T Slots In Drill Press Base

Turn your drill press table into a woodworking table in a few hours.

1. Portable Drill Press Base
2. T Slots In Drill Press Base Set
3. T Slot Drill Press Table
4. T Slots In Drill Press Baseball

Despite the fact that your drill press is designed mostly for poking holes in sheet metal, it has many uses in a woodshop. It's a mortiser, a spindle sander, it bores huge holes, and -- of course -- drills holes at perfect right angles to the table. Because the table on most drill presses is designed for metalworking, it's hardly suited for these tasks. So I built this add-on table with features that will turn your drill press into a far friendlier machine:

First, a fence that slides forwards and backwards as well as left and right on either side of the quill. This last feature also uses the drill press' tilting table feature with the auxiliary table for angled drilling.

Built-in stops (both left and right) that attach to the fence for repetitive procedures such as doweling or chain drilling for mortises.

Hold-downs that can be used on the fence or on the table for any procedure.

The sizes given in the Schedule of Materials are for a 14' drill press, with the center falling 9' from the rear edge of the table, with a 2' notch in the back to straddle the column. Adjust the center location and overall size of the table to match your particular machine.

Start With the Base-ics

The base platform for the table is made from 3/4' plywood, which should be void-free. Again, adjust the size as necessary to fit your drill press. First you need to get the table ready for the T-track, which is what holds the fence and hold-downs in place. Start by locating the four recessed holes that allow the T-slot mechanism to slip into the track without disassembling the mechanism. Each hole is 1-1/2' in diameter and 3/8' deep.

What are the slots in a drill press base for? They also have mounting holes around the edge to fasten it to the floor. But the base is machined flat and some have t-slots in the base. I cant imagine mounting work on the base because the head oin a drill press doesnt move vertically, only the spindle moves down but only a few inches. Bora Drill Press Vise Bora 551027 – The Sturdy, Quick Release Clamp that Attaches to Your Drill Press Table and Holds Your Material Fast for Easy Drilling 4.1 out of 5 stars 147 $27.99 $ 27. Nov 14, 2017 - Explore joe mireles's board 'Drill Press jigs / tips / ideas' on Pinterest. See more ideas about drill press, drill, woodworking. There’s a couple ways to mount this plate to an existing drill press table. Most drill press tables either have through holes and slots, or T-slots. When you bolt it to your existing table surface, you will need to leave some space between the new plate and the existing plate for the BuildPro clamps and ball lock bolts. Overview Reviews Heat treated steel T-Slot Nuts with black oxide finish feature an imperfect thread in the base of the T-nut to eliminate any danger of screwing the clamping stud through and damaging the table slot.

Next, locate the grooves in the center of the holes and use a router with a 3/4'-wide straight bit to cut the grooves to a 3/8' depth. The T-slot track should fit into the grooves with the top surface just below that of the plywood table. The grooves should be as parallel as possible to one another to allow smooth movement of the fence.

Replaceable Center

Now cut the hole for the 4' x 4' replaceable insert. First locate and mark the position centered on your table, then mark in from that line by 3/8' to locate your cutting line. Drill clearance holes in two corners of the square, then use a jigsaw to cut out the center piece. Next, determine the thickness of the material you will use for your insert (the 3/8'-thick Baltic Birch we used is actually metric and shy of 3/8') and set a 3/8' piloted rabbeting bit in a router to a height to hold the insert flush to the top surface of the table.

While your jigsaw is still out, locate, mark and cut out the notch in the back of the table. This allows the table to move closer to the drill press' post and tilt without interference.

As a final friendly touch on the table, I used a 3/8' roundover bit in my router to soften all the edges on the table, both top and bottom. You'll get fewer splinters if you do this.

Milling the Fence

The fence is the heart of the table, and the wood should be chosen for durability and straightness. Quartersawn hardwood, carefully surfaced and planed, will do nicely. After cutting the fence to size, use a dado stack to mill two 3/8'-deep by 3/4'-wide grooves in the fence. The first is centered on the top surface of the fence, and as in the grooves in the base platform, a piece of T-slot track should be used to confirm that the groove is deep enough to allow the track to fit just below the surface of the wood. The second groove is then cut centered on the face of the fence. One other bit of table saw work is the 1/8' x 1/4' wide rabbet cut on the inside bottom edge of the fence. This rabbet allows dust and debris to be pushed into the rabbet, so your work will fit against the fence.

One option that I considered was adding an indexing tape measure on the fence. Every time the table is moved the tape would need to be readjusted to zero, and for the infrequent use the tape would see I decided against it. A stick-on tape can easily be added to the fence face if that's more to your personal taste and needs.

Portable Drill Press Base

Fence Support Braces Unlike the fence on a router table, the fence on a drill press table won't see a lot of lateral pressure. So the main purpose of the braces is to hold the fence square to the table at the drilling point. In my case I've also given the braces the job of mounting the fence to the table.

Start by cutting the two base plates and the four braces to size. The braces are triangles with the bottom edge 3' long and the adjoining right angle edge 1-7/8' long. The third side is determined by simply connecting the corners. Locate the braces on the base plates according to the diagrams and pre-drill and countersink 3/16' diameter holes in the base plates to attach the braces to the plates.

To mount the support braces to the fence, again refer to the diagrams to locate the proper spacing on the fence. Then drill and countersink screw holes through the face groove in the fence. Clamp the brace to the fence and screw the brace in place.

With the braces attached to the fence, use the T-slot fastener locations on the diagrams as a starting point for drilling the holes in the base plates, but check the location against your table for the best fit. Two holes are drilled in each plate to allow the fence to be moved to the perpendicular position (either to the right or left of the quill), by simply relocating one of the T-slot fasteners. Check each hole in relationship to that position.

Attaching the Track Assuming you purchased the 24' lengths of track listed in the Schedule of Materials, you should be able to cut the tracks for the table first, leaving fall off that can be added to the two remaining full length tracks to give you the necessary 30' lengths of track for the fence. When attaching the track, first pilot drill the hole in the center of the track (a groove is provided in the track to simplify that location), then use a countersink to widen the hole to accommodate a #4 x 5/8' flat head screw. Keeping the screws as flush as possible to the inner surface of the track will make the stops and hold-downs move much easier.

Finishing Touches Stops and hold-downs designed for use in T-tracks make the drill press most useful. The stops are simply square blocks of wood with one side milled to leave an indexing strip that fits into the slot on the T-slot track. By using the saw to cut tall but shallow rabbets on two edges of each block, the stops are completed fairly easily. For safety, run the rabbet on a longer 2-1/2' wide piece of wood, then cut the stops to square afterward. The T-slot fasteners are simply inserted into a 1/4' hole drilled in the center of each stop block.

The hold-downs are simply blocks of wood with DeStaCo [TM] clamps mounted to the top. Each block is drilled for two T-slot fasteners, one on either end. Then the clamp is screwed to the top surface of the block. While the DeStaCos are good for this application, they aren't as versatile as I wanted. I replaced the threaded-rod plunger with longer all-thread (1/4' x 36) to provide maximum benefit from the clamps. The rubber tip of the plunger is important to the function of the clamp, and if you can manage to reuse the existing tip it's very helpful. If not, I found rubber stoppers in a variety of sizes in the local Sears hardware store. After carefully drilling a 1/4'-diameter hole two-thirds of the way into the stopper I was able to screw it onto the rod with little difficulty.

Attaching and Personalizing The table should attach easily to your existing drill press table using four lag bolts countersunk flush into the surface of the auxiliary table. Once attached you should find that the auxiliary table overhangs the metal table quite a bit. One personalized touch I want to suggest is adding small drawers to the underside of the table to store bits, wrenches and chuck keys.

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The following are the features I look for in a drill press.
Swing

I don't know what marketing genius came up with the useless concept of measuring a drill press capacity in swing, but it has become the standard. The swing is the maximum Diameter disk you can drill the center of -- basically the distance from the center of the chuck to the closest edge of the column (throat distance) times two.

I find that a 400mm [16'] swing or 200mm [8'] throat capacity is the minimum needed to prevent resorting to a hand-held drill more than 10% of the time.

There is very little cost increase for a floor standing drill press and the height is useful for assemblies, end-drilling, and supporting one or more jigs -- if you have the space. This is particularly true in a woodshop environment.

I suggest no less than 100mm [4'] quill travel (plunge range). You might think that you will never drill a hole deeper than 50mm [2']. This may be true, but you will want the additional quill travel so you can drill the bottom of a part that has sides -- like a drawer. To drill a part that has deeper sides than your quill travel you will have to lower the table, place the part, and raise the table into the bit providing the sides don't hit another part of the machine before you get it raised far enough.

I suggest no less than 12 speeds, 200 RPM or less to 3500 RPM or more. Variable speed machines are the most convenient, but also more expensive.

Until recently, variable speed was achieved through several mechanical systems -- mostly with belt drives. Drill presses with variable AC drives have been introduced in the last few years and are the most expensive. Alas, cost constraints limit the majority of drill press purchases to stepped-pulley belt driven machines.

You should look for easy belt changes on these machines. Look for belt guards that are not a pain to open and belt tension systems that are easy to adjust.

Wood Magazine has a Drill Speed Chart that shows recommended speeds for various bits and materials.

I find that 3/4 HP motor is a minimum. TEFC (Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled) is very desirable in a woodworking shop due to dust. I would avoid open motors entirely.

The quill of a medium-duty drill press should accept a #2 or #3 Morse Taper for chucks and large drill bits. These sizes are the most common and make it easier to find accessories that will fit the machine.

Chuck capacity should be 13mm [1/2'] plus, most floor-standing drill presses come with 16-20mm [5/8'-3/4']. I am a big fan of keyless chucks (chucks that are tightened by hand and do not need a chuck key).

The most respected keyless chuck is made in Germany by Albrecht and are expensive -- you can expect to pay over US$200 for a 1-13mm [1/32'-1/2']. I took a chance on a 0-13mm [0-1/2'] keyless chuck sold by SPI (Swiss Precision Instruments) that is made in Taiwan. It is a beautiful piece of work and sells for about US$80. It is an excellent addition to any drill press.

A quill lock is a very handy feature for doing setup, essentially a third hand. The problem is finding one. Very few new drill presses have them until you get into the industrial grade machines from Wilton, Delta, General, and Powermatic. I have modified some of the common Taiwanese-made medium duty drill presses with excellent results. A description is provided under Modifications.

An easy-to-use and fast acting depth stop is a great advantage. The best I have seen is on a Delta industrial variable speed press, which I purchased as spare parts and retrofitted to a 20' Jet (described under Modifications).

I am not a fan of rotating collar-style depth stops that are on the quill lowering shaft. I find them harder to accurately adjust and you cannot use measuring devices or work pieces to set drill depth like you can with the simple vertical threaded rod and stop.

Mechanical assistance for raising and lowering the table is the norm for any decent drill press, usually rack and pinion.

The two major styles of drill press tables have open slots or closed T-slots. Closed T-slots usually match tooling slots on machine tools like vertical mills. These tables are usually larger than the open slot style and have a moat around the table to collect and recycle cutting fluid.

Open slot tables may be round or rectangular and are most common on 400mm [16'] and smaller machines. Attaching to them requires bolting through rather than using t-slot fittings. Drill presses used for woodworking are well served by attaching an auxiliary table with a fence and T-slot hold-down.

Many people like a table that can be angled/rotated, but I rarely use it because it is time-consuming to align it square (a dial indicator is needed if you are picky).

A work light is very handy, but can be added.

I would not purchase a new drill press if the manufacturer did not guarantee that runout will be under .12mm [.005'] at the chuck. Runout is the 'wobble' measured at the chuck. Often the chuck is off and the quill is fine so you can get them to send a new chuck. You will require a dial indicator to check this.

If it comes down to two machines that are equal in your judgement, go for the one that weighs more. The added mass absorbs vibration. I built a steel base that raised it 150mm [6'] for a more comfortable operating height. I filled the base with a bag of Redi-Mix concrete, which made it much less top heavy and feel more solid. See Mobile Base Modification for details

Run the machine before you accept it if you can. A plastic cup with a 6mm [1/4'] of water should sit on the table with barely a ripple when the press is running under no load. You can often reduce vibration on existing belt-driven drill presses with link-belts. Conventional V-belts take a 'set' over time and are a frequent cause of disconcerting vibrations.

T Slots In Drill Press Base Set

All of the consumer-grade radial drill presses I have seen are not rigid enough to be useful for the work I frequently do. As an absolute minimum, you should not be able to push the quill down against a block of wood (when not running and no bit) and perceive any movement at all. I feel that deflection under these conditions should be less than .2mm [.008'] when measured with a dial indicator.

I have never seen medium-duty radial drill presses sold. They are either consumer grade or massive machines found in large machine shops that weigh tons and cost thousands of dollars.

T Slot Drill Press Table

Consider the overall fit & finish. It can say a lot about overall quality of things you cannot see without disassembly.

T Slots In Drill Press Baseball

Naturally, you need to look at the work you do and make sure the capacity meets your needs. In drill presses, more capacity is always better (and never enough). Used presses are usually worth consideration, but it is hard to find a decent price in many areas.