Big Drill Press, Small Bits
George VondriskaDescription
A drill press provides a great way for drilling holes, but sometimes isn’t capable of doing quite what you want it to do. When it comes to drilling tiny holes, anything 1/16” or less, many drill presses can’t help you. The chuck simply doesn’t get small enough to securely hold little bits. And that’s a bit of a problem.
Problem Solved
The solution for your big chuck is to add a little chuck. Small chucks like this one can be added to your drill press, and the jaws go waaaaay smaller, nearly to zero, so you can grab even the most needle-like drill bit.
Another Benefit
Do you own an impact driver? Most impact drivers have quick-change chucks that accept ¼” locking shanked bits. Since this chuck has that configuration, you can also use it in your impact driver, allowing the driver to accept round-shanked drill bits. Double win!
Keeping Track of Stuff, Like the Chuck Key
I, for one, am pretty good at setting stuff down and then forgetting where I put it. Frustrating, but it’s a habit I’m having a hard time breaking. When it comes to the drill press that often meant spending way too much time looking for the chuck key. Till now. Like me, you might want to make a chuck key holder to help make sure the chuck is always available for you.
Let’s Stay Safe
The drill press, like any other tool, needs to be treated with respect. Pay close attention to these drill press safety tips to make sure you’re using your drill press correctly, and safely.
I love this drill press. However, when I need to use a really, really small drill bit in there, I have a problem, which is, even when I reduce this chuck to its smallest, let me get there. All right. That's as tiny as those jaws will go. It's not gonna grab that drill bit.
In fact, at that stage, boy, it's a lot bigger than that drill bit. So here's a crazy simple solution. This is an aftermarket drill chuck. And with this one, if we look at the end of that baby. When I close this, it goes to zero.
That's gonna grab anything. So all we have to do is figure out how to get this chuck off the drill press, and this one, all we have to do is open this up. Put that guy in. And then I would lock that in place. Now, we can grab even the tiniest of drill bits.
All right. We're set to go. There's another benefit to this. On impact drivers, they don't have conventional chucks on 'em, they've got these sleeves, which are great for grabbing hex shank stuff, like that. What we can also use this for then is turning your impact driver into a conventional drill, because now we've added a chuck.
So, solves two problems. One, if the chuck on your drill press doesn't get small enough. Two, if you wanna add a chuck to your impact driver or tools like this, we can do that. And that chuck we've shown you here is sourced in the description for the video, so you can add that to your tool arsenal.
Is there a most versatile drill press size for a beginner starting out my shop?
Wow, great idea and product. For $7 delivered to my door how can I go wrong?! thanks George.
I have done the same trick for small numbered drills. I did notice you only used chuck key in one position. I was taught that you should tighten at least 2 of the 3 locations on a drill chuck. It ensures perfect centering of drill and for larger drill bits it makes sure maximum clamping force preventing drill spinning in chuck jaws and probably ruining drill bit shank. For largest bits I tighten in all three positions.
I bought one of these chucks a few years ago for my wife's stick screwdriver. I wanted to use it for drilling and driving screws for wall hangers and such. I also tried it in the drill press as George shows. The only problem was that the shank wasn't straight and it wobbles all over the place. The one sourced in the notes looks like a better quality unit, so I think I'll try again.