Bench for benchtop drill press.

[Don Mackie]

The drill press has stood on an odd little triangular bench that was in the corner of the shop when I moved here. I'm planning to build it a bench of its own. The question is whether to build a small one, to support the drill only, or a larger one so I can put other stuff down beside it. The small base would have a footprint little bigger than a floor standing drill press. That allows me to get all around it easily. Either way I'll put some shelves in to store drill bits and so on. Do you think I should go for a larger or smaller one?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Larger.It will be more stable. I built a cabinet about 24"square. It has a drawer to hold drill bits and accessories and under that it holds my pancake compressor. It is on 4" casters so it can be easily moved out from it hiding spot if needed. If interested I can sed you a photo of what I made.

[kb8qlr]

Hi Don, I built a stand with casters and a drawer and a shelf below. I'm very happy with it. You can see it here...

you want some dimensions, e-mail me. Joe kb8qlr

[Morris Dovey]

[Bridger]

for a long time I had mine on a base made from one pedestal from a steel office desk. it was heavy and strong and had drawers and a pull out writing surface that was very handy at the press. I put a mobile base under it and filled the base with bits and drill press vises and such and it was very stable

[Michael Press]

I notice your shop floor is tile. (Looks like you're using sawdust as grout ;-). Is it ceramic or linoleum?

I've got a ceramic tile floor in my shop (i.e. big depressions between the tiles, at least from a 2" wheel's point of view), so I'm curious about mobile bases - do the wheels get caught in the grout depressions? Do machines or tools get rattled or lose alignment when you move them across the room?

I was wondering if skids (like skis with UHMW on the bottom), instead of wheels, might solve these problems, but first I want to find out if this is actually a problem.

Thanks, Michael

[JMWEBER987]

I like it also. Rather than risk damaging my brain by thinking a little, do you have any details available on the raising/lowering assembly? Mike

[David Smith]

Michael, I laid ceramic tile in my shop over the concrete about 10 years ago & have had no trouble with casters getting stuck in the grout lines. They're only about 1/4" wide & almost flush with the tile. The bigger problem I've had is damage whenever I drop something hard (like a hammer) which can chip or crack the tile. Then I have to drag out the air chisel & remove/replace the tile. I've got it down to about an hour with grouting, but it's still a PITA!

HTH, Dave

[Layne]

I gotta ask...WHY??? Oh wait. I just thought of a good use for ceramic tile floors. You can use it to sharpen your tools! :-)

Layne

[Darrell Dorsey]

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Agreed. Unless you keep some heavy tool boxes or some such on the bottom shelf it'll be top heavy. That's why free standing drill presses have heavy cast-iron bases.

When you have several items to drill, you'll be happy to have space to either side to put them.

My father took an old dresser and put a drill press on one end, a bench grinder on the other end and a small jointer in between toward the back. It's on castors so to use the jointer you just swing it out away from the wall. And of course a dresser already has drawers in it.

[rob]

I have limited floor space, so I went with a narrow design. Also, I built a double top so the drill press base sits underneath a flat MDF work surface. Gives me a nice flat table for drilling larger pieces or using as a small workspace instead of the lumpy drill press base. Here it is:

robandkaren.webhop.org/woodshop.htm

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Let me suggest to you that when you post an URL you include "http://" (without the quotations) immediately before the address. That will create a clickable link rather than making folks do a cut and past like I just did.

being said, I LIKE your adaptations. I particularly like the combination table saw / router table / storage cabinet. I've got to do something like that for router bit and jig storage.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Why not get a news reader that make is clickable with out it. While many people seem to dislike OutlookExpress, it works with just the

and eliminates the need for the http etc.

[rob]

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind. Glad you liked it.