Earlier this year I bought a used Delta 16-1/2" drill press. I bought it to replace an older Rockwell that I have. The "new" one offers more capacity and has the hand crank to raise and lower the table. My old one does not and, with the addition of a larger table, it is difficult to raise or lower.
My first modification was really more of a necessity. I didn't realize until I got it home that the depth stop bracket was cracked. I described that fix in detail, earlier. The replacement is made out of a 3/4" block of aluminum and made a real mess of my shop in the process. Works great, though.
I've never seen or used a drill press that came with a decent table for woodworking out of the box. Next up was to give it a decent work surface. These were my main goals:
The top is a plywood core 1-1/2" thick, banded with maple and covered on top with laminate.
Bringing the controls to the front required a bit of engineering. I replaced the lock bolt and hand crank at the back of the table with bevel gears. These transfer the action to the front cranks via two 5/8" shafts. The left crank controls the lock and the right one raises or lowers the table. I turned the bearing covers from a bar of aluminum. I had a little bit of room left between the controls so I added a small drawer.
These are all the individual parts for the table (not including the fence), then pre-assembled and ready to mount.
The fence also required some engineering and finding the right parts. The key is a slide I took off of an old TV wall mount. It's like a heavy-duty drawer slide. I stripped this of paint, added brackets to extend through the table to the adjustment rod, and then epoxied cherry to the sides to make it uniform. On the top (not seen) is an aluminum plate to give it a flush surface for mounting the fence.
The slider is flush with the top. The fence mounts onto this and the control at the front moves the fence forward or back.
The fence has studs that drop into holes in the slider. Once in place a cap screw locks it in place. To remove the fence, I just unscrew and lift.
The dust collection has to curve around the pole and not take up too much room. I formed this using a vacuum press and some thin stock.
Last up was to make a couple of stop blocks for the fence. These can be removed or flipped back when not in use. I also added a micro-adjustment rod to fine tune them. Materials are aluminum, purple heart, brass and steel.
The final touch was to add a lamp. This came from a light that Mike (@pop-pop) was kind enough to pick up for me a the $1.25 Store. I disassembled it, discarded the base, tapped an existing hole in the drill press frame, then make a box with aluminum plate for the switch. Perfect solution.
My first modification was really more of a necessity. I didn't realize until I got it home that the depth stop bracket was cracked. I described that fix in detail, earlier. The replacement is made out of a 3/4" block of aluminum and made a real mess of my shop in the process. Works great, though.
I've never seen or used a drill press that came with a decent table for woodworking out of the box. Next up was to give it a decent work surface. These were my main goals:
- Large enough to support the work (about 30" x 28" in my case).
- T-tracks for holding awkward pieces.
- Decent fence that can be easily adjusted and/or removed as necessary.
- All the adjustments on the front -- no reaching around or under the table.
- Decent dust collection.
- An adjustable light source.
The top is a plywood core 1-1/2" thick, banded with maple and covered on top with laminate.
Bringing the controls to the front required a bit of engineering. I replaced the lock bolt and hand crank at the back of the table with bevel gears. These transfer the action to the front cranks via two 5/8" shafts. The left crank controls the lock and the right one raises or lowers the table. I turned the bearing covers from a bar of aluminum. I had a little bit of room left between the controls so I added a small drawer.
These are all the individual parts for the table (not including the fence), then pre-assembled and ready to mount.
The fence also required some engineering and finding the right parts. The key is a slide I took off of an old TV wall mount. It's like a heavy-duty drawer slide. I stripped this of paint, added brackets to extend through the table to the adjustment rod, and then epoxied cherry to the sides to make it uniform. On the top (not seen) is an aluminum plate to give it a flush surface for mounting the fence.
The slider is flush with the top. The fence mounts onto this and the control at the front moves the fence forward or back.
The fence has studs that drop into holes in the slider. Once in place a cap screw locks it in place. To remove the fence, I just unscrew and lift.
The dust collection has to curve around the pole and not take up too much room. I formed this using a vacuum press and some thin stock.
Last up was to make a couple of stop blocks for the fence. These can be removed or flipped back when not in use. I also added a micro-adjustment rod to fine tune them. Materials are aluminum, purple heart, brass and steel.
The final touch was to add a lamp. This came from a light that Mike (@pop-pop) was kind enough to pick up for me a the $1.25 Store. I disassembled it, discarded the base, tapped an existing hole in the drill press frame, then make a box with aluminum plate for the switch. Perfect solution.