My $12 thrift store drill press wobbles like crazy
Picked up a rusty drill press at a garage sale in Dayton for $12, thought a new chuck would fix it. Turns out the spindle is bent, so now I'm rigging a jig with shims to at least bore clean holes for shelf pins. Anyone else salvage a bent spindle on a budget, or is this a lost cause?
That $12 press has already paid for itself if you just need shelf pins, so shimming the jig sounds like the right move. But before you sink a weekend into it, check if the chuck itself is wobbling or if it's the whole quill, cause a bent spindle usually thrashes bearings too. If the bearings are toast, you're gonna spend more on those than the press is worth, and that's when it's a lost cause.