By Les Swift
In order to drill truly vertical holes using your drill press- the table must be square or at 90degrees in every direction to the vertical movement of the drill itself.
It pays to check this from time to time (especially if the table has been tilted for the purpose of drilling off square holes) A handy device for doing this can be easily made from a 250mm x 6mm rod bent into an “S” configuration and installed in the chuck.
The table is raised until the tip of the rod is just touching the surface and then a slow rotation by hand will indicate any part of the table that is not “level”.
To adjust the sideways or “left to right “lay of the table, the large bolt underneath that locks the table in the tilt position, is loosened (black arrow) and the table adjusted so that- when the chuck is rotated –the rod’s tip touches light all around the perimeter. The bolt is then re-tightened.
This, most times, is all that is required, but it is not impossible for the table to be out of square in the “fore and aft” or front to back position.
By a slight slackening of the large bolt we have just been using, then turning in or out the grub-screw (white arrow) that appears directly below this bolt the front of the table may be raised or lowered.
It appears that the mounting is purposely machined to make the table higher at the back. This then makes it possible to use the grub-screw to adjust the front.
After adjustment, the bolt of course is “pinched “ up.
