Does anyone use a retrofit Digital Readout on their Drill Press?

[egnald]

Greetings all,

I am posting this here as my interpretation of "Shop Aids" in the forum title. I am contemplating adding either a Wixey or an iGaging Drill Press Digital Readout for depth measurement. I have an older Craftsman 15-inch floor drill. The drill does have a rotary type depth gauge/stop on a collar mounted around the hand wheel but it is kind of cumbersome to use and only has limited accuracy. The digital would have to be mounted on the left side and would need to use the brackets and clamp that goes around the collar/bearing at the bottom of the quill.

Regards,
Dave

 

[jttheclockman]

Why not just use stop collars. Cheaper and as accurate. Or a set of digital calipers. To me when you get into things like that on a woodworking tool the accuracy is not there. You have to set the bits at the same depth in chuck all the time. Reset gauge everytime you move table up or down. just thinking out loud.

 

[rherrell]

iGaging makes decent stuff, so does Wixey so either one is a good choice. The problem with using digital calipers is mounting them, they're hardened so drilling holes in them with conventional bits is next to impossible. Go with something that has a mounting kit.

 

[David350]

I use a Wixey on my Jet planer and it works well. However, it was a challenge to mount it so definitely try to find something with a mounting kit...

 

[TDahl]

I like JT's idea of using the stop collars. You could use a digital indicator with a magnetic stand for the initial setup.

Harbor freight sells the indicators for around $30.00 - https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-...lipers/saemetric-digital-indicator-63613.html

 

[Woodchipper]

I measure the drill bit depth and wrap a couple of turns of masking tape around the bit. Model maker showed this to me about 60 years ago.