Mounting a drill press to the shop floor.

[dbhost]

(Boy slaps himself on the forehead...)

Here's a thought...

Just like folks are making shop made knobs, how about shop built feet / levelers? Here's the thought...

A 3/4" thick disc, maybe 2" dia, center drilled for a 5/16"-18 Tee Nut (not T-nuts like for T slot, but Tee nuts that you drive into wood).


Then a Tee nut in the bottom of the base (so the force is pushing the Tee nut into the wood, not out.)

Take a 5/16-18 star knob like the ones at T-nuts.com


and some plain threaded 5/16"-18 x 3" studs...


Epoxy the star knob into the stud, run it through the tee nut in the base, run it into the tee nut on the foot and epoxy it in place...

Am I on the right track or have I gone over the edge?

[LCHIEN]

just a quick note...
Maybe you are being over-designing in trying to make this thing real super-solid and rigid which means levellers are needed.
The thing is to get a wider base so the stability (e.g. tendency to tip over) is gone.
IF the base has a bit of flexibility then even a four-point base will conform to any near-level floor without rocking. The whole DP may have a bit of give if you push it, but the Beauty of Drill presses is that pretty much all force is applied in a downward direction which tends to stabilize the whole thing and does not work against you while using it. I think you will find it not objectionable. As long as the head/quill/column/table system is regid there should be no problem in drilling.

[dbhost]

just a quick note...
Maybe you are being over-cautious in trying to make this thing real super-solid.
The thing is to get a wider base so the stability (e.g. tendency to tip over) is gone.
IF the base has a bit of flexibility then even a four-point base will conform to to the floor without rocking. The whole DP may have a bit of give if you push it, but the Beauty of Drill presses is that pretty much all force is applied in a downward direction which tends to stabilize the whole thing and does not work against you while using it. I think you will find it not objectionable.

Funny, you were saying one of the things I was thinking... Sorry, I work in an a very safety conscious environment. I guess it's habit...

I was thinking about if say a 3/4" ply would have enough give with some poly feet at each corner to spread the load, and conform to the floor. My garage floor in the few spots where a DP would make sense to me, has a bunch of dips and sways. Not very good screed job on the concrete when they poured it... As old as the house is, it's a little too late to complain now...

[LCHIEN]

Funny, you were saying one of the things I was thinking... Sorry, I work in an a very safety conscious environment. I guess it's habit...

I was thinking about if say a 3/4" ply would have enough give with some poly feet at each corner to spread the load, and conform to the floor. My garage floor in the few spots where a DP would make sense to me, has a bunch of dips and sways. Not very good screed job on the concrete when they poured it... As old as the house is, it's a little too late to complain now...

Anyone can make a real complicated base with all kinds of devices like torsion boxes, levelling feet, etc. I'm always looking for a simple, even elegantly simple solution.

I think for your base, David, where it has two slots in the middle of the smallish base, I'd consider a piece of 3/4" plywood maybe as wide as the base and about 4-5" longer at front and back. Bolt the base to the plywood. Then stick some 2x4's 24 inches or so long under the front and back so the 2x4s run left to right. Use lag screws to fasten the plywood to the tops of the 2x4s.
If you want to make it mobile, fasten the 2x4s to the top of the plywood, then put some casters under the ends of the 2x4s. Use fixed casters in the rear and double locking casters in the front. If you want to keep the height rise down some more, you can thin the 2x4s by basically making a lap joint half under the ends.

I'm not a real big fan of those double locking casters however, on mine if you recall the pictures, I just made some wedges that were 1/16th" taller than the casters and drive them under the front 2x4 next to the wheels when i want to lock it in position.

[cgallery]

One of the recent woodworking magazines had a novel idea for making tool bases.

They took a large plywood base, and screwed large blocks of UHMW plastic in the four corners of the bottom.

Then they attached the tools to the top (including a drill press). When they want to move them on a concrete floor, they just drag them. The article said there is just enough resistance to keep the tool in place during use, but little enough that you can easily muscle the tools around the shop.

[dbhost]

Well, I am back from vacation, and broke. I guess I need to dig into the scrap pile and see what I can build for the DP...

[MikeMcM1956]

Here's the base I put together for my 1950 Delta DP. The base is painted OSB and pine 2x4s, with the OSB dado'ed into the 2x4s. The cabinet is painted MDF, with a pegboard back to hang fences and fixtures on. All four casters have locking wheels, it's pretty stable when it's parked.

Nothing fancy, just functional....

Mike

[dbhost]

Mike,

Very cool stuff there. Your shop looks a LOT like mine, okay so you got further with the reflectix on the doors... I am only 2/3 of the way down on the first door yet... I need to finish this...

But that DP, WOW! That looks like something from War Of The Worlds! Too cool!

[MikeMcM1956]

db,

Much like my drill press stand, my shop is functional but not fashionable. I'm certainly not in the running for the Rod Kirby Award .

Thanks for the comment on my Delta DP, it looks even cooler since I got the hinged cast-iron belt guard installed. I'm in the process of restoring a 1949 Delta bandsaw, and a 1954 Delta Unisaw, all previously owned by my father and grandfather. All rock solid gear that will last for generations to come.

But I still love (and use) my BT3100, I like the design, functionality, accuracy and mobility.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread....

Mike

[dbhost]

Well it took me almost a year to come up with a descision on what I was going to do with this, but here it is...

Since the bench top power tools got set up in the wall stacker arrangement, I no longer need the universal stand (anyone wanna buy a pair of these?) and the HF Mobile base that was under the sander... Soooo...

The mobile base lumber is getting cut down after about 300 measurements are to be taken, There will be a base plate mounted to the steel of the HF mobile base. That will measure 14" wide x 22" long to give me some additional footprint from the drill presses 10" W x 18" L footprint. I will bolt the DP down using 1/2" carriage bolts (length to be determined still), washers, and nylon insert lock nuts.

So yet another project on my plate. Clean, sand, prime and paint the base, measure, mark, cut, and drill the wooden base plate (plywood), prime and paint that so that the mobile base, mounting plate, and DP base plate are all gloss black. What can I say, I have WAY too much gloss black Krylon aching to be used right now... I need to remove the belts, and pulleys, remove the pulley cover, bang one dent I didn't notice when I picked it up out, sand, prime, and paint that, reassemble, and then move on to the DP table. The Grizzly table I got from Loring is really hating the humidity on the coast here, so it is time for me to build my own...

[Charlie]

Deleted by me.