If you trade in the steel industry, chances are that your drill press machines are some of your most prized possessions because they make it so easy to put those perfect holes even on high-grade alloy steel plates. However, there area few points to be discussed here, in case you are new to the business.
The Importance Of The Table Remaining Perfectly Perpendicular To The Spindle
The question you need to ask yourself is how perfect do you need the holes on each metal sheet to be? In most situations, the answer is as close to 100% accuracy as possible, of course. However, to get those perfect circular holes, you need to set the table in a way that it becomes perfectly level to the spindle. Once the perfect perpendicular position is reached, you may also want to fix the table permanently in that position.
Safety Is Vital: Invest In Drill Press Guards And Shields
Once the tables have been set in a perfect level position to the spindle, the next step is to ensure safety by fitting each machine with a drill press guard or safety shield. These are easy to both install and uninstall frequently if you need to, but they provide complete protection to the user all the same. Additionally, the workers should also be wearing eye shields during the drilling process.
Make Sure That The Speed And The Bit Is Right For Making Holes In Steel
Every machine usually comes with a chart, but since they are industry standards, you can look these up online as well. It is very, very important that you choose the right drill bit and the speed for the thickness and the metal in question.
Steel and high-speed don’t go well together, so slow is the way to go here, especially if the diameter of the hole is big and the plate/sheet is thick. Setting it to a higher speed can result in accidents and will most likely damage the machine and the materials.
Change the belt’s tightness by releasing the motor lock first, and then adjust the tension accordingly. In almost all drill presses, they are located in an easy to access position just under the top lid.
Everything we just discussed here should be conveyed to your workers as well because they will be the ones working with the drill press machine after all. The last thing that any factory owner or manager wants to see is an injured worker at the site, simply because he didn’t know the kind of danger he was in until it was already too late.
You should consider hiring trained workers or conduct on-site training. It may seem like an unnecessary expense at the time, but if you ever get sued because an untrained worker got injured on the job, you will regret the decision to not pay for the training sessions!
