Upgrade Your Drill Press! - How To Build a Quick and Easy Drill Press Table! (FREE PLAN)

[Music] a drill press is one of the essential stationary power tools in the shop I've often said that you can get by with three essential stationary power tools that's a table saw a router table and a good drill press now drill presses come in two basic models there's a floor model with a tall post that extends down to a base that rests on the floor and there's another model a bench top model like this one where the post is shorter and the base rests on the either a stand or on your bench now some of these bench top models are smaller and that has to do with the motor on the back that's smaller and typically you can actually get by with a smaller drill press because you don't need a lot of horsepower for woodworking however the key feature on all of these is the drill press table most of the time this is cast-iron and in many of the older models there's a trough around the outside edge that's for catching oil when you're doing metalworking there's also a X shaped slots cut in the tabletop and that's to attach jigs and fixtures and particularly vices to hold metal pieces in place while you're drilling holes all of this is great for metalworking not so good for woodworking the tabletop on on most drill presses is too small a surface to support larger work pieces and there's no good way to attach a fence well we have a solution for all of that over the years we've designed a number of drill press tables to add to your drill press now this is basically a simple design a base that's large enough to support larger woodworking pieces an offense to position those pieces to drill the holes now this can all start out as a pretty simple process and that would be just adding a plywood base to the cast iron table on your drill press now typically when we're using plywood in the shop will use Baltic birch plywood it's multi ply and no voids now the multiply means that this surface will be pretty flat and smooth that's good for supporting all your work pieces now there's one other advantage to having this surface this backup for drilling holes through work pieces as you're drilling the hole the bit breaks through on the bottom and it could splinter but having this auxilary surface here prevents that splintering on the bottom edge of your work piece the problem here is as you continue to drill holes this surface gets all chewed up particularly if you switch and you're using larger bits the bit keeps drilling holes backs it up that's nice for the no splintering but now you have a chewed up surface here and you need a way now to protect or replace this surface without replacing your entire tabletop so there's a way to do that the solution to all this is to add another top on top of the plywood base now typically we use quarter-inch hardboard and the way we've done it lately is to do this in three parts that creates a kind of a slick system there are two outside parts so they go on the outside of the plywood base these two sections will be glued down that leaves a Center section for a removable insert but how do you glue these two pieces down and then have a removable insert that stays in place well you can see that we've beveled the inside edges of both of these outside pieces then we can slide our insert in place and this piece has been beveled the reverse way and the bevels hold this piece down in effect creating a sliding dovetail joint so the advantage of all of this is this inside piece can be slid into place the bevels hold it flat and smooth so you create a nice smooth surface for your work piece but as you drill a number of holes and you start chewing out one area you can just slide this piece out a little bit create an I snooze smooth surface or you can take this piece out entirely flip it around slide in the other end and have nice smooth surface to work with or if the whole piece gets all chewed up you can replace the entire thing so it's always good to cut extra of these as you're cutting this first one the trick becomes how do i glue these two pieces down and allow a nice space in between for the insert so it slides in there smoothly well we'll do all of that over at the bench [Music] so we've got our plywood base for our drill press table and we have to add the two hard board pieces on the outside part of this table now you'll notice a couple of things first of all these pieces are cut oversize and that there's a reason for that if we cut them to exact size when we glue them down in this case with spray contacts amount we'd have to make sure that all these these three edges are perfectly aligned along with the two inside edges that's very difficult to do so instead we cut them oversize they overlap front and back and on the edges here and then later we can come back and trim this all flush with a router and a flush trim bit so now all we have to worry about is the two inside edges now how do we make sure that these two edges are exactly parallel and that we don't get any contact cement on the center section where that inserts going to go well it turns out the trick is really pretty simple we just use a spacer block so we cut a spacer piece out of just a piece of scrap plywood I know that these two edges are exactly parallel it was cut over at the table saw so now if I but my beveled edges up against that I know that they're exactly parallel so now I can glue these pieces down all I have to do is mark where these edges are so I'll remove these two pieces now I'll mark these edges now there's one little issue these marks actually indicate approximately where I have to cover up this inside section here for the insert with no contact cement but it has to overlap just a bit you can see that my beveled edge extends right up to the edge of the spacer but I don't want any contact cement back here to the short edge so I have to overlap a little bit and I'll do that with some painters tape just taking the tape to cover up this inside section here where the insert will go now I want to go pass the line so over on this side I'm right up on the line I want to go over it by at least a quarter of an inch on the front and back edge so then I'll do that over on the other side here and go over about a quarter of an inch and cover up this edge and then just continue to cover up this inside section with some more painters tape [Music] so all of the center section here where the insert will go is all covered up and I'll get all these good pieces out of the way now I can put contact cement over this entire surface of the plywood and in this case I'm using spray contact cement it's the easiest stuff in the world to use so I'm going to start off of the work piece and then just spray right across and just continue down so I've got a layer of contact cement all over the plywood base for the table now I have to do the same thing on the bottom side of the hard board pieces make sure it's the bottom side one other detail I do not want any contacts amount on that beveled edge where the insert is going to slide in so I've covered it overlapping a little bit with painters tape once again now I can use this spray contact cement and put down a nice even coat [Music] and I'll do that on both pieces so I've got contact cement on the base and on the two hard board pieces now I have to join those together so I'll start by taking all this tape off of the center section here now to position these two outside hard board pieces I need to use my spacer again and I'll put it right down on my pencil marks and since I'm going to use this piece to position those pieces I want to clamp it down I'll just add a clamp to the other end and then we're ready to put the pieces in place so with a space are all clamped in place now I've got the hard board pieces on the outside edges and they're ready to go down I have to do is take off this tape off the beveled edge just peel it up now I can start to put this over here and I'll position the beveled edge right up against that spacer and with my fingers on the front and back edge I'm making sure that that's that this piece is centered over the plywood base and I've got a little bit of overhang now when this piece goes down that's it there's no second chance so make sure your beveled edge is firmly up against the spacer and just drop it down on there and I drop the hardboard piece down and it's all overlapping there good now I can do the same thing on the other side okay the hardboard pieces are down contact cement directly to the plywood base I'm just using a j-roller here to get this all smoothed out make sure it's all firmly down there and it is now I can remove this Center spacer piece and then I'll come back and cut trim my insert to size to fit inside this beveled opening here for the insert [Music] so I just have to cut the insert the beveled edges on both edges down to size so that this insert fits nice and smoothly in between those other two pieces that's pretty slick now you may have to go back and forth to the table saw a few times to get this to fit nicely in here and I trimmed off the front and back edges so this is all flush the reason for that is I need this insert in place because the last step is to use a trim router something like this is a small trim router with a flush trim bit now this has a bearing on the end and then a straight bit effectively and the bearing rides against the plywood piece and then the straight bit will trim the outside edges of the hard board so I'll bring it down like this where the trim router sits on the hard board it'll trim along here and as I get to this center section I need support a surface for the base of the router to continue on across here so now I'm all set up to make that trim cut and I'll make it turn the router on do the bearing so it's up against the plywood edge then trim the hardboard edge so it's flush with the plywood moving counterclockwise around the table [Music] so here we have it our extra-large drill press table able to support larger pieces for woodworking projects with a center section that's both movable and replaceable and it's all ready to mount to our drill press [Music] adding on a simple table like this is a great upgrade to any drill press you're gonna get a better more accurate results the simple reason of a couple key features the larger work surface better able to support larger work pieces that you're typically working with in addition the surface is going to back up as you drill holes in the workpiece that will prevent tear-out and give you a better looking project the real challenge comes when you're drilling a series of holes those series of holes needs to be the same distance in from the edge of the workpiece now trying to do that and line up every hole as you go along can be a real challenge a simpler solution is to add a fence now you can look around your shop find any piece of scrap in this case just a tube I position the fence and your workpiece so you lined up on one of the holes then all you need to do is grab a couple clamps and clamp the fence in place now as you drill that hole and work your way along the workpiece you can be assured that everyone is located in equal distance from your reference edge of course clamping and clamping the fence and even making some fine-tuning can be a real hassle there's a better solution and that's by building a different fence a better drill press table it doesn't have to be difficult to build for example on our original table here the fence is really quite simple it starts out with a plywood base now that base has a couple of holes drilled in it for some carriage bolts along with some hardware now one end here acts as a pivot point you can adjust the fence by pivoting it where the opposite end slides and a slot that's cut in the table now that means you can adjust it move it back and forth fine-tune the position and lock it in place for an accurate workpiece location now the rest of the fence is just as simple there's a cardboard face here glued to a layer of plywood to create the fence face and then to make sure everything stays nice and square there's a couple of plywood support blocks the fence face means you're going to have to glue that hard board to the layer of plywood which is really nothing different than how the table was made don started by cutting the plywood base to size then glued on some oversized hard board then used a router and a flush trim bit to trim everything perfectly flat and that's a great technique for making sure two pieces end up perfectly flush but there's a slightly different technique that I'm going to show you it might be just a little bit simpler and that one starts out with two oversized pieces now the thing is one of these pieces is just a little bit smaller it's gonna fit inside the other piece as you can see here the hard board is just a little bit smaller than the plywood part of the fence when they're glued together I can use the reference edge of the plywood to not only trim everything flush but cut it to final size at the same time now one of the techniques that I'm going to borrow from Don is using the same spray adhesive to simplify the glue up process just like before I'm going to spray a nice even layer on both of the pieces I'm just going to give this a second to dry and then I'll be able to attach the two pieces that looks pretty good now the thing I want to make sure is to make Center the hard board over the plywood as I press the two parts together all that's left at this point is to head to the table saw and cut the fence to final size the main goal here at the table saw is to trim the fence to final size while at the same time ensuring that all the edges of the plywood and hard board are perfectly flush after adjusting the RIP fence trim one edge straight and flush using a push block to make the cut safely [Music] then flip the workpiece around and readjust the RIP fence to cut the fence to final height to complete the sizing of the fence trim one end square and flush then flip the workpiece around and trim the fence to final length [Music] with the fence sizing complete there's one more step I can take here at the table saw and that's to cut some joinery if you look on the end here you can see that that joinery is a rabbet along this lower inside edge and that'll be used to attach the base later on now to cut that rabbit I've installed a dado blade and my table saw and buried it in an auxilary fence that way I can expose just the right amount of blade to match the width of the rabbet I'm looking for now I didn't measure to set that up I used my base material and made sure that the outside face here was flush with the outside edge of the blade as far as the height I simply set that to match the depth of cut that I was looking for press the workpiece down against the table and against the auxilary fence then make a smooth steady pass to cut the rabbet [Music] before I can glue the base of the fence into the fence space there's one last step to complete on the face of the fence and that's to cut a notch now the notch and most drill press fences are required when you're using small bits into thin work pieces to provide clearance for the drill press chuck and most fences that notch will be centered and that's because the fence typically moves front to back but our fence pivots at one end here that means as you swing the fence forward to drill closer to the edge of a workpiece the knotch needs to shift so that as you're drilling close to the edge the notch is centered on the bit this drill press table and fence are smaller than when the one we're building here so to locate that notch I'm going to use the table along with my fence parts to locate the notch the key to locating the notch in the face of the fence is knowing exactly where the fence is going to be positioned when you're drilling near the edge of a workpiece now to help me locate that notch I'm going to use the base of the fence I've drilled a hole at each end here and then I took that base made it flush along the back clamped it in place and then drill the hole through hole using those holes as a guide now what I can do is use this hole as the pivot point for the fence now the hole at the opposite corner is the start of the slot and that's going to allow the fence to swing but for now I'm going to use the pivot point hole I'm going to slip a bolt into the base and through the hole and then I'll swing it out I'll slip the fence face in place then I'll position things so that the hardboard face of the fence is directly under the bit so I know that's where my notch needs to be centered around so I can take that and make them work now while I had it in this position I also know that this is the final position of the fence so I know where the end of the slot is by drilling a through hole here to create the end of the slot later I'll connect those two with the slot but for now I need to create the notch in the fence space to do that I'll head to the table saw I'll use a dado blade I'll make a couple passes to remove the bulk of the waste as I create the nosh well the dado blade at the table saw made quick work of removing the bulk of the waste for the knotch but there's one thing I wanted to do before assembling the fence and that was eased some of the sharp corners so I used a jig saw knock off the top corners of the notch as well as the ends of the fence face and the two back corners of the base that means I'm ready to glue up the fence what I'm gonna do is spread a little glue along the rabbit and then I'm just going to brush it out a little bit that looks good now I'll just set the base in place and add a clamp the main thing here is I apply the pressure and just want to make sure it's flush at the ends and fully seated in the rabbit it looks pretty good for that end I'll just repeat it at the other end there again I'll just press that into the rabbit and add some pressure of course I want to make sure it's nice and secure all along press it in there that looks good and then one more clamp that takes care of the base but there were a couple corner blocks so I want to make sure I get those glued in place as well once those are glued in place and all everything is dry I'll be ready to work on the slot in the table [Music] well the drill-press offense turned out great and if I drop Bolton hair and into the pivot hole you can see it swings nice and smooth of course I need to lock it in place at one end when I get it workpiece position where I want that means I need to create a slot between the two holes that I drilled in the table I'm going to draw the slot in just so you can see what it's going to look like so you can see I need to curve it between those two points well I could use a jig saw and then some filing and sandpaper to smooth things up but really this is a perfect opportunity to use a plunge router bring one in here of course to use a plunge router and get a nice curved slot I'm gonna need a trammel now you can make one in your shop or you can get a commercial version like this they all operate basically the same way the router will be attached to the trammel at one end and you'll see that there's a large opening here provide clearance for the bit now that trammel will also have a series of holes or in this case a long slot what that's going to do is allow you to adjust the pivot pin here at the opposite end now the goal with that is to locate this pivot pin so that the distance from the pin to where the router bit is centered will allow the router bit to drop into one of the holes in the slot I do need to route the slot completely through the table but I don't want to route into my bench top that means I'm going to need to elevate the workpiece get the router out of here flip this over to do that I'm just going to use a scrap of plywood to attach it securely I'm going to use double-sided tape I'll just peel that off and if when I attach it if I cover up the area of the slot the result will be backing up the cut and I'll minimize any trip out just back over my router back in as I said I'll rot completely through the top but I don't want to do that in a single cut instead I'll make a series of successively deeper cuts using the depth stop system on the router starting at the rear hole for the slot wait for the bit to come up to speed and plunge smoothly into the hole make a smooth steady pass throughout the slot to depth to the opposite hole turn the router off and raise the bit once the bit stops spinning adjust the depth stop to the next setting return to the starting hole and repeat the process as you route the slot completely through the table [Music] [Applause] [Music] well I get this router out of here and we'll take a look at the slide now I'll need to flip this over so I can take off my backer well you can see we have no tear out along the bottom here some of that out I can see we've got a nice smooth slot it's going to allow that drill press fence to move smoothly all that's left is to get this table ready to mount to the drill press I'll need to do a little cleanup but then I'll be able to start on that I wanted to make sure it would be easy to get this drill press table off anytime I needed to don't make that easy I'm stalled a set of threaded inserts in the bottom of the table that'll make it easy to attach and remove if I need to now you need to locate those carefully so I set the table in place the slots on the table here and transfer those with a pencil to the bottom of my table that means I needed to locate the inserts so I just simply went to the end of the slot drilled a shallow counter bore that at least matched the height of the insert a little bit more helps when it comes time to install it and the diameter of the hole matches the body diameter of the insert now this slot here at the top is supposed to be just a screwdriver to install it but it can be hard to get it installed squarely that's where I like to use an installation block it's just a hardwood block with a notch cut in it then there's a hole drilled square through it for a bolt and nut here along with a washer allows you to thread the insert on when you set it in place it keeps everything square all you need at that point is a ratchet put some pressure down until the insert starts now you'll know the insert is fully seated when the washer makes contact with the table and simply thread out the bolt remove the washer you have a perfectly flush insert this table is ready to go on the drill press attaching the table to the metal table of the drill press requires a set of washers and hex bolts simply put the washer in place and then thread it into the insert and then use a ratchet to tighten it down I've already installed my fence so you can see how it moves smoothly back and forth so that means I can take any workpiece and once I've done some layout I can accurately locate my fence so it's right on my layout marks tighten the fence down and I know it's not going anywhere but it also means so I can drill one hole two holes a series of holes in any project parts I need this fence and table is a great addition to any drill press [Music] hey guys thanks for watching if you like this video and you want to see more from Woodsmith please make sure to subscribe and click the Bell from notifications when we upload videos if you have questions or comments please leave them below and we will try to answer as many as we can in addition links for plans projects and supplies can be found in the description below until next time thanks for watching

Channel: Woodsmith

Views: 936,060

Rating: 4.9067798 out of 5

Keywords: Woodworking, DIY, How To, furniture, making, building, drill press, drill press table, drill press stand, diy, how to, how to build, woodworking plans, free plans, woodworking projects, woodworking projects for begginers, woodworking projects for free, benchtop drill press, drill press harbor freight, floor drill press, drill press for woodworking, craftsman, ryobi, delta, dewalt, lowes, grizzly, best drill press table, replacement drill press table, rockler drill press table

Id: 6AMDDiddxO8

Length: 32min 53sec (1973 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 19 2018