Drill Press Table

[btracey1]

Hello,
It was not long after purchasing an economy drill press that I realized some of it's shortcomings. Mostly the very small table that it came with. This table was made in an attempt to improve on an otherwise adequate (for my needs) drill press.
Suggestions are always welcome.
Brian Tracey

 

[sw1211]

Looks real nice and should function well.

The only thing you may find is that you might find it useful to have the fence a bit longer in order to allow the positioning of stops on longer pieces.  You can always use an auxiliary fence if needed to work around this.

 

[mattfc]

Very nice, did you buy the table and then route the grooves, the gray edging makes it look very neat!

 

[btracey1]

Hi Steve,
The extensions for the fence are probably going to be needed at some point. I've seen some examples and they don' look that complicated I'll put them on my list of projects (It's getting to be a long list).
Thanks for the suggestion!
Brian

 

[btracey1]

Hi Matt,
No, I made the Table it's  two 3/4" pieces of MDF glued together with a Formica type laminate on the top surface. The edging was purchased from "T-Molding.com".
A groove is routed into the circumfrence of the table and the T-Moulding is simply pressed into the groove. They have a variety of colors and sizes, the one on this table is 1.5".
Brian

 

[Mac]

Really nice work, I like this. Thanks for the link.

Rick

 

[tbellemare]

Nice, Brian!

A friend of mine has that drill press. It has a vertical sprocket along the stand that is used for elevating. Does yours bow when you raise the head? His does and it never really seemed right to me.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[btracey1]

Tom,
Thanks for looking. I have not noticed any bow in the vertical sprocket yet, but it would not surprise me. The design of the rack and pinion is a little disconcerting in that the rack is merely captured in a beveled collar on the bottom, and is supposed to rotate smoothly around the column that supports the head and table....I did say supposed to, right?  It's a 1/2 HP Floor model as you can see. The biggest negative is not the quality of the machine, (that's more than I expected for the price) but rather the limitations of the size and design. It's a 15 inch Drill Press but feels like it's about 12 inches. I guess eventually it will be replaced with something a little bigger. Probably a 17" with a 1HP Motor.
The addition of the Drill Press Table will help overcome some of this drill presses shortcomings in the meantime. (I Hope).
Brian

 

[johnsonri]

Brian,

Very nice table. The only thing that I see missing is dust collection. Have any plans to incorporate dust collection? I have a DP table similiar to what you have built there and have found a dust collection port very handy.

Rey

 

[tbellemare]

You've made quite a nice addition to that drill press.

We were afraid that the rack would break or become plastically deformed so he sort of solved the problem by putting a couple of tie-wraps around it so it couldn't deform so much. The head never gets down very far anyway, the owner is 6'-5", so that part of the rack doesn't really get used.

Tom

 

[btracey1]

Hey Rey,
After using the Drill Press Table for just two days I see what you mean about the dust collection issues. I have a dust hood that i saved from an old table top Router table that I think could be incorporated without too much difficulty, I'll give it a go and see if it helps. In the mean time...I'm practicing for blowing out the candles on the birthday cake!
Brian

 

[btracey1]

Hi Tom,
That's a great idea about using the cable ties on the rack. Even at 5'9" I still use the rack almost always near the top of it's travel, and for the occasional need to lower the table the ties could be easily removed and replaced.
I'll have to check out the rack more closely tonight. I honestly never even looked at it. It does look flimsy.
Thanks again,
Brian

 

[sw1211]

Hey Rey,
After using the Drill Press Table for just two days I see what you mean about the dust collection issues. I have a dust hood that i saved from an old table top Router table that I think could be incorporated without too much difficulty, I'll give it a go and see if it helps. In the mean time...I'm practicing for blowing out the candles on the birthday cake!
Brian

Something like this  or this may help with DP dust collection.

 

[btracey1]

Steve,
That looks like a great solution. Thanks for the link.
Brian

 

[webdog]

Brian:

Nice job. How is it attached to the stock table?

I need to build one of those.

Truman
8)

 

[RONWEN]

Really nice job on the table! 
The only thing that I notice is the way you have the toggle clamp mounted is limited on the workpiece size/position that you can hold.  I might give that tool tray mounted to the column a second purpose & make a bracket  (ply or steel) that would cantilever the toggle clamp from it so that it swings in a ~15" arc to beside your spindle.  You could then clamp & hold down most workpieces right next to where it's being drilled. 

 

[btracey1]

Hi Truman,
The stock Table is small, roughly 12"X12" with curves on two sides. I routed out a 1/4" recess in the same shape as the cast iron table with the 1400 and then used 1 1/4" lag bolts with large washers to secure the MDF Table. I'm thinking that maybe I should at least put a layer of strong double sided tape or, if necessary, through bolts. I just didn't want to put more holes in the top than needed.
Brian

 

[btracey1]

Hey RonWen,
Thanks for looking and taking the time to make suggestions.
You can't tell from the picture but unfortunately the tool tray is cheep plastic. I think it could maybe support three allen wrenches without breaking! But I have a Buddy at a machine shop, I really like your idea. In the mean time I have also made a hold down that has a couple of hold down clamps mounted on a board going between the two rails. This acts as both a hold down and a front fence to capture boards between the front and back fence.
Brian

 

[RONWEN]

Plastic? Ugh!
There used to be a company that made a clamp that bolts to the column (various diameters) and various lengths (15", 17" etc.) depending on the size of your drill press.  It has a screw clamp at the business end to clamp down the workpiece and you can actually insert various size drill bushings & drill thru into the workpiece.  I  have one (called Hol-Clamp) but I don't find any info on it on the internet so they may be out of business.
As you say, it would be very easy to make one -- the piece that wraps the column is split with a thru bolt & toggle lever to release & tighten it.