So this summer I had aqcuired a like new 8in Harbour Freight drill press off Craigslist Finding Maker Tools. The first time I went to use it I had noticed that there was a serious alignment issue with the table relative to the drill bit. I have been using shims to correct the alignment, but finally decided to do a more permanent fix.
The problem is that there is a dip in the middle of the table from side-to side. Also the welded in mounting tab is not square to the table top so the table slopes from back-to-front.
Back-to-Front Alignment
Side-to-Side Alignment
Decided to use the belt sander to flatten and square the table. After going through a couple of coarse belts I finally got it pretty close. Not machinist perfect, but close enough for my purposes.
New Back-to-Front Alignment
New Side-to-Side Alignment
