Drill press table and fence #1: Knobs!

I did some glue up of the drill press table tonight and built part of the fence, more on those later.

I did build my favorite thing to build right now – KNOBS! These will be to hold down the fence, stop block, etc on my drill press table I’m building.

Really easy to make:

Step 1: Find a fairly large hole saw bit (like > 2”)
Step 2: Trace it out on a piece of wood and find the center – draw a line all the way across the circle and then draw a line bisecting it in the other direction
Step 3: Grab your drill press and load up a forstner bit (appx 5/8”). Drill a hole at each of the four intersections that line made with the circle
Step 4: Grab your nuts. Your T-nuts. Figure out what diameter the hole is on the T-nut and use a twist drill bit in the drill press to drill the center of your circle to this diameter.
Step 5: Load up the hole saw and saw the circle you made.
Step 6: You should now have a knob. Press the t-nut lightly into one side, and screw a bolt (with a washer) through the other. hand tighten it down
Step 7: Grab a pair of pliers and grab the head of the bolt, with your other hand twist the knob (slowly) until the t-nut fully sinks into the knob
Step 8: Enjoy your new free, very inexpensive, knob.

Optional step 4.5: Load up a boring bit that is the same diameter of the wide end of your T-nut and countersink an indentation in the top of the knob so the T-nut sits flush with the surface. My knobs for this project are going on a jig so they don’t need to be fancy.

-- Jimmy, Austin, TX - Software developer by day, woodworker by night