In the process of making another spindle holder / mount I was thinking it would sure be nice if I could drill the horizontal screw mounting holes fair accurately to the piece while its still mounted on the mill table. The thought lead me to another idea for a spindle mount. One that holds a handpiece or other small spindle parallel to the table. Then just swap the leads for my X motor and Z motor making the appropriate profile changes for speed. The almost finished work piece remains attached and square to the machine. This way the machine would in general maintain its mechanical relationship to the work piece. It would only work for holes or milling features parallel to the existing work planes, but would allow for drilling from the right or left side of the work pieces as opposed to just from the top. Layout and planning would be key.
I also considered a right angle die grinder, but I think it would be a lot harder to square the cutting or drilling line to the machine when swapping spindles or mounts. The only advantage to using the right angle spindle would be that you could get closer to the table surface with your cutter.
Is there an easier or more elegant way to achieve this?
I know some you guys with a huge shop, a million fixtures, and a big machine would just remove the work piece clamp it up square and drill it from the top, but sometimes that isn't all that easy, and on a mini machine may not even be possible when you are pushing the working envelope of the machine already.