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drill press wobble

If you have or can get a hold of an indicator and mag base I would check the spindle bore out first. If it's your spindle not sure what you can do about it. Drills do not generally run dead true in a basic cheap drill chuck. A drill chuck can have runout. If the drill chuck shank is bent of course you will have wobble. Could even be a bent drill bit. Roll the bit to see if it rolls without wobble on a flat table.

If spindle is true it's probably the drill chuck. When you chuck on a drill bit make sure the drill shank is not all buggered up. You want a nice round clean shank ed drill bit to start with. If it's a stamped shank for drill size I ALWAYS stone the high spots of the stamping off. This can cause drill bit run out. If the drill is straight, the chuck is good and spindle runs true you should have very little runout.
 
It's not the bit, I have the same wobble with all of them and I did roll a few to check.

I'm kinda hoping that a better chuck would solve the issue. I'll try to see if I can see any problems with the spindle.
 
It's HF, so you never know, but my money would be on the chuck. I had a similar drill press from the same source. HORRIBLE run-out! Switched to a good chuck mounted on a good arbor, and it ran as true as anyone could want from a drill press.
 
I have an ancient Sears "Companion" table top drill press that evidently had a different chuck adapted to it along its lifetime,it has a 1/2" Jacobs chuck on it,but it appears the spindle was either a metric 13mm thread,or something other than 1/2"x20 thread,and someone bored out the chuck and threaded it to match the spindle..and it didn't come out "perfect"..

It wobbles about as much as yours does in the video..I dont do much work requiring high tolerance precision though,and it's gotten me by for the usual fabbing I need to do in my garage...it only has a 1/4 HP motor on it,so I'm limited to 1/2" pretty much,though I have bored many 3/4" holes with it in heavy steel plate using a bit with a turned down shank,or a 3/4" high speed steel countersink bit...on larger holes the wobble is much more noticeable and frustrating...

My main gripe with the press is no chuck key out of about 20 I've tried fits the dam chuck right...so bits are always slipping and screeching ,I have resorted to using a pipe wrench to tighten it at times..:doah:
 
for the most part it isn't much of an issue. In the example above I just blocked the side so the metal couldn't spin and let it float with the drill. Where it becomes most apparent is when I'm drilling with a hole saw. It can make a real mess of the hole.

best place for a reasonably priced good chuck?
 
I'd bet a HF drill press has a metric chuck most likely..might be $$$$ to get one if it is...

I had a brand new Milwaukee 5/8" capacity chuck I scored at a flea market at a giveaway price ,and I bought it hoping it'd work on my drill press,but if I remember right,it had a weird 5/8 x 20 fine thread ,and it was too big..
If that would help you I'll see if I still have it..

I put 1/2" chucks on all my hand drills,I got several of them with 3/8"x 24 threads off junked drills I found at the junkyard in the trunks of junked cars..they fit right on the new drills perfectly..:D

I probably have 3 or 4 like new 3/8" chucks I took off the new drills when I swapped the 1/2" one on them..at least two were those "hand tighten" chucks,which I dislike immensely..
 
If that's the drill press I think it is, it has a standard MT2 socket spindle. I don't recall how it's mounted to the chuck, but would guess a standard JT. But regardless, I would buy a better arbor AND chuck. The arbor may prove usable (they are not that difficult to make true) IF you can get the chuck off it. But most of the time it's difficult to release a JT, and good arbors are cheap. I generally get Phase II arbors from Enco, old Jacobs (before Danaher) were excellent, and even new Jacobs is actually ok (but not the chucks). For chucks, ebay is my usual source, but you either need to know what you're looking for (and find good pictures), or just plan on putting a kit in it. A few years ago I bought/rebuilt several older Jacobs 3Bs with kits that cost me less than $4 each (IIRC, I bought 10 for $40 including shipping). I kept the best for myself, and sold the others (still a smoking deal for a fresh rebuilt chuck) to offset all my costs and then some. Rohm makes some good chucks for a decent price, and the 1/2 keyless used to be a regular on the Enco sales, but not in the last year or so.
 
My porter cable stand up was a $300 unit and came out of the box like that.

Turns out after replacing the quill and chuck and the wobble still being there that it was the spindle. I had to dissemble the whole thing and order a replacement piece.
 
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