I have followed the advice given to me here and bought a Meddings MB4
7/8 inch bench drill - and I am very pleased with its condition and capability (and price) given it dates back to 1964. But I am going to ask a really dumb question - you see they never did metalwork at my school !How do I best hold the work ?
This drill has just the bench base-plate, no intermediate plate. The base-plate has two big parallel t-slots 175mm apart. I have a couple of drill vices but nothing that size. I have been using my lathe to do any half-precision drilling up to now, and that means the work is well clamped to the vertical slide, but what do I need for this drill ? Should I be looking for a big drill vice, or maybe a compound slide so that I have more options for nailing down tricky bits for drilling ? As I have to drill against the base-plate I can't use G-clamps.
I am sure there is loads of experience out there, so what do you guys use ?
Thanks Steve