Drill Press Cabinet

nice! a little bit too pretty ;) I like the contrasting wood colors!

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Nice looking shop cabinet! I really like the handles and box joint corners.

I’ve contiplated building one of these (just not as nice) to hold all my drilling tools, to replace the current tool stand in use.
Question: as the wheels turn and one goes inward does it all make the cabinet unstable with the weight of the drill press? My benchtop JET drill press is about 150 lbs and I’m concerned about it getting unstable if I go this route. I’ve considered outriggers for the swivel wheels up front.
Thoughts?

this is nice. is it pretty stable when you put a wide board on it? I’d love to make soemthjing similar for a mitre saw.

Thanks for the positive comments.

PurpLev: I like to use shop furniture as practice pieces to improve my skills especially when I have some extra hardwood laying around.

Ratchet: My Delta Shopmaster DP only weighs 60 pounds or so and I have the cabinet loaded up with a lot of things including several planes which helps to lower the center of gravity. I have not noticed any instability when using it even though I do not have the DP bolted to the top of the cabinet. The casters are double locking, wheel rotation and turning.

HokieMojo: “Wide” would be a relative term here. My BDP only came with a small table so I attach a wider table to it to support wider boards but, sometimes I still need to set up an outrigger to support the really long ones.

-- Best regards, Jack, www.PixelsandSawdust.com

It is sure a good thing that you got the double locking casters. It looks like that table could easily roll down the hill and be lost forever. :)

Seriously, that is very nice. I have been planning to build one of those for my DP. I’m sure it won’t look as nice as yours.

-- "A goal without a plan is a wish."

Jack, that is a seriously good looking DP cabinet. My “portable” DP is a Craftsman from the early 40s that weighs ~150#. Its saving grace is that it came with a machinist’s vise, and only cost $125.00. The previous owner could not find the short in it. I am assuming that he never bothered looking or lacked the knowledge.
It looks like you used box joints or finger joints for the top. Here is a link to a site that really goes all out in the shop built box joint jig department: http://woodgears.ca/box_joint/jig_plans/index.html

-- jstegall

Great looking shop cabinet, love the handles. Nothing wrong with dressing up the shop!

-- Chris

Now that’s a dandy drill press cabinet, great work Jack!

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

Looks better than most of the furniture in my house lol!! Great job.

OMG !! You’ve got a $50 DP resting on top of a $1000 cabinet !!!

Beautiful craftsmanship : ) How was the Lyptus to work with ? Any issues ?

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

Very nice job!

When you get a real drill press what are you going to use it for? :-)

Excellent job.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

i’d like to know about the lyptus as well.

I don’t have experience yet with a wide variety of woods but, I do like working with lyptus. As the fact sheet says (http://www.lyptus.com/pdfs/fact_sheets502_3.07.pdf), it is harder than oak. I noticed that it is somewhat brittle and others have mentioned problems with a lot of splinters. I didn’t notice the splinters so much but, then I haven’t worked with it a great deal yet. It did burn with my original, underpowered portable table saw but not with my new contractors model.

I like the pink to red coloring and straight grain. If you use a finish with UV protection, it will keep the fresh-cut coloring. Without the UV protection, it ages to a very pleasant light-to-medium reddish brown.

All in all, I intend to use it on many future projects.

-- Best regards, Jack, www.PixelsandSawdust.com

Gary – It will depend on what I need it for at the time I get a “real” drill press. Can’t wait for that day to come but, then there a lot of “real” tools that I would love to have once I have a shop big enough to hold them.

-- Best regards, Jack, www.PixelsandSawdust.com

Thanks for the feedback on the Lyptus . I have a nicely figured piece of it that I picked up a few years ago. It was the only board in the whole pile that had any figure at all. Thanks for the tip on color retention with the UV product. : )

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

Dusty56 – I may have made a rather broad assumption about the UV protection. I have built a few projects with lyptus. All of the projects where I used Waterlox Original for the finish have retained there color brightness although slightly tinted by the abmer finish color. The lyptus used on the one project (from the same board as used on some of hte other projects) where I used an interior water-based urethane finish aged to the medium reddish-brown color. Both colors are pleasant, just different.

I was assuming that the Waterlox finish had UV inhibitors in it. After double-checking, I find no mention of a UV inhibitor in the Waterlox Original, only in their marine product.

Now that I think about it; the project with the WB urethane is also a differnt color than aged, bare lyptus. Interesting!

-- Best regards, Jack, www.PixelsandSawdust.com

Great looking cabinet. Too nice for a drill press…..................................LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Great looking cabinet….

-- Chris

Thats alot!!!!!!!! nicer than all my furniture. dont ever use that it might get hurt.

-- projects dont pay,pieces are profitable,production is painfull

Very nice looking cabinet and the fact that it can be rolled out of the way is great.

-- Janice