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Building a Drill Press Table
I
took advantage of a Black Friday sale and purchased a Nova
Voyager
drill press for a great discount. This replaced a Taiwanese pillar
drill press I had for 25 years. Yeah, I know this machine is OTT, but
it is an amazing tool. For those who are not familiar with the
Voyager, it is a computerised, variable speed drill press with a 2 hp
direct drive motor (240v). I have already used it to determine the
ideal speed for a selection of forstner bits, and then drill to a
pre-set depth, and stop automatically at that depth.
Putting
it together was .. uh ... a little scary. The motor section is
extremely heavy, and I was concerned that I would drop it in my usual
clumsy fashion. Anyway, it was put together without mishap. A Nova
fence was one of the freebees thrown in ...
Nova
recommend that one not use a mobile base, however I need to do so
since my machines occupy one side of a double garage, and some
machines need to be mobile. The drill press is one. The ideal mobile
base is as low to the floor as possible. A low centre of gravity is
more stable, but also you do not want to raise the drill press up too
much as the controls and computer screen may be moved out of your
comfort zone.
Steel
mobile base on lockable wheels ...
This
post is more about the table I built for the drill press. Some may be
able to use the ideas here. Most of the ideas are old hat, but there
are a couple of novel ideas. My old drill press used nothing more
exciting than a piece of plywood over the cast iron table. Somehow it
was sufficient, although the work holding sucked ... and this is what
I wanted to address here. Plus, the sacrificial board became chewed
up and useless very quickly, and I had an idea to improve on
this.
I was not crazy about the cast iron table as a work
surface. For a top I found in my local salvage yard a 18" x 25"
UHMW slab 30mm (1-1/4") thick. I thought that this would be
about as perfect a table top as one could get - very resistant to
being damaged, and yet will not damage wood placed on it.
It
can be planed without any tearout
The
first task was to dado in aluminium tracks for the fence and hold
downs, and then to create a circular mortice for a sacrificial
section ...
Using
a power router to waste UHMW is an interesting experience - lots of
plastic string everywhere, and dust control was not working well. The
circular recess was time consuming and finicky. The template began as
a 2" forstner cut hole. This was then progressively widened to
4" using a rebate and a flush cut bit in the router table.
Finally, the template was used with a pattern cutter to create the
circular recess, above.
The circular sacrificial disks are
1/2" thick MDF. I found it quicker to saw them fractionally
oversize on the bandsaw, and then turn them on the lathe
...
Here
now is the basic table ...
There
is a cut out at the rear for the winder ...
Now
why did I choose a circular sacrificial section? I have seen many
drill press tables using square sections. I cannot recall seeing any
with round disks (unless it was dedicated to a sander, but that is
not the same thing). The drill bit is not centred on the square.
Instead, it is moved to the rear of the square. That way one can
rotate the disk four times after it becomes holed. My objection to
this design was that one only obtained four points, and as soon as
one section became holed, it could no longer back up the drill.
Now
a circular disk, on the other hand, has an infinite number of
positions (infinite until the circle is completed). Just rotate as
much as you need. More work to make, but better in the long
run.
Here
is the finished table ...
The
Nova fence came with those twisty levers. They are useless ...
difficult to achieve the ideal tautness and hard to get to behind the
fence. I replaced them with the long knobs. These needed to be cut
down by 3/4" to avoid fowling the downfeed handles.
The
tracks not only hold the fence, but also Incra hold downs
...
...
and even the Micro Jig clamps for taller boards ...
About
three months down the tracks I discovered that the table had cupped.
I am not sure why – moisture cannot affect it. I decided to bolt it
to steel square sections, which were placed across the ends and
centre. A year on, and the table remains flat.
The other change is a sub-fence in Lexan to provide a wider support …
Use it in the open mode so as to avoid fowling the chuck …
I
hope there is something you can use.
Regards from
Perth
Derek
November 2020