Making a new drill press table?

[Finster]

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

Sounds like an idea but I still need the T-slots which is why I was going with the 1 inch. I figure after machining everything, it would cut the weight down by 30-50% just as a guess. I could web the 1 inch plate on the mill in spots to lighten it. Maybe a combination of both ideas will prove ideal.

 

[Glenn Brooks]

Hmmm, your proposed plate will be massively heavy if made of 1"steel. Very difficult to mount and support that much weight on the existing end bracket on your DP column, I am guessing. It also might throw off the weight and balance of the drill press, causing it to be potentially unstable and fall over in use. A real pita.

Maybe an alternate material would be to use 1/2" or 3/8" aluminium plate, and forgo the the Tslots in favor of plain slots. You will never need clamping power of t slots with drill press operations, unless you get into the big industrial grade models with power down feeds and hogging out 1"-2" diameter holes. A lot of times I use C Clamps to hold work on my DP tables. Sometimes for smaller stuff, just hand hold work mounted in a small 3" vise.

Anyway, aluminium would allow you to make about any size table, with no real weight restrictions, or weight and balance problems.

Just a thought...

Glenn

 

[silence dogood]

The trouble with a drill press table is that it is cantilevered. In other words, the table is supported only on one side. With the weight of 1" thick steel table and the downward pressure from the drill itself, it will be very difficult to drill perpendicular round holes. One way to fix that is put blocks or better a jack in the center and under the table. However, if this is a bench model, then you may not have enough room. In your case, since you mostly do woodworking, I'd make it out of a lighter material as suggested by Glenn. I forgot which video, but Tubalcain talked about the weights and forces that drilling puts on the table.

 

[Finster]

Hmmm, your proposed plate will be massively heavy if made of 1"steel. Very difficult to mount and support that much weight on the existing end bracket on your DP column, I am guessing. It also might throw off the weight and balance of the drill press, causing it to be potentially unstable and fall over in use. A real pita.

Maybe an alternate material would be to use 1/2" or 3/8" aluminium plate, and forgo the the Tslots in favor of plain slots. You will never need clamping power of t slots with drill press operations, unless you get into the big industrial grade models with power down feeds and hogging out 1"-2" diameter holes. A lot of times I use C Clamps to hold work on my DP tables. Sometimes for smaller stuff, just hand hold work mounted in a small 3" vise.

Anyway, aluminium would allow you to make about any size table, with no real weight restrictions, or weight and balance problems.

Just a thought...

Glenn

Very good points glen. I had thought of aluminum but was worried about deforming the T-slots with use. I guess I could go with just slots I would prefer T-slots for some of my other tooling however. My mortis jig comes to mind. I guess the first step would be to take off the existing table and weigh it to figure out what I have and therefore, where I'm headed.

 

[hanermo2]

As they said.
I needed a wide plate, to support pieces 2400 mm long.

So I made my plate about 58 cm mm wide and 400 mm deep.
On a 120 cm wide carriage.
It runs on 4 hiwin 15 mm linear rails/carriages, gets me good straight lines of holes.
Carriages are on top of 30x80x1200 mm tool steel flats.
No shimming or measuring or adjusting rails is needed.

Plate is 15 mm thick steel, 20x40 cm pieces, 2 of, bolted, 2 on top of 1 ( 30 mm total thickness) 20x70 cm bottom piece, modular in 3 parts, square.
This allows me to clamp tall vertical bits, through the holes.
I can remove any 1 piece, and still use it.
Takes about 1 minute with lion battery hex-bolt drivers, 4 bolts.

The linear plate/carriage is mounted to the stand, not the drill press.
So no bending of the dp, and no torsion.
About 110 x 120 cm stand, the DP is in the middle.
Stand is from 100 x 100 x 4 mm steel, welded, classical 8 tubes square/square/square.
After stand, everything is bolted with 8 mm SHCS.
Everything has 2 or 3 directions of reinforcement for rigidity, so I can safely remove any singe piece by unbolting 4 or 8 bolts.

And the stand can be adjusted 10-20 cm up or down.
I use the original round cast-iron dp plate to hold the rig up, or pull it up, or lower it, via the handle, then through-drill and tap new holes as needed, to the 4 vertical legs.
Takes about 2 hours to make a new range vertically, 4 x 4 holes hand drill 7 / 8 mm, tap, bolt in.
Some of my pieces were 20 cm tall (or a bit more).

Oh, and rollers at bottom, so I can kick it out of the way at need.
And led worklights mounted to the stand, via small vertical standoffs, 2x2 cm steel pillars.

I used 100x15 mm tool steel flats to mount the linear-platten, crosswise and crosswise in z, x, y.
My pieces can be 60-80 kg in mass, so rigidity and safety was a major concern.
About 500€ in bits, 1 week / 40 hours work, here and there.

It was very worthwhile, probably
9.5/10 in usefulness,
9/10 in results,
9/10 in bang for buck.
Sloppy paint, somewhat rusty, somewhat git-r-done.

 

[Glenn Brooks]

Hanamero, pictures! Pictures or it didn't Happen !!

 

[Silverbullet]

You could make what you want in layers . A full size 18" x 18" x 1/4" thick , three middle pieces 5" x 18" x 1/2" thick . The top three pieces 5 1/2" x 18" x 1/4" spaced to make your tee slots . You may have to change my dimensions there off the top of my head but I think you get the idea. Bolt or weld up to you. If you bolt any hiccups can be remade . Plus the STEELS cheaper that way . Why I don't know but thick plate cost so much more.

 

[Glenn Brooks]

Very good points glen. I had thought of aluminum but was worried about deforming the T-slots with use. I guess I could go with just slots I would prefer T-slots for some of my other tooling however. My mortis jig comes to mind.

I wonder if you could make one or two removable t slot fixtures out of 1" x 1" square stock and mount them in the regular table slots on an aluminium table, with nuts and plates on the bottom to hold in place?? Use em when you need em...

Glenn

 

[pineyfolks]

I wonder if you could make one or two removable t slot fixtures out of 1" x 1" square stock and mount them in the regular table slots on an aluminium table, with nuts and plates on the bottom to hold in place?? Use em when you need em...

Glenn

That would also allow you to use a standard endmill instead of purchasing a t-slot cutter just for one job.

 

[Finster]

That would also allow you to use a standard endmill instead of purchasing a t-slot cutter just for one job.

You mean that would give my wife an excuse not to let me by a T-slot cutter for just one job! Meh, I buy a lot of machining end mills and such off of E-bay. Yes, I get taken every now and again but I've gotten some really good deals for pennies on the dollar. I'm not building anything to fly to Mars with, mostly I help out my neighbors with fixing their farm equipment and such so mirror finishes aren't a big deal normally. That being said, used end mills usually work for me pretty good as well as other cutters. I think the best deal I got on E-bay was a Blake Co-Ax indicator like new, in perfect condition, not even scuffed, that works perfectly for $127 with shipping included. That was a heck of a deal I thought.