Go to an engine rebuild shop and get a big old exhaust or intake valve. When you need to square your table, chuck the valve up, loosen the table adjustment screws, bring the valv down to a flat surface of the table, and tighten it up. Accurate enough for most woodworking.
Just use a piece of coat hanger bent into a stair shape. Chuck it, then rotate by hand to check square.
You might want to go to the local auto parts store and pick up that valve. One discarded from a rebuild shop is likely to be bent.
If the angle is important, you could set up an angle plate, and tilt the table until the angle plate is level (use a bullseye level for this). Then remove the angle plate. The only problem is, you have to find a metalwork outfit with angle plates (and gage blocks), and do some math. You also need to adjust your drill press spindle accurately vertical.
You also want your bits as sharp as possible. Dull ones skate around and won't drill plumb. Prob is even worse if they're bent, or sharpened off center.
If the angle is important, you could set up an angle plate, and tilt the table until the angle plate is level (use a bullseye level for this). Then remove the angle plate. The only problem is, you have to find a metalwork outfit with angle plates (and gage blocks), and do some math. You also need to adjust your drill press spindle accurately vertical.
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Setting the angle is not the problem. I can show you how to set an angle to within a few minutes of arc with a few pieces of scrap and a steel rule. Getting everything lined up is the problem. Pivot point of table needs to be precisely centered under spindle. Part needs to be perpendicular to the table pivot. All do-able but not worth the effort. Lock the table square and build a fixture. Very seldom does it take more than a few minutes to build a fixture after making a few universal fixture components (nothing hard about these either).
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I do appreciate the help. And you're right - getting things lined up is the problem. That and my inability to visualize trigonometry :-).
For example, I can get the pivot point lined up side to side, but the arm that holds the table is enough longer (1/16" to 3/32") than the offset of the chuck that I can't center a bit front to back in the hole in the table.
In another test, I put my Wixey gauge on the table facing me and zeroed it. Then I loosened the table clamp, rotated the table 90 degrees, and retightened the clamp. The gauge showed 0.3 degrees, which I think is due to the sag of the table arm.
I took a good look at a Rikon radial arm drill press at Woodcraft yesterday. Then I went home, got my gauge, an engineers square, and a drill rod and went back. The Rikon wasn't any more accurate than my current DP!
What I need to do is build a table that compensates for the problem and then use fixtures as you suggest. Luckily, I got the angled holes drilled for the current project, so there's no urgency.
We're hoping to move next year. Maybe I'll get space for a floor mounted DP - I hope they're made to closer tolerances than the benchtops.
My DP has its problems, but it sure is heftier than the current crop of benchtops. The column appears to be a floor model column cut in half, a lot thicker than what I've seen lately. And the motor is 3/4hp - I didn't see that on any of the benchtop DPs I looked at. If I can get that compensating table built I'll keep mine till it dies or I do.
Thanks again for the help.
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Shim with masking tape to get the precise angle.
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