I had to drill a 1/4-inch hole in the Totally Featureless Clock’s case for the antenna jack. Fortunately, I have a 1/4-inch collet, because there was nowhere near enough room for the Jacobs chuck in there.
Removing the tooling plate wouldn’t help: the chuck setup needed another inch!
In truth, the headroom is rarely the limiting factor. Another inch or two of throat distance and maybe that much more Y travel would be nicer, while we’re at it.
Ah, well, it’s all a matter of tradeoffs. If the mill were much bigger, I’d just want to make bigger projects, right?
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 