I repaired my backgear with T6 aluminium a while back and have been waiting for it to break/wear out ever since.
One of the jobs I did was a very big milling job, non-stop working for many hours which I felt may have fried the circuits on a VFD if I’d taken that route.
At the moment it runs my crazy shaping machine on a lathe contraption which is a non-stop high stress/low stress event and still seems to be fine.
No problems at all so far.
Modern aluminium seems to be easily machined tough stuff, I suppose this is why so many components in the motor industry use it.
Can you point us at a web picture/site for your drill press please.
Edited By ady on 02/11/2011 11:21:24