[C Craft]

Some folks including me like to explain that a good idea is not always the best idea. This one is kind of on the lines of deduced thinking! I think everyone that has been into knife-making especially those learning it without the benefit of hands on guidance has had this same thought! I know I did and my first reaction when I mentioned it out loud was similar to the one expressed here till I sit and thought about it!

First of all the workings of a drill press are not all that different, especially when you throw in the use of a milling vice. So the next leap of thought was why not use it too cut slots for guards???? When I threw out the same exact reaction as you got on this thread.
While it could be done it was not recommended!!!!!

I kind of let it ride and still it hung in the back of my mind till I saw another thread. A MS had pics of the insides of a drill press that was an old drill press but a great one. The owner had tried to use it the same way, as a mill! This machine is no longer being marketed and parts are unavailable. The friend of the MS that had been using the drill press as a mill had called him to help salvage his now ruined drill press!

Let me say again this machine was no longer being made, and so when they got into they had to machine parts. The shaft itself had been eaten up, the bearings for the shaft had gone and the pockets that had been holding the shaft had to be meticulously reworked to accept over-sized bearings! A repair that would have cost more than the machine in its infancy, however the two of them were able to rescue the old machine. Due to the fact one of them had access to a complete modern machine shop.

I got too thinking I had nearly $500.00 invested into my drill press and too destroy it made no sense. So unless I could figure out how to spring for a new mill I would have to continue to do it the hard way when it came to milling operations, such as slotting guards .

The older I get the more I realize what my Dad used to tell me. There are three kinds of people in this world.

"Those who benefit from others experiences,

those who can't be told anything and must experience it first hand, no matter the consequences and,

those who can benefit from a blend of the first two"!

Then he would ask me to look inside myself and see which of the three I was"!!!!!!!!!

So don't take offense if everyone is screaming "don't jump", that is your decesion!