Drill press aggravation fixed

Mar 24, 2021 Last reply: 5 years ago 23 Replies

The second big power tool I bought years ago was a floor drill press. Its been ever faithful and still does the job. But two things about the drill press that have always aggravated me: 1) chip collection and 2) track mounted hold down clamps.



For chip collection, I have tried all manner of hoses connected to holders, fences, etc. The problem is that a drill press presents an infinite challenge in terms of hose locations, type bit used, shape of the work being drilled, etc. I asked Leon what he does. He said he just has his wife hold the vacuum hose. The only thing that works consistently for me is to hold a vacuum hose crevice nozzle near the drill bit. But that is only possible if you have a cooperative partner, or your work is so securely clamped that you can operate the drill press with one hand.



I built a decent drill press table with tracks years ago and I have tried many styles of track clamps. They all worked well some of the time. But there are those occasions where the clamp is not tall enough, or the track is in the wrong position. Also, the setup time was aggravating.



I finally came up with an idea, triggered while drilling more dog holes in my workbench. I love Leevalley dog hole hold down clamps. Why not see if they will work on the drill press? So I drilled 8 dog holes in the front edge of my drill press table. Voila! They are super strong clamps, fast to set up and do not ever interfere with the drill press handle. They are expensive and not for everyone. But I am very happy with the solution.



Here's a link to a photo of the setup.



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Bob


Pretty cool!

Dust collection. On the DP, that is tough but I believe, Scott Lurndal bought an accordion like tube that fits around the quill and bit and attaches to a vac. Sorry Scott if you were not the guy. ;~)

Not I, but sounds a bit interesting. The DP is one of the few machines I have with no dust collection.

For the SCMS, I attached a horizontal sheet of 3/8" ply to the back of the SCMS stand, level with the surface of the stand and embedded one of the 18" x 12" dust hoods with the outlet facing the floor (and attached to the DC via 4" hose). Used a cardboard box (as it happens, from an HP workstation) to create a box behind the saw over the hood. Does a good job of collecting the dust from the SCMS.

I've looked at things like the below but haven't found that DPs are that messy. I would like dust collection for the DP when I drill metal. I don't wand those shavings getting into my woodworking.

Here's my DIY DP table and DC holder. The DC works pretty good, but sometimes it does get in the way, mainly the section that clamps on the shaft. Holding the hose does indeed work well ;-)

The hold downs are made from some left over aluminum and Plasti-Dip.

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Because I build a lot of doors, and hang them with Euro style hinges I drill hundreds of 35mm/1-3/8" 1/2" x deep holes. I have to vacuum with each hole. Otherwise, not so much.

On 3/25/2021 8:37 PM, snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote: Snip

Here we go, this is the quill mounted DC attachment. It is called the Drillnado.

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This guy is not overly thrilled, but gives it a passing grade:

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In my case, I have less than an inch between the top of my keyless chuck and the head. It looks like the clamp portion that mounts on quill is taller than 1". I think that means that the quill will never fully return home. I don't know if that will be an issue, other than losing a small amount of drilling depth.

Been there, done that. It was mediocre to poor for many of the jobs I tried. I finally threw it away.

Interesting unvarnished demo. Its definitely a lot of crap to put around the drill bit for iffy performance.

...and the website says not to use it for metal.

Warning: NOT to be used when cutting metal Metal shavings will damage a dust collector's impeller

I've seen that. It looks like it would seriously get in the way.

Have you seen/used Festool's similar widget for hand drills?

Kind of a reminder to not suck up metal regardless.

Lome of my cabinet doors are made from MDF. Drilling for Euro hinges would certainly be problematic. The shavings tend to come out as one piece and would clog the exit port.

Use a shop vac? The higher suction/velocity should be better than a DC anyway. A DC is going to be useless with a very small aperture.

Not to mention that hot metal fragments and sawdust don't go well together...

$23. I think it's meant for installers hanging cabinets and such. Fesstool's big thing is dist collection.

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If your metal fragments are getting that hot, you need sharper bits. ...or maybe that's why they're so dull.

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