Incra drill press table

[sgryd]

At last I'm finished with my drill press table. I probably put a more than rational amount of time into this, but it was nice to build. I had some more trial and error experiences with the colored MDF called Valchromat. It really machines nicely, but if you don't care about the dust control you'll end up with a mess of fine black powder. I don't have a down suction in my router table yet, so I had to manually catch the dust cloud with the vacuum when routing the dados.

I'm sorry for the poor image quality. Handheld iPhone in low light is no good for image quality..

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

Is there a laser on there?

 

[sgryd]

Yes, there is a laser on the drill press.

As you can see the table is not aligned sideways (the laser is accurately aligned with the drill tip). That's because of the lateral slop in the original table before it's tightened with the lock lever. When centering the table before locking it down, the laser actually comes to use as a table centering guide.

When drilling I rarely use the laser other than to set the work piece in the ball park.

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

That's cool

 

[Alan m]

very nice.
i need a drill press table

 

[doc4som]

That is some beautiful work! Can you supply dimensions & parts list? Why did you make the sides at an angle? If you don't mind , may I copy this work?I want to make something similar, with a second, taller fence behind (the shown fence) riding on two rack-&-pinion rails on the table sides. The rack & pinion would be similar to the one Dewalt uses on its compact portable 10in table saws.

 

[sgryd]

Thanks.
I'll check the dimensions later today and maybe post some more images so the below text makes more sense. I took off the corners because I have a really small space. Every inch counts in my shop, and I didn't feel I'd have use for the outer corners of the square.

The tracks are Incra T-Tracks. The wider tracks with a scale is T-track plus 24", the other are T-track regular 24"
Tracks

The outer T-Tracks are the ones that the fence is sliding in. The fence is mounted on L-brackets:
L-brackets

The outer T-Tracks protrude approx an inch behind the table so I'm able to set the face as far back as possible. I didn't want to make the table deeper since it would have interfeared with the hand lever for adjusting the table up and down, but I also didn't want to waste throat depth of my drill press by not being able to set the fence far back. Actually, the first drilling I made with the table was for my DIY Dust Deputy dust bin. I was so glad I maximized the throat depth because I needed it in that project.

The fence is "Incra Track system"
Track system

Clams are Incra Built-it clamps:
Clamps

Shop stops:
Stops

Shop stops and Track are fitted with the metric kit. Originally it's delivered with imperial stops. I't easy to switch and non expensive.
Metric kit

Edit:
I used Osmo hard wax oil on the table. I love that oil on birch ply, and this was kind of an experiment to see how it would behave on the hard MDF. This kind of MDF takes polishing quite well. Before oiling I Rotexed it up to 320, hand sanded with a Mirca pad (500) and then polished with red polish pad (kind of a big Scotch brite pad). I actually cut the pad square and put it on the rotex. Worked really well.

I suppose I shouldn't have gone so high with the surface since the oil didn't seem so go into the surface as usual. I applied with a fine oil application bad but there are strikes anyway. I went over it a third time with the oil and brushed across the previous stike lines so the surface got kind of cross-striked. Just an experiment, as I said. This surface will scratch and wear quickly anyway.