Drill Press Laser Guide

[Steve Kinnaird]

Does anyone use a laser guide on your drill press?
I had one on my Craftsman Drill Press and liked it.

I know have a Delta Bench Top Drill Press and would like to add the laser pointers.

I have found these 2:

http://www.infinitytools.com/Drill-Press-Precision-Laser-Guide/productinfo/100-144/

http://www.performancetoolcenter.com/general-international-70-300-laser-pointer-for-drill-press/

[pat warner]

A classic fugazi.

[Dan Rude]

For the price the General tool one looks like it would be worth a try. Infinity Tool though has been a good company with quality products. Let us know which you choose. Dan

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Steve, I find they're not accurate enough.

I use an awl to locate the center point on wood...............Rod.

[William C Rogers]

Rod is somewhat right. Some of the pointers I have used the cross is not 90 degrees. What happens with these is the spot moves as you approach the drill point. Those with 90 cross are fairly accurate. Mine came with my Craftsman and does work well. I thought I needed/wanted a laser to be more accurate. Having said that I haven't turned mine on in years. Just not really worth it.

[Bill Huber]

I have one on my old Craftsman and it works ok, I don't use it to be real accurate, I use it to get close and then I have a punch mark to put the drill bit into.

Now if you really want to drill a hole very accurate you can get one of these from Lee Valley, I have one and use it a lot when I need to drill a hole spot on.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=45502&cat=1,180,42311

[Steve Kinnaird]

I have one on my old Craftsman and it works ok, I don't use it to be real accurate, I use it to get close and then I have a punch mark to put the drill bit into.

Now if you really want to drill a hole very accurate you can get one of these from Lee Valley, I have one and use it a lot when I need to drill a hole spot on.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=45502&cat=1,180,42311

Neat punch, could see adding that in the future.
To be accurate I believe that the lasers need to be fixed and not travel with the drill chuck.
I order the General to play with. But not sure it will do what I want.

[Roger Pozzi]

I have this (http://www.ptreeusa.com/drillPress_Acc.htm#929) one and have no complaints. It does exactly what it's designed to do after carefully setting it up and getting the adjustments made. And it does work throughout the table height range since it mounts to the column, not the spindle as some seem to think. I use everytime I use my drill press. Sometimes I just use the crosshairs on a rule to set the fence and/or stop blocks. Works perfectly.

[David Ragan]

My Craftsman has one on it.

Kind of a gimmick--but when it went out I took it in for repair.

I do use mine for an approximation.

The thing Bill shows is cool, but a center finder in the chuck and center punch will so it also.

Roger, I don't see how something mounted to the column can accurately find the center @ different table heights. The planes of the laser beams come from the mounting and go down toward the table at an angle, right? Not 90* to the up and down of your table....

[glenn bradley]

If you liked using one, the finer the beam the better. I have never found one where the beam wasn't wider than the degree of accuracy I require ;-)

[Don Bunce]

Here's a video showing a laser centering device, but you will have to make it yourself. Starts at 2:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSjut1iGGk

[Keith Outten]

This Laser Center is held in the drill chuck. I use mine on my CNC Router and my Mill/Drill. The laser spot is adjustable all the way down to a diameter less then a pin.

http://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com/main.html

[ian maybury]

A lot tends to depend on how accurately you need to place your hole centres, but i'm another that figures the line on the crossed line laser markers may be thick enough to only be useful for maybe +/- 1mm accuracy. Which is fine for certain types of woodwork. Total runout on the drill adds to any inaccuracy - it doesn't seem to be hard to find 0.050in and more runout on many drill presses.

That laser center looks interesting Keith, do you think it gets within the claimed 1/2 thou or so? (thinking of my mill drill - it should be faster than a wobbler/wiggler) The DIY angled laser method too Don - versatile and very smart, but dependent on the bore in the mounting and the machine part it's mounted on being accurately centred. Wondering how he gets high accuracy with such a thick laser line?

I find i do quite well on wood using a simple centre point mounted in the chuck like this one - usually over knifed lines at 90 deg to each other under very good light as it's harder to position accurately over a punch or awl mark. http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=32316&cat=1,180,42311 One place where having a long quill travel helps ease changing back to a drill. Twist drills (brad points are not so bad - touch the point very lightly to mark and check the setting before starting to drill) are very tough to centre over a mark - it takes a very good eye to even get close. Smaller sizes flex easily anyway, and will deflect to centre in a punch mark - producing who knows what result. A short and stiff engineering centre drill gets over this if needed. (less of an issue on wood)

It's possible to use solid or adjustable parallels (accurately sized pieces of ground steel used for milling sets ups which can be combined to hit most dimensions not too expensive from hobby machining places: http://www.warco.co.uk/2938-parallels ) position a drill press fence accurately from a chuck mounted accurately ground cylindrical dowel pin of known diameter - Pat W describes the technique in his drilling manual. Parallels are also useful to scribe lines locating holes a set distance from the edge of a part - shown in the video below.

More accuracy entails heading into traditional manual machine shop marking out techniques, and methods that may entail some calculation (offsets for tips etc) to fix dimensions. Keith's laser is in this space, i've been using the traditional wobbler/edge finder on a mill drill to find part edges or fix hole centres - again shown in action in the video linked below (and other places on YouTube etc): http://www.starrett.com/metrology/product-detail/1-Precision-Measuring-Tools/11-Precision-Hand-Tools/1116-Precision-Shop-Tools/111603-Edge-and-Center-Finders/827B Sometimes this one: http://www.amazon.com/Starrett-S828HZ-Wiggler-Complete-Attachments/dp/B0006J4PIS

Guess beyond that it's often into machine tools with the ability to locate defined co-ordinates and dimensions using CNC or very accurate lead screw systems on XY tables.


This MIT workshop training video does a nice job of covering quite a few standard/traditional engineering marking and layout techniques, including the above: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/142-machine-shop-1

[Roger Pozzi]

Roger, I don't see how something mounted to the column can accurately find the center @ different table heights. The planes of the laser beams come from the mounting and go down toward the table at an angle, right? Not 90* to the up and down of your table....
I don't understand the mechanics (electronics?) behind it but, the beams of light somehow are vertical? :confused: All I know is that I thought the original that was on my drill press showed promise although it had to be re-calibrated after changing the table height. But, after talking with the guy at the Peachtree display at the woodworking show a couple years ago, I bought theirs' and have been totally happy with it ever since.

[Keith Outten]

I believe the laser center edge finder is the most accurate available because it mounts in the chuck. Whether it is capable of a half thousandths accuracy is probably based on the accuracy of your drill CIR.

On my CNC Router I use the laser to setup multiple phases in a job when the sign is larger than my router table. I can setup match marks and slide the material using the laser to register the material for subsequent machining steps. If I have a power outage during a long machining run I can use the laser to go back to a selected point on the job and restart the cutting file.

On my mill /drill the laser is much more accurate than my eyes are when I need to setup on a punch mark or scribe lines. Blue Dykem provides an excellent contrast to the laser beam and improves accuracy significantly when the spot size is reduced to less then a pin diameter.
.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Yes -I have a laser on my drill press. (GMC benchtop)
Yes - I use it pretty often.

No - if it went out I wouldn't replace it nor would I pass up buying a DP that lacked one.

[glenn bradley]

This Laser Center is held in the drill chuck. I use mine on my CNC Router and my Mill/Drill. The laser spot is adjustable all the way down to a diameter less then a pin.

http://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com/main.html

Now you're talkin' :)

[ian maybury]

Thanks Keith. The Laser Center looks like the business. Unless i'm missing something the big ace should be the convenience/elimination of the need for calculation. It should easily do anything needed in woodworking. Seriously tempted. A keyless chuck would be handy with it..

It's nice and short which is important re. quill travel, and it has adjustment. Quill runout as you say is a factor, but is a bit of a self limiting issue in that if the chuck has a wobble or the adjustment of the unit is a hair off the laser presumably describes a circle on the part and you can centre pretty effectively anyway. The drill or whatever will in that case whirl by whatever amount and upset the sizing of the hole, but that's nothing to do with the laser.

Hard to judge from this distance how accurate it might be possible to get down to, but with judgement it's probably possible to split the spot. Traditional wobblers take a fair amount of touch in use get down to tight tolerances anyway.

[David Ragan]

The chuck mounted laser....why didn't I think of that? Makes me wonder how well-what runout would be on a cheap office supply chuck-able laser pen (obviously hobbyists only)
i have some wiggler things.....what are they for? (They looked cool and were cheap)

[Keith Outten]

David,

I suspect that an office supply quality laser pointer might not be accurate enough assuming that the beam could be off by just a few degrees from the case that would be mounted in the chuck.
My Laser Center is a precision instrument and the beam will go completely across the shop and when installed in my mill drill or CNC Router you can adjust the beam diameter spot to the point that it disappears. I don't turn the machine on with the laser in the chuck, never thought of it anyway.
.