“Extreme make over” Drill press and table

I decided that was time for a major change for my drill press, I have the small bench top Craftsman, and many times I had to drill by hand since there was not enough room from the drill pipe to the drill chuck for reasonable large parts, and hand drill some time is not accurate enough, also my drill table was not what I called a drill press table. So, I made a major customization on my drill press and this is the result of that.

For the drill press pipe I went to the metal steel center and got the steel plate 13mm (slight over 1/2”) thick, I had some problems with the alignment, the first time it was put it together, was not that accurate. Have to go to the metal welding shop as second trip, but this time I took my “Wikey Digital Angle Gauge and get it accurate this time.

As for the table it’s inspired on Ronald Walters table with some customized changes. The table is 28” by 24” and I had to extend the crank mechanism using a shaft, the table is not bolted to the metal drill press table, it’s the sub-table the one bolted and I used 45 degree angle cut like “French cleat” stile, so I don’t have to use any kind of hardware to lock it in place, and its very easy to remove the table since I just have to slice from front face, in or out. It wont move from position. The table is 1.5” thick made from layers of MDF, Pine, and since I run out of melamine for the top, I painted black the MDF top and give few couts of Minwax Polyurethane, it seams to work fine, it’s used also for flooring, so I hope it last long time.

It has 4 shop made T-Tracks, (I can´t get those locally) I use MDF strips to close the T-Tracks and keep them clean from dust, and two true hole slots for clamping purposes, I can use any combination of clamps. The replaceable MDF backer board is off center so I can rotate or flip as it wars out. The fence is lower profile but it works well with T-Track for stop block

Thks for visiting!

-- Jorge Velez, Guadalajara, Mexico.