Drill press routing with hand made bits?

[Bernie Daniel]

Well here is something that might well have been discussed here before. If so ignore. If not perhaps it is of interest to someone? Looks pretty safe?

Could also use this technique to rough out top and back boards?

[Paul Busman]

I've been tempted to do some routing with my drill press (for whistle making, not lutherie) but was always told that you should not side load a Morse taper chuck because it might come loose. I'd like to know if this is OK too..

[fscotte]

I can see that tearing up curly maple. Routers need high speed.

[sunburst]

It is true that drill presses are generally not designed nor intended for lateral loads on the quill, and overdoing it can cause problems. Some drill presses (read bigger, stronger, heavier ones) can handle light milling/shaping duty pretty well, but drill presses are not milling machines.
(FWIW, I have two drill presses in my shop, on one I can use a SafTplaner with no problems, the other will drop the tool when the Morse taper lets go.

[Marty Jacobson]

This shearing action and the small diameter means that there isn't a lot of lateral force on the cutter to be transferred to the taper. Also, unlike a typical end mill, this exerts forces up towards the taper, whereas a typical end mill will put tension forces on the taper. The small diameter and compression forces on the taper are what make this less dangerous than I originally expected before viewing the video. Probably not without risk, but the same could be said for working with any power tool.

[amowry]

I used to use my drill press set up like a pin router for cutting sound holes. It worked okay for 1/8" spruce, but I'm not sure I'd want to cut a maple headstock that way

[Bill McCall]

Well, people can do all sorts of stuff not usually seen in larger commercial settings and get good results but:

1. Aside from potentially chewing up the bearings in your drill press (admittedly over some time) from excessive side loading,
2. If you're clever enough to grind your drill bits into single bladed router bits I suspect you have a suitable router available to you that will make shorter and safer work of this task. Preferably you would use a plunge base, and it might take a custom made plate to deal with the intersection of the peghead and the neck.
3. I also suspect that it is quite possible for the drill bit to break due to the heat and side loading. That may have a negative outcome on the operator as well.

Safetywise, if you're using the router from the topside, none of the bit is exposed. I know a lot of folks like to 'see their work' during the machining and don't trust their tooling and templates, but that's a matter of trust and experience.

I also recognize it would take some additional creativity to make extremely tight curves along the top edge, but that's both a design and tooling question where you are always limited by the diameter of the cutting tool.

Right tool for the right job, but ymmv. Not getting hurt is the primary virtue.