HEX broach too big for our manual press

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Dpaulson

I have been doing shafts and broaching a long time. We always start the hex broach in the lathe with the piece in the chuck and a center in the tail stock.As we get 3 or 4 inches in we move to the arbor press but I find no problem doing the process in the lathe. Drill a big hole a lot more force then the broach. Yes arbor press is fine for broaching a keyway but that hex broach has to be straight Most of this work is in alumimun
Dave Paulson
15 years mentoring
Team 599

You should look up brinnelling. This is really bad for your spindle bearings, regardless of whether you've noticed damage or not. All thrust bearings are designed to handle loads only while rotating. It's not relevant that drilling a large hole requires more force (which is debatable), since the bearing is designed to handle that load case.