Drill Press Mounting

[Bill Leonhardt]

I currently have a "bench-top" drill press that sits on a sheet metal stand that I have on a HF mobile base. I have a drawer unit that I will use to replace the sheet metal stand that will give me storage for bits, etc. and I will be doing the switch-over soon.

In remounting the press, I am considering rotating the head on the column so that the chuck is no longer centered over the base but is rotated 180 degrees. I would therefore mount the base pointing away from the user. Naturally, I would keep the table centered under the chuck except when I wanted to drill holes in long pieces. I would swing the table away and make a jig to hold the longer pieces. My most immediate use would be to drill dowel holes in the ends of rails.

Now, every picture I have ever seen of a bench top press shows it mounted so the chuck is centered over the base. The only difference I can think of is that, when mounted in the conventional way, mounting bolts in the base would be stressed (if at all) in compression and, with my new approach, the would be stressed in tension. I think the stress and deflection of the column would be the same (of course direction reversed), so that wouldn't be a problem.

Can anyone see a problem with mounting the press with the head rotated? Are there examples that you could point me to that show what I am proposing?

Thanks,

Bill Leonhardt

[PDQ]

That is about what I have done. I did the 180 off my bench until I got = a floor press.

Now I have a platform on my press that lets me perfectly center normal = boring and I can shift the head 90 degrees left and drill perfectly = centered end holes. Really easy and repeatable.

With the bench approach I had to counterweight the stand so it would not = tip over and I had to clamp the wood to my bench. My main problem was = getting the holes precisely where I wanted them.

--=20 PDQ

[Charley]

I had an old 40's vintage Delta that I had mounted that way for years and never had a problem with it, but now that I've got a bigger shop and a floor mounted drill press that old bench mounted one is history. It wasn't as versital a floor mounted drill press, but it did let me do a few things with long stock that I couldn't have done otherwise. I used to rotate the table to 90 degrees and attach a long wood fixture that I made to the table so that I could bore the long center hole in lamp posts (from both ends). With several drill lengths and working in stages from both ends I was able to drill the hole in stock up to about 26" in length.

[Chris Friesen]

The only thing to worry about would be ensuring that the center of gravity is such that it doesn't tip over.

Chris