I was thinking of building my own drill press table and fence, and then found the Woodpeckers drill press table package at Woodcraft. Does any one have any experience with it?
Thanks,
I was thinking of building my own drill press table and fence, and then found the Woodpeckers drill press table package at Woodcraft. Does any one have any experience with it?
Thanks,
It isn't perfect in my eyes BUT it is the best commercial table I have seen. FYI Carbide Processors is a "Friend of the Creek", they have it for $119.99 plus they give creekers a 15% discount on $100 or more.
http://www.carbideprocessors.com/
link to the FOTC blurb http://www.sawmillcreek.org/friends....&t=0&q=carbide
Last edited by Van Huskey; 02-09-2011 at 8:59 PM.
I've got one and I'm pretty happy with it. My only real complaint is that due to the design you can't get the fence all the way to the column so you lose an inch or two of capacity. They could easily fix this by extending the tracks about 2" further back and adding a notch for the column. But I'd still buy it again as-is.
I've got one and love it. However, something about it didn't work on my friends drill press and they told him to throw it away and sent him another. I bet you can guess who's trash can it wound up in.
Anyway to answer your question. I really like it. The tracks make it easy to adjust the fence and some hold downs I found for it. It's not anything that couldn't easily be made, but in my case, I couldn't have made it for the effort of bringing it home.
I have had one for about a year now. I love it. I do have two complaints, though. The first is the same as Matt's. The depth of the table is somewhat short and that can impact where you are able to drill a hole in a wide workpiece. The second is the standard low fence. It's great for most operations and I really like the sliding flip stops. But if you're trying to drill out a mortise on 3/4" material that's 3-4" tall, forget it. The short fence makes the piece wobble and your holes won't be straight. They do make a tall fence, but it's an add on. I have a home made tall fence that I bolt down to the table for those tasks where you need the taller support. I think that for $120 they should give you both fences, or make the taller fence standard.
If I had it to do over again, I'd still buy the Woodpeckers table. Good luck with your decision!
I'll echo Cory and Matt's comments. Great quality. The flip stops and hold downs work well, the table top is flat and sturdy. The only drawback I see after using it for several months is the height of the fence.
Woodpeckers products are always machined very nicely. However, I have a major issue with the drill press table. The first one arrived with a considerably cupped table. Woodpeckers sent me a replacement table but it too was cupped, though not nearly as much as the first. I gave up calling them on the second one. I'm still trying to decide whether to just put it into service or build my own table. They should just sell the hardware set for $40 less and let you supply the table.
For $120, I should be more enthusiastic about replacing my 17-year old plywood and hardboard table which is still perfectly flat.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
I put the woodpeckers DP table on my Jet benchtop. I had to drill different holes in my DP table to accomodate. After installation, the handle on the column to adjust the DP table up/down bumped into the bottom edge of the table. I filed a relief on the table edge and got clearance. The one time I've used the fence since installing it, I had difficulty getting the fence tightened down enough (finger tightening the knurled nuts) to keep the fence from moving while drilling. I was drilling 3/4" holes in ash so there was quite a bit of torque against the fence but I was disappointed with it at the time. I haven't had time to figure out if the root problem was me or the fence. I do like the T-track hold downs to keep my fingers at a safe distance.
Thanks for the feedback. I picked one up today. I will be installing it later this week.
They do - http://www.woodpeck.com/dptrackkit.html
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
I thought the table was a little to small for my 17" DP. For about the same money I bought all the supplies and made my own similar to the one that they no longer make in Glenn's post.
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Cary,
Your table looks great. Any hints on routing out the insert?
"Your beliefs don't make you a better person...your behavior does."