On 11/01/16 18:10, stryped wrote:
I am thinking of concerting my table top drill press into a floor press by replacing the round column with a taller one. I can get a pipe that is close to the same size in stainless, but I would need to somehow turn the ends down where they fit into the top and base approximately .001 to .002.

Any ideas on how this could be done without a lathe?
Not much to remove really which is good. As an amateur glass blower I've
done this type of thing on a number of occasions by rolling the tube on
a couple of rails, normally a glass blowing bench, and holding an angle
grinder with a flap disc against the part to remove the material and
moving it along the section needing to be reduced. Lift the grinder
before you stop and reverse direction to avoid flatting the tube, or
start from the beginning again. As you're needing to remove so little
best use a fine flap wheel. If this is a Chinese drill press you may
find the tube drops straight in anyway if that close in size as in my
experience with them the bores are not that accurate. I've used this
procedure when fixing blowing iron heads that have cracked of back to
the main shaft and cleaned the weld seam this way. Best in my experience
to have the wheel grinding in the direction or near to the axis of the
tube. If in doubt practice on some scrap tube.