# Drilling holes in the table



## jmkasunich (Dec 5, 2021)

On purpose!

About four years ago I was finishing up a visit to HGR surplus and saw a couple of guys working in the parking lot.  They had purchased a four-head Rockwell gang drill press with a big cast iron table.  They were removing the heads (to sell on eBay) and were planning to take the table to the scrap yard a mile away.  Long story short, I bought it from them for $50, planning to use it as a welding bench.  Heavy, sturdy, and machined flat on top, I thought it was perfect.  And the price made it a "you suck" deal.

Turns out, you want to clamp stuff to a welding table.  And this drill press table has a coolant trough around the outside, making it impossible to use clamps on the edges.  So I started thinking about the "grid of 5/8 holes on 2" centers" approach to clamping.  But drilling all those holes.... 
In the meantime, I bolted a nice old Athol vise to it and have been using it for general metal mangling.

In January 2020, another trip to HGR found a mag drill at an affordable price.  Grabbed it.  But as usual, procrastination kicked in.

In September 2020, I finally ordered a 5/8" rotabroach from eBay.  But the seller canceled the order saying he was out of stock.  Procrastination resumed.

In August 2021 I ordered another cutter and it arrived.  But I was busy with other things and time passed.

On Thursday I had to fab up a couple rectangular frames for another project, and I was wishing I had proper clamping.

So yesterday I finally got going.  Figured out where the ribs and other obstacles are, laid out the hole pattern, center punched everything and started drilling.
Turns out the table is about 3/8" thick in the area where the drill press work would go, and almost an inch thick where the drill heads mounted.  I drilled 160 of the 224 holes by roughly midnight, then figured out it would be close to 3am when I finished.  So I'm going to do the last 64 today.




Good things come to those who wait.  At least that's what I tell myself.


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## Aukai (Dec 5, 2021)

Awesome, what brand of cutter, and how's it holding up?


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## jmkasunich (Dec 5, 2021)

Aukai said:


> Awesome, what brand of cutter, and how's it holding up?


Fein Jancy Slugger.  This one:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/222263371089

Holding up well so far, but this is free machining cast iron, not steel, so I'm not sure if its much of a test.  I'm running it dry to avoid making a paste out of the chips.

I did manage to blunt the tip of the center slug ejector pin - I think I dragged the drill across the table without raising it quite enough to clear and broke off the sharp tip.  Ground a new point and carried on.


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## Aukai (Dec 5, 2021)

I saw the pile of dust there. I have broken 2 Slugger cutters, I'm not sure if it's operator error, or not. They were making good Brillo pad swarf, and came apart, I was using through coolant too.


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## C-Bag (Dec 5, 2021)

There’s one of those tables down in LA they have been trying to sell on CL for $600. Talk about a chunk of iron! I’m glad to see you making it useful to you and saved it from the scrapper. 

BTW, YOU SUCK!


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## John O (Dec 5, 2021)

Just think, if you bought the 4 heads you would only need to drill 56 times!


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## jmkasunich (Dec 5, 2021)

And done!

I calculated that I drilled through 11 feet of cast iron doing this.


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## Shootymacshootface (Dec 5, 2021)

Sweet table!

You definitely suck!


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## C-Bag (Dec 5, 2021)

Talk about the ultimate jig table.


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## Aukai (Dec 5, 2021)

That is exceptional


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## macardoso (Dec 6, 2021)

HGR is a dangerous place  Too much stuff has followed me home from there


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## C-Bag (Dec 6, 2021)

See I’m such a heretic I drilled mounting holes in the almost pristine table of my UniDrill so I could mount my 8” rotary table/ Heinrich vise. It has two t-slots but they were not where I could use the for the RT. I love t-slots for drill presses but few have them for some stupid reason. The next best thing is drilled and tapped holes. Drilled and tapped holes are useful, not shameful. Being sloppy about work setup and drilling into a table is shameful. rant off…


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