Make a drill press table

[jack duren]

After many years of just making simple what I need at the time drill tables I think i would now like to make a nice one for work and in my shop. Because I haven't made this a priority in my career I'm open to whatever is out there and ideals that I may not be aware of and can put it into a finished drill press top. This doesn't need to be fancy nor expensive just usable.

Any photos of what you would consider well designed and multi tasking. Thx Jack

[glenn bradley]

• Run the table back past the post via a cutout (may require a cutout for the height handle). This allows your fence to run in the tracks all the way back to the post.
• Make the sacrificial insert round (as opposed to square) and off center. The off center position keeps it from spinning and the round shape allows many, many more "new" backing positions than the square or rectangular counterparts.
• Run two tracks wide spaced for the fence and two more narrow spaced for holddowns.
• Add tape measures at the wide tracks for quick rough alignment.
• Make more than one fence; a low fence for small, close work, a "regular fence with split faces to allow close up work on taller material that must be clamped, (optional) tall faces for the split face fence or just a tall fence.
• Slot your fence for stop blocks and other fixtures.

The "fail" on mine was not thinking about the round insert until I was someone else do it. Other than that I am pretty happy.

DP-Cab (32).jpg . 9 Fwd Tilt.jpg

[John Ziebron]

I second Glenn's comments; mine looks similar. I bought aluminum T track that is 1/2 inch tall (I think that's pretty standard), used 3/4 inch MDF for the bottom layer and 1/2 inch MDF for the top layer. That way there's no dados to cut and you end up with a thick stable top. I also put 3 coats of oil on mine. My insert is square and offset both side to side and front to back. That gives you 8 movements, counting flipping the insert over. And IMHO it's a lot faster and less wasteful to cut a bunch of square 1/2 inch MDF inserts than round ones. In addition to the front to back tracks I also added one side to side to the front of the insert. Don't forget to drill some finger holes to remove the insert as shown in Glenn's picture.

[Wade Lippman]

I used corian or the top panel. Rather nicer than MDF.

Earlier I routed T track directly into the corian. That was mistake; it simply isn't strong enough. Though it looks wonderful.