Making a new drill press table?

[Finster]

I have a cheapo Cummings drill press. It's good enough for my wood working. The part I really hate about it is the round table. I was thinking it would be easy enough to make a square one, face cut the top and mill slots for T-nuts. A pretty simple project actually. The question is, do you think there would be any problem making it out of 1" plate steel? I was going to try and find some cast iron plate but that is proving difficult and expensive. The table will only be 18X18 or so. I can get steel plate pretty cheap I believe. Does anyone know of a reason I should not use mild steel?

 

[Cobra]

The issue may be the stability of the plate as you machine it.
It may require that you heat the plate prior to any machining to remove any stress.

 

[rrjohnso2000]

Any reason not to build it on top of the current table. You could get by with less thickness. I would think steel plate would work just fine

 

[wawoodman]

Are you trying to make it strong enough for metalworking, or just better for woodworking? If the latter, you might just use 3/4 or 1 inch MDF, and fit it with T-slot from Rockler. I use this setup to hold guides on my Williams and Hussey molder, and it works really well.

http://www.rockler.com/universal-t-track-universal-t-track

 

[Finster]

Are you trying to make it strong enough for metalworking, or just better for woodworking? If the latter, you might just use 3/4 or 1 inch MDF, and fit it with T-slot from Rockler. I use this setup to hold guides on my Williams and Hussey molder, and it works really well.

http://www.rockler.com/universal-t-track-universal-t-track

It will be used for both but mostly wood working.

 

[Finster]

The issue may be the stability of the plate as you machine it.
It may require that you heat the plate prior to any machining to remove any stress.

Well that is possible. I'm going to have to drill a center hole first and weld a shaft on it to fit the drill press holder. I figured after that I can set it up on the mill using the shaft then face cut it so the surface is 90 to the shaft. If you get what I'm saying. So you think I should anneal the plate first? Or do you think the welding would take care of that for me?

 

[Cobra]

Well that is possible. I'm going to have to drill a center hole first and weld a shaft on it to fit the drill press holder. I figured after that I can set it up on the mill using the shaft then face cut it so the surface is 90 to the shaft. If you get what I'm saying. So you think I should anneal the plate first? Or do you think the welding would take care of that for me?

I would suggest that you will have to anneal after the welding and before the finish machining.

 

[wawoodman]

Honestly, I wouldn't go to that much trouble for that drill press. Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Finster]

Honestly, I wouldn't go to that much trouble for that drill press. Just my opinion, of course.

Normally I would agree however, it's more of a play project giving me a chance to play with my mill and improve something I already have. I would much rather but a nice press with variable speed but it's that pesky money thing. Some day maybe....

 

[f350ca]

If you have welding capabilities I'd make it from thiner plate, maybe 1/4 or 3/8 and web the bottom to the shaft for mounting it. The webs should stabilize and stiffen it. A plate the size you mention would be 92 pounds.

Greg