint of Hartford, and Drill Press Kinks describes multiple-spindle drilling with a central lubricant supply.

Specifications

Chuck capacity · in or mm: No sourced typical value.
Spindle speed range · rpm: Stepped pulleys or a variable drive set the speed; no sourced typical range.
Quill travel · in or mm: The early hand drilling machine in the Science Museum Group collection gives a drill movement of one inch.
Swing · in or mm: No sourced typical value.

Made to

ANSI B11.8
EN 12717
ISO 16090-1

Safety and care

Safety

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) advises confirming that a guard, shield or barrier is in place before starting work.
CCOHS advises using a clamp or drill vise to prevent work from spinning, and not holding work by hand when drilling.
CCOHS advises locking the drill bit securely in the chuck, and removing the chuck key before starting the drill press.
CCOHS advises against loose clothing, ties, gloves, rings, watches or bracelets, and advises rolling sleeves above the elbow and tying back long hair.
CCOHS advises setting speeds, adjusting and measuring work only when the machine has completely stopped, and not stopping the rotation of the chuck with the hand.
CCOHS advises not forcing the drill with extra pressure, not placing the hands under the stock being drilled, and not removing a broken drill with a center punch and hammer.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (29 CFR 1910.212) requires machine guarding against hazards created by the point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts and flying chips, and requires machines designed for a fixed location to be securely anchored to prevent walking or moving.

Tips

Feed by hand to feel the drill
Rose writes that more duty may be obtained from a drill by hand feed than by an automatic feed, because the resistance of the feed motion shows the pressure on the drill. The feed can be increased when the material allows and reduced at hard spots, which preserves the drill, and dulling of the cutting edges becomes more plainly perceptible.1
Keep the feed light with small drills
Rose notes that undue pressure breaks small drills and that the pressure needed to feed must be plainly perceptible at the lever. He describes the sensitive drilling machine, built with light, easily moved parts, to give that feel.1
Use the quick-withdrawal feature to clear the hole
Rose lists among the requirements of a drilling machine that its feeding mechanism permit quick withdrawal of the drill, as on the Whitworth machine of 1846, which has a hand wheel on a transverse shaft for rapidly withdrawing the drill.1 2
Cut a keyway slot with three drilled holes
Rose describes a slot that can be drilled with a twist drill but not a flat one: drill the three holes first, with the work properly held and the drill fed slowly at a quick speed, and the operation may be readily performed.1
Regrind a drill that must cut partly in air
The 1908 collection Drill Press Kinks reports that when part of the drill cut air, a standard drill shied away from the metal and drilled crooked holes; a drill ground to a different form drilled them as straight as full holes, once an ordinary drill had started the hole deep enough to enter the blades or a jig guided the start.1

History

Earliest documented

c.2500 BCE (bow drill, the ancestor of the powered drill)

Egypt (bas-relief, tomb of Ti)

Woodbury states that the bow drill appears in ancient Egypt in a bas-relief of about 2500 BCE, citing Steindorff’s publication of the tomb of Ti, and is frequently found after that. He also reproduces a Roman-period gem-engraver’s gravestone showing a spindle turning in two stocks driven by a bow. The earliest machine in the form of a column-mounted drill press that is documented in the sources read for this entry is the self-acting Whitworth drilling machine, whose feed was patented in 1837.1 2

The drill press exists to give a drill what the hand cannot: a fixed axis, a controlled speed and a steady feed. The bow drill is shown in Egypt about 2500 BCE, and Woodbury reproduces a Roman-period device in which a spindle turning in two stocks is driven by a cord worked by a bow. Rose’s definition of the power machine lists the functions it provides: a driven spindle, a table to hold the work, and a feed that can be varied and quickly withdrawn.

Power feed arrived in the 1830s and 1840s. The Science Museum Group dates Whitworth’s self-acting feed to a patent of 1837 and describes its working: a screw cut on the spindle gears with two worm wheels on transverse shafts whose friction rollers can be gripped by brake blocks, so that gripping the rollers retards the worm wheels and makes them act as a nut that advances the spindle. A hand wheel on one shaft withdraws the drill by using the screw as a rack. Nasmyth’s machine of about 1840 reaches the same end by a different mechanism, a ratchet advanced one tooth per revolution by an eccentric cam on the drill shaft.

The twist drill changed the work the machine was asked to do. Roe records that the flutes of twist drills were filed by hand until Brown’s universal milling machine of 1862 was made to cut them, and that the firm that became the Cleveland Twist Drill Company drifted into the drill business through not being able to buy such drills as it required. Roe also notes that by about 1878 a Rockford firm was making drill presses for its own use before it sold them, and by 1880 a Cincinnati firm was building round column radial drills, in which the head moves to the work so that heavy pieces need not be moved to the drill.

By the time Rose wrote, the drilling machine already came in light, heavy, radial, turret and multiple-spindle forms, and the sensitive drill had been developed for small holes. Rose’s advice that hand feeding allows more duty than automatic feeding, because the operator feels the resistance, shows the aim of the form: the drill press fixed the geometry of the hole while leaving the feel of the cut to the operator. Present-day guidance, such as the CCOHS advice and 29 CFR 1910.212, treats the machine as a guarded, anchored fixture on which the work is clamped.

Timeline

c.2500 BCE
The bow drill appears in an Egyptian bas-relief (tomb of Ti), according to Woodbury.1
1817
Richard Roberts begins business in Manchester; Holtzapffel is quoted by Roe as saying that probably no individual has originated so many useful varieties of drilling machines.1
1837
Joseph Whitworth patents a self-acting feed motion for drilling machines (as dated by the Science Museum Group in its record of his 1846 machine).1
c.1840
Nasmyth, Gaskell & Co. build larger power drills of the type represented by a small machine later owned by James Nasmyth, with bevel-gear drive and a ratchet feed driven from an eccentric cam on the drill shaft.1
1846
Whitworth drilling machine with self-acting feed, bevel drive, T-slotted rotating table and hand wheel for rapid withdrawal.1
1862
Joseph R. Brown’s universal milling machine is built to cut the spiral grooves of twist drills, replacing the filing of grooves by hand.1
c.1878
W. F. & John Barnes Company of Rockford, Illinois, which began making jig saws in 1872 and small lathes six years later, builds drill presses for its own use and then manufactures them for sale.1
1880
G. A. Gray leaves the Niles Tool Works and starts the Universal Radial Drill Company in Cincinnati, which builds the first round column radial drills.1
1908
Drill Press Kinks, a collection of shop methods from American Machinist, is published by the Hill Publishing Company.1

Gaps in the record (7)

No dispute over the invention of the drill press was found in the sources read; the origin of the column-and-table form before Whitworth and Nasmyth is not documented here.
The Egyptian bow drill is known through Woodbury’s citation of Steindorff, Das Grab des Ti (Leipzig, 1913), plate CXXXIII, which has not been read.
Whitworth’s 1837 patent text has not been located; the date is taken from the Science Museum Group record.
The invention of the twist drill (Morse and others) was not sourced from a primary document; the statement that groove filing was replaced by Brown’s machine comes from Roe.
No sourced typical specifications (chuck capacity, speeds, swing, quill travel) are given.
Manufacturer manuals (for example for the Sears Craftsman and Delta presses) were located on the Internet Archive but not readable as full text, so they were not used.
Care and maintenance guidance (belt tension, quill return spring, lubrication) has not been sourced; care is empty.