Replacing My Harbor Freight Bench Top Drill Press With A Grizzly G7943 Drill Press (Update)

I have done all the repairs and modifications and used the drill press for a while on several small projects. I'm going to call this a success.

Replacement South Bend Chuck on MY Grizzly Drill Press

The chuck worked just as I had expected. It works with bits smaller than the spec sheet indicates and is much better than the chuck that came with it. So much better than I'm considering buying a larger version for my large drill press.

I got exactly what I wanted. A good drill press that would handle smaller bits. I use drill bits down to wire gauge sizes that neither my Shopsmith or larger drill press can handle. For production purposes, I didn't want to have to fool around with adapters or changing chucks.

Some of the knobs were damaged, and I replaced them with these red ball knobs I found on Amazon. They came 10 to a bag, but they cost only $7.95. I had forgotten how much better I like ball knobs on a drill press. I plan to add these to some of my other tools. The broken knobs these replaced were also plastic.

20190310_133145 Red Ball Knob Grizzly Drill Press Replacement

I also replaced this knob with a knob I bought from Amazon when I tried to lock the spindle the knob disintegrated in my hand. It was just a bot with a knob molded on to it. I could have got by without it. The knob was cheap and I got a better knob.

Grizzly Drill Press Locking Knob Replacement

The old chuck was still good, so I stuck it on the side of the drill press with a hard drive magnet. Hard drive magnets can hold a crazy amount of weight so there is little chance it will ever come off.

Grizzly Chuck Held With A Hard Drive Magnet

I also repaired the mounting bracket for the add-on light that was about to fall off. Replaced all the incandescent bulbs with daylight GE Bright Stick LEDs. I hade to pull out the internal socket and remove about 1/8-inch so the Bright Stick LED would go in far enough into the socket. To get to this, You need to remove the top of the drill press. My puller was just large enough to do the job.

The drill press worked great for my purposes and was well worth the effort.