Served a 5 yr tool and diemaker apprenticeship w/ a bunch of "Kranky Krauts" who were stern "teachers" and didn't hesitate to "chew the apprentices out" if they saw bad practices. In the toolroom, the only vises bolted down were on milling machines, boring bars etc, and radial drill presses. All the regular drill presses had vises which were never bolted to the table but did have holes for stop pins in case the drill grabbed or when tapping. Also, center drills were only used when the vise was bolted down in one of the above machines or in a lathe. Here's the procedure taught to me...Layout lines were scribed, center punched, a small, flexible drill whose size was larger than the "point" of the next drill to be used, picked up the centerpunch and drilled a hole deeper than the lip depth of the next drill and then the final size drill was used. A cross slide vise, bolted to a drill press table could be used, but by the time the workpiece was aligned w/ the drill, I'd have the hole already drilled. We also tapped holes w/o a tapping chuck but just set the reverse button on the drillpress. My present drill press doesn't have a reverse button, so I turn the spindle on, shut it off and while the spindle is "coasting", enter the tap in the hole and when the spindle stops, unchuck the tap and finish in the bench vise. Sorry for the rambling.....Fred
