Drill press depth stop

[Bill Sutherland]

Wondered what I'm missing here. There seem to be all sorts of drill press modifications addressing the depth stop frustrations. What's wrong with a simple spring Clamp attached to desired depth?

[Cary Falk]

Are you talking something like this?

[George Bokros]

Wondered what I'm missing here. There seem to be all sorts of drill press modifications addressing the depth stop frustrations. What's wrong with a simple spring Clamp attached to desired depth?

I have the same frustrations with the stop on my Delta drill press. I slipped once and I drilled all the way through a cabinet door. I took to using two metric nuts I tighten together with a wrench.

[Bill Sutherland]

Yes. That is similar to what I've seen

[Ben Rivel]

Depth stops on my Delta 18-900L work great.

drillpress8.jpg

I could see slippage happening using just a spring clamp though.

[George Bokros]

My Delta has on collar with a press button to make it easy to adjust but if you don't make absolutely sure the threads are engaged it will slip quite easily.

[Bill Sutherland]

I wondered the same thing so played with it to see how sensitive it was and found that unless you were really trying to make it move it stays exactly where you put it. At the end of the drilling process it seems unlikely you'd be putting that much pressure on the bit. Sure is a lot faster than fooling with those two bolts.

[John K Jordan]

For me the spring clamp would lack the fine adjustment of a threaded stop.

JKJ

[Bruce Page]

Are you talking something like this?

Mine's blue, 1/2-20 UNF thread. A solid quill stop that works great. I don't know if they make them for drill presses but they should.

[Ole Anderson]

What is wrong with a spring clamp stop? It is not a positive stop, it will easily creep up the stop bolt.

And what the heck is an oscillating drill press?

Here is my modification. Belt and suspenders with the stop nut on top of the shop made stop being a 5/16" socket head into an aluminum ring. I quick adjust with a tee handle Allen wrench then run the stop nut down if it is a repetitive, critical depth. This is where I often use the quill lock. I bring the bit down to the depth needed and lock the quill, then set the depth stop. You don't have a quill lock on your DP? I don't know why all DP's don't have them. Not sorry if I sound like a broken record.