Testing a pre-release Wixey WR503 (for drill press)

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Mr. Wixey sent myself, and others, a WR503 to attach to a drill press and test it out. I will at least begin this overdue post on how that went. I will break this post into a few different posts since I do not know how many pictures I can post at once, and, I have a lot to say and very little time to say it (I guess I always say that).

First, what was included in this pre-release? I mention pre-release since what I received may have nothing to do with what you have if, and when, the product is released.
326521
This meter is pretty much what you expect. You can change between mm and inches (green button). For inches, it is to thousandths, as I think are all of their meters, and, for inches, it shows fractions.

Press and hold the red button to zero the meter.

This white button switches the readout from ABS (absolute) to INC ( incremental) measuring mode. ABS (absolute) is the standard mode used and the letters “ABS” are displayed. The readout will display the actual distance the quill moved after zeroing the meter. When in INC (incremental) mode the letters “INC” are displayed. Anytime the INC button is pushed, the displayed reading will become 0.000in. or 0.00mm. If the button is pushed again the readout will revert back to the ABS mode and display the true calibrated absolute reading. The absolute reading is remembered at all times regardless of which buttons are pushed. OK, I stole most of that from the user guide for the planer meter (I am ordering one of those for my Dewalt 735 next year since I really really really want one; I own a bunch of their stuff, but not that. So, if you want a write-up on that, let me know).

The metal bar is held in place with a nut and is used to attach the meter to the head of the drill press, and then this meter does not move.

There is a green bar that fits through the back of the meter.

326522

The bottom of the bar is attached such that as the quill lowers, the bar is pulled down through the stationary meter.

326523
I really should have take a picture with this stuff taken out of the bag, but, what we have is (from memory)



Drill from HSS steel to drill into the head of the drill press to mount that bar sticking out the side of the meter.
Self taping screws to hold the meter in place, and some screws to hold the meter to the metal mount bar and to connect the sliding green bar to another mount bar.
A mount bar (the big metal piece) used to attach the sliding green bar to the depth gauge.
Some washers


There is an assumption that that big metal piece with the large hole can fit that large hole onto your depth gage. The bar would then come straight forward the then attach to the green measuring bar. But wait, if it does not.... then....

326524

There is a pipe clamp with a bar that sticks out that you can attach to the bottom of the green bar. I positioned this as it needs to be when it is used (since when I first looked at it I was a bit puzzled). For my drill press, I had to attach the pipe clamp to a portion of the quill since I could not attach to the depth gage with the supplied hardware.

Before I bore you with the details, here is a picture with my co-tester (thanks Catherine).
326527

I will break here since I don't know how many photos I can post at a time.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I own an old low power Craftsman bench top drill press. Here is a close-up of the depth gage.

326528

The very bottom you can see the quill. The screw passed through a silver metal piece and it does not touch the metal piece. That metal piece will act as a stop when those round nuts hit it. Surely I do not need a Wixey meter since I clearly have a depth gage on the side of the drill press, right? Well, I can't reset that to zero so I know how deep I am drilling. It is very rough at best.

Ideally, you attach a support bar to the depth gage or the bottom portion using that metal bar in the bag.

The bottom of that screw attaches into a hard plastic piece that is then attached (similar to a pip clamp) to a portion that goes up and down with the quill. Directly above it is a leather washer that absorbs some shock when the quill returns. This is what it looks like if I remove it from the drill press.

326530

If I could figure out how to attach something to the top portion of this in a way that would allow things to work, that would be great, but there are some complications. Attaching to the bottom would be the best, but.... Look at the screw.

326531

That screw sticks out the bottom of the plastic portion roughly 1/8", so there is really no easy way to attach something to the bottom. I mean, I do have some thoughts, but nothing easy comes to mind (like building my own nut to which I can then attach something).

326533

Here is a picture from the front after I lowered the quill a bit. On the top left you can see where the depth stop would be. You see the quill on the bottom. And you can see the black leather washer that cushions things when you raise the quill. Notice that there is a metal ridge under the leather washer.

I attached the pipe clamp on this ridge, but, the metal support bar rubbed against the quill when the drill press is on. So... I cut a piece of leather the same height as the ridge.

326534

I used some painters tape to hold this tight.

326535

When I used the pipe clamp this time, it still rubbed when I tightened this up. The bar wraps around to the back and then to the side, so, I cut another piece of leather that was an appropriate length to go from the very back to the side and then I taped that in place.

326537

This shows things after I used two pieces of leather. Notice that there is plenty of room.

More to come shortly

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I ended my last post with the bottom mount piece in place to which I can attach the green measuring bar. So, I attached it such that it was straight up and down. With the meter on the bar, I then held it against the side of the drill press. The idea is that as the quill goes down, the bar is pulled straight down through the meter. If things are skewed, that may affect how far the bar travels relative to the bar, so, try to get this right.

I marked the drill press with a marker and then I used a punch to make a dent so that the drill would be less likely to wander.
326538

And this is how it looks from the side and front.

326539 326540 326541

[Andrew Pitonyak]

First, I posted all of the pictures unedited here: https://pitonyak.smugmug.com/20015Wood/

For initial testing, I zeroed the gauge with the quill in the up position and then I moved the quill up and down. The return position was always within a few thousandths, which really surprised me because this drill press is on the low end and I expect the tolerances to be loose; now I need to figure out how to get a nicer drill press.
I started this next test as follows:


Gather wood scraps and a sharp brad point bit.


Lower the bit until the center protruding point penetrated the wood and the primary cutting surface was flush with the top.


Zero the WR503.


Next, my daughter and I took turns drilling numerous half inch deep holes. We were both able to very quickly drill holes that were consistently within 0.025" of the desired depth. This takes some getting used to, however, especially if you are used to having a hard depth stop to prevent you from drilling to deep. In a perfect world, I would be able to keep my hard depth stop and use the WR503 to help me set it accurately; and on a different drill press, I could.

326542

This image shows zeroing the WR503 at the wood surface. I should have just set it to INC mode after setting this where I wanted it; well, after Catherine set it to where she wanted it.
326543

Her first test hole was the worst; almost 0.6" deep. Her second worst was 0.55" deep.
This particular drill press requires that you open the top to adjust the belts. There is a hinge welded onto the left side and a friction catch on the right. The top can not be opened sufficiently at this time. I have not yet cut the green bar, so it sticks up 5" over the top of the meter. This drill press has a 2" range, so even lowering the quill has the bar sticking up 3", which is too high to easily change to all of the belt settings. Cutting the bar would then allow easy belt adjustments. I could also modify how the top works, but that is something for another day.
Pay attention to the shape of the bit while determining how deep to drill. If you want a 1" hole, and you have a cone shaped bit, you must obviously adjust the depth accordingly.
Overall, this is a great device if you drill holes and you care how deep you drill them.

I think that the perfect use for this would be to mount this while still being able to use the depth stop. The depth reading that comes with this drill press is almost useless in practice, but if you can mount the Wixey, zero it, then set the perfect depth stop, well, that is VERY useful. So, I will continue to ponder how to mount this while still having the depth stop in place. Unless I am drilling a bunch of holes, however, I prefer to run with the Wixey rather than having a depth stop.

[Keith Weber]

Andrew,

If you want to use the depth stop to repeat a hole depth, zero your Wixey in the way you've been doing, then remove the work piece, lower the quill until it indicates the desired depth, and then move the depth stop up until it's in the right position to stop the quill at your desired depth. You can then drill the same hole repeatedly as long as the thickness of your work piece doesn't change.

As an observation, I'm not sure I'd put a lot of faith in the accuracy of the unit the way it's mounted. Hose clamps holding an extended, light-gauge, mount for the magnetic bar would have all kinds of flex if you want to talk about thousandths. I don't have a suggestion for a better mount, but most of the stuff I have that has digital readouts has the magnetic tape bolted directly to the cast housings that move.

[Myk Rian]

How would it mount if you wanted to use it with a mortising adapter?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

If you want to use the depth stop to repeat a hole depth, zero your Wixey in the way you've been doing, then remove the work piece, lower the quill until it indicates the desired depth, and then move the depth stop up until it's in the right position to stop the quill at your desired depth. You can then drill the same hole repeatedly as long as the thickness of your work piece doesn't change.

That is kind of what I did while testing, but, with the parts provided at this stage, I was not able to connect to the existing depth stop, and, worse, I had to remove the depth stop to mount it. So, I did exactly this but then I could not rely on the depth stop to provide a physical stop to the depth.

What I should have done was to simply press the INC button to put the meter into incremental mode. That part is so fast and easy, that I could do it each time before drilling, but, it would be better if I could just set the physical depth stop based on the meter. The tests showed that both myself and my 10 year old daughter were easily able to have reasonable results using only the meter.



As an observation, I'm not sure I'd put a lot of faith in the accuracy of the unit the way it's mounted. Hose clamps holding an extended, light-gauge, mount for the magnetic bar would have all kinds of flex if you want to talk about thousandths. I don't have a suggestion for a better mount, but most of the stuff I have that has digital readouts has the magnetic tape bolted directly to the cast housings that move.

I do agree, and, that is certainly the preferred method of mounting. Some pictures came with the device that showed it mounted exactly that way, it is just that it did not work out for the drill press that I own. Even there, the depth stop uses a similar mounting method to hold the base of the depth rod in place. The only advantage there is that it is a rigid plastic that should not flex too much.

My testing showed that I had some rather repeatable results with respect to depth, but I did not attempt to track that to the thousands place, especially since I used performed test measurements with a probe that had a tip that could descend into the center hole made by the brad point bit (and I measured a bunch of holes).

I had two problems mounting to the depth stop, only one of which is that the depth stop base is less than 1/2 the width of the meter width to the drill press head so I would need to create a mounting bracket that moved the things out a bit.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

How would it mount if you wanted to use it with a mortising adapter?

Well, that depends on the drill press and how it mounts. Consider the picture below of a Delta Drill Press with the adapter

326659

Notice that the adapter mounts below the metal piece that holds the depth stop. This shows the preferred mount point for the Wixey depth gage, which will trivially allow the Wixey device (or at least it looks like it to me). So, if you are able to leave the depth stop in place when you install the adapter, and, if you can mount to the depth stop device, then you should be able to use them together. If you must remove the depth stop because that is where the adapter mounts, then odds are that you would need to find an alternative means of mounting the meter. My drill press can not use a mortise adapter; sadly. I suppose that a better question is..... can you mount this meter to a mortising machine.