Mounting a drill press to the shop floor.

[dbhost]

My new to me full height drill press is a tall, top heavy machine, with a fairly small base...

I was contemplating how to cure the wobbly 150LB machine problem...

I have two options that spring readily to mind. A permanent stationary solution, and a mobile solution that will take up more floor space.

Solution #1. Pick a spot on the shop floor, most likely against the divider between the garage doors, makr my location, grab a hammer drill from a friend that actually owns one (How often do I drill concrete?) I actually have a masonry hammer drill bit set, so no worries there... Grab some hammer in type anchors, the ones that provide a female thread in the floor. and bolt that sucker down shimmed up so that it is LEVEL. (My garage floor slopes toward the street, no drain in floor, it all goes toward the gutter... That is by design and local code...) As you can see from the photo, I have 2 holes, and 2 slots. I am considering using all 4, is that necessary or even desireable? Can I , or better question is, should I use just the two holes or slots? I know when I worked as a mechanic, our shop DP (Antique Rockwell unit) was mounted just through 2 bolts through the slots.)

Solution #2. And I am not sure I should even mention this one because the more I think about it the more I dislike it, BUT what about a mobile base like the HF mobile base with 2 layers of 3/4" ply to mount the DP to? Maybe 18"x18"?

Obviously I am leaning toward the permanent mount option, but I am concerned about the location. I mean how good of an idea is it to permanently bolt something to the concrete garage floor of a house I intend to sell in a few years? Is this location a good one for a drill press? How or why would it work, or not work?

Solution #2.

[radhak]

Recommend Solution 2. Mobile base of whatever type - shop-made, or bought.

[LarryG]

I recommend Solution #3, which is to pick a spot, move the drill press there, and then do a slow, careful job of shimming the base so it sits level and doesn't wobble. Use metal shims so they won't compress over time. Flat washers are excellent for this job; just play around with different thicknesses until you find the magic formula.

Floor-model drill presses as a breed are top-heavy, and they will rock around alarmingly if they're not sitting Just So. The above is what I did with mine and once I took the time to get the shims right, it's now remarkably solid.

[poolhound]

If you have a spot to leave it fixed that would be best but a mobile base will give you the most flexibility. If you go the MB route fix the DP to a solid base and give it a good footprint. Also choose a MB that will keep the base of the DP as close to the floor as possible, the center of gravity is already pretty high so you dont want to make it much higher.

[cabinetman]

Radhak has the best of the two solutions. For the home shop situation, being able to move the machine around can be a benefit. They are top heavy, and just finding the best spot for level, or using shims of some sort would allow it to be bumped out of place.

Locking swivel casters work well. Or, building a larger base to extend the points of floor contact, could be used with adjustable feet.
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[RodKirby]

...Or, building a larger base to extend the points of floor contact, could be used with adjustable feet.
.

+ add a small set of drawers - Like this...

[dbhost]

Huh, and all this time I thought Rod Kirby had a benchtop DP on a shop built cart sort of gizmo. Never realized it was a stack of drawers on top of a full size DP.

Rod your base isn't a whole lot bigger than the original base. Maybe a cm or so? Is that enough to give it some stability? For now I simply step on the base to keep it stable...

Well, tonight it gets the official workout. I am going to rip a couple of 2x4s down to fit the Central Machinery mobile bases for the sander and planer stands, and get the drilling done. I am going to save the cut downs I did that the VA DP jig screwed up and cut them down for the band saw. I am honestly leaning toward the piece of wall between the garage doors because this space is otherwise pretty wasted. It currently has a stack of LOML's stuff that we are sorting, but that pile is going down quickly...

[radhak]

FWIW, think long and hard about the space around the DP. you don't want to keep it near a corner and be restricted because of that. My suggestion of a mobile base was to tackle that problem.

I do remember an old Shopnotes DP mobile stand plan which provides for filling the base with weight to counter the top.

[dbhost]

FWIW, think long and hard about the space around the DP. you don't want to keep it near a corner and be restricted because of that. My suggestion of a mobile base was to tackle that problem.

The space between the garage doors seemed ideal to me because there is 8' of unrestricted space to either side of this space, and it is otherwise simply where I park the trash cans. Those are easier to move as I generally open the garage door and jettison them outside. (Plans are in the works for a trash can "fence" to hide the cans if I can get HOA approval. I think it should be easy to do as it would be concealed from street view by the bushes next to the garage...

As far as solidly mounting it, the idea was for absolute stability. A mobile base might work, but again, I would be concerned with stability since the base of the DP is so small, and the cast iron table and head are so heavy...

Do you have an example of a good, solid mobile base set up for a DP? Especially with the idea of wanting to put this house up for sale once the market comes back up, I think punching holes in the concrete floor might be a bad idea... Then again, a future buyer might not even notice...

[shoottx]

Build a base like Rod Kirby's. You can extend the size if you want. The value of his base is the ability to level the drill press. Once level and stable the wobble tendency goes away. Here is my version of Rod's Base.

Or you might be able to add levelers right to the base.

[dbhost]

Build a base like Rod Kirby's. You can extend the size if you want. The value of his base is the ability to level the drill press. Once level and stable the wobble tendency goes away. Here is my version of Rod's Base.

Or you might be able to add levelers right to the base.

So those are leveling feet and not casters on the bottom? THAT would be a good idea... Hadna thunkit...

So let me bounce this off of ya...

2 layers thick glued up 3/4" ply, minimum 12"x18", with leveling feet. That will spread the load over a wider area... The drawer box on the base is a good idea as well. I don't plan on ever cutting mortises into the ends of 8 foot material anyway, that would give me storage, AND weight on the bottom to counteract the tendency to tip...

[shoottx]

I followed Rod's lead and used 2 pieces of MDF glued, screwed and painted. I used a set of left over levelers from a set of wire shelves. ( being really cheap all of this stuff was in the shop somewhere).

If I were to do it again, I would use heavy duty levelers, with rubber base for a little more stability. But the drill press is much more stable even with a lot of weight on corners of the table.

And I started to build a cabinet, but it kinda got away from me. One of the thoughts is the cabinet there for weight or storage? If it is for storage you might want a cabinet on caster that would clear the new base. Or the cabinet has to be rather compact to allow the table movement up and down. I started to build a cabinet to sit on the base but things kinda got away from me.

[radhak]

You could have a hybrid of both :
this cart covers the base of the DP but is mobile too.

http://plansnow.com/drillpresscrt.html

I think you could make it to sit squarely on the base and thus give it the needed weight.

[RodKirby]

Huh, and all this time I thought Rod Kirby had a benchtop DP on a shop built cart sort of gizmo. Never realized it was a stack of drawers on top of a full size DP.

Rod your base isn't a whole lot bigger than the original base. Maybe a cm or so? Is that enough to give it some stability? For now I simply step on the base to keep it stable...

The pic is the "new" DP.

The base is actually fairly stable - I added my base for the levelling feet.

.........OLD DP................................................ .........NEW DP

[dbhost]

Well, due to high humidity, MDF sounds like something I should avoid... But pine ply is cheap and plentiful around here...The gears in my head are definately turning...

And I KNEW I had seen a bencthop version of a DP from you Rod!

As far as MDF is concerned. The stuff is dirt cheap, and easy as pie to work with, but it is also very sensitive to moisture. How do you deal with that?