Fobco star - how much play is normal or acceptable?

[Elforado]

Hi all, hoping to draw from the collective experience/knowledge base here.

Am on a quest to find a solid vintage bench drill press and have come across a fobco star at what seems to be a relatively decent price. Having done quite a bit of research on things to look out for when buying second hand, one of my primary concerns is play in the quill/spindle and the corresponding loss of accuracy when drilling.

As the unit is located quite a distance from me, i've asked the seller to take some videos to show the amount of play (front to back and side to side) at the chuck with the spindle extended all the way (see attached videos)

I don't really have any prior experience with fobco star drill presses so am wondering if this extent of play is normal/acceptable?

Grateful for any input please. Thanks

 

[Fitzroy]

I’ll try to remember to go look at mine in the morning and see how much play there is.

 

[Co1]

I paid £90 for mine about 6 months and spent about the same again on it on a restoration. There is a project thread on here somewhere.

There was no noticeable play at all in the quill.

 

[Chris152]

We recently bought an old Denbigh drill press. The runout on the chuck was 0.24mm, which became unusable at the tip of a drill held in it. After lots of measuring we found the spindle was bent, so we put it in our press and gradually got it straighter. There's more work to do but we got it down to 0,05mm deviation, which is good enough (for us) for general drilling. We have a mill/ drill for more accurate work. All it would need is more time to get it very accurate.

 

[deema]

There should be no discernible play in the quill. It could be the bearings or the lining of the shaft that takes the quill that allows it to rise and fall. The latter usually can be adjusted out, the former just needs the bearings replacing.

 

[Fitzroy]

At full extension there is some play in my FobcoStar, it measures 0.22mm on a dial gauge. If I lock the quill in the head at full extension this drops to unnoticeable but measurable at .02-0.05mm on a dial gauge. From this I think this play is coming from how the quill rides in the head not how the spindle rides in the quill. Both of these play takes some pressure to achieve, as you can see in the video the whole drill is moving somewhat relative to the camera.

In operation there is very little runout in my drill and it’s never given me any accuracy issues in my woodwork.

Fitz