Mobile base for a drill press

I recently purchased a new drill press, the Delta 17-990X variable speed drill press. As my goal is to have all equipment in my shop mobile for moving around the shop and to make cleanup easier. Given that this is a top heavy drill press, I was wondering if anyone has one that they have made mobile in some manner.

Delta recommends that the base of the drill press be mounted directly to the flooor. If not, it needs to be mounted to a 21"X 28" minimum sheet of 3/4" plywood.

I have looked at many of the mobile bases on the market and they don't look stable enough to me to use with this drill press. The two that I am considering at this point are the Shop Fox heavy duty and the Delta universal mobile base that you put your own wood (2"X2") to fit the machine you want to make mobile.

I have the Delta mobile base and the wood, so from a cost standpoint, that seems to be the better option. The only downside of this mobile base is that it has a pedal that raises the front of the base to make it mobile and I am concerned it might case the drill press to tip over, though I think it is relatively unlikely that it would and I won't be moving it around much.

What has everyone done for a mobile base on a drill press?

Has anyone come up with an shopmade way to easily move a drill press around?

Thanks,

David

Reply to
David Lankford
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David, I've had an HTC mobile base on my drill press for years. The style is trapezoid shape with two lockable fixed wheels and a single caster style wheel at the peak of the trapezoid. This configuration makes it easy to rotate the drill away from the wall whenever I need to use it. I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood bolted to the base and then the drill base bolted to the plywood. I works fine for me.

TWS

Reply to
TWS

I think that I would first try "living" with press for a bit to see just how much it really "needs" to be bolted to the floor. I have the old Craftsman floor model drill press that's heavy as hell even with the weight saving "rubber band" drive belt

I've never bothered to anchor it in the 19 years or so that I've owed it. Never had it tip either. Longest work piece I've ever had on it was a 1x11x8 oak ply carcase sides for a built-in book case. Needed to drill the shelf pin holes. Unless you're going to hoist a chuck of I-Beam on there or a 16' piece of 3/8" steel while fabricating a flitch plate for a garage door header, I don't thing the average (or even above average) woodworker is going to have a problem. We use work supports with our other stationary tools, why not the drill press?

To make it mobile, could you "top mount" one of those jack type mobil mounts to the top of the base so that when you lower the base (raise the wheels) the cast iron base of the drill press rest on the floor? That way you'd actually have an out-rigger of sorts to add stability to the existing base.

Maybe even fabricate your own mount.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

I expect that the reason Delta states you need to have the additional wood under the base is that someone got hurt by somehow tipping a drill press over and it is easy to update documentation to limit their liability. Heavy as this thing is, I expect it won't go anywhere once it's in place.

I am more than willing to fabricate my on mount and I like the idea of the top mount setup. If I understood you correctly, a set of arms or frame (outriggers) would be mounted to the top of the base, and at the end of each of the arms would be a wheel that can be raised and lowered. When lowered, the unit is mobile, when raised the base sits on the ground stationary with the arms to be used as extra stability.

To keep the top of the base free, instead of top mounting, I could build a base frame that has similar adjustable height wheels to allow the assemby to be raised and lowered. This way the entire base would be on the floor.

The question with either of these is, how do I make a set of wheels that are easily raised and lowered to make the base mobile when I need it to be. I could do the setup where the wheels are hinged and flip around when the drill press is tilted. I will have to think on that a bit.

Thanks for your help,

David

Reply to
David Lankford

I looked at the HTC at a Woodcraft and it wobbled more than I would like. Of course this one didn't have the plywood bolted as you did which is a great idea to make the unit more rigid.

Thanks,

David

Reply to
David Lankford

Others have made suggestions on movability, etc, and I wont add to that, but I would strongly suggest you not consider the Shop Fox base. Even the "Heavy Duty" model is not much more than sheet metal, and the casters are way too small to support the advertised weight. But the most aggravating thing about it is that once installed the two movable wheels will not rotate a full 360 degrees so you have something akin to driving a car which has no reverse. You can only go in one direction.

Reply to
LP

Thanks for the heads up / reminder. I have a shop fox on my jointer and I know what you are talking about.

David

Reply to
David Lankford

I didn't use one of the universal bases, this one is welded frame and pretty rigid. TWS

Reply to
TWS

I know which one you are talking about. The one at Woodcraft was the same as yours but they had an undersized piece of wood just sitting in the frame and the drill press base lightly bolted to the wood. Your solution with the bolting to the frame would make a huge difference I can see. It's funny how companies can do a product dis-service by not proprely setting it up as it should be used. The twenty minutes it would have taken them to do this I am sure would net significantly increased sales.

David

Reply to
David Lankford

David,

I have my drill press mounted on a Rockler mobile base. The Rockler base is a clone of your Delta base with the do-it-yourself hardwood rails. I sized it to just be big enough to hold the drill press base mounted on a sheet of 3/4" plywood. Like another responder, I bolted the press to the plywood and the plywood to the base. Its rock solid. One of your design choices is where to locate the pedal. I saw one in a woodcraft store with the pedal mounted on the side. I elected to mount the pedal on the front because it gives me maximum flexibility to put the DP in the corner and then move it around a few inches. It also makes it much easier to roll the drill press right up to the wall before releasing the pedal.

I am a big fan of having the drill press on a rolling stand. One of my projects required drilling sixty-four 1" holes along the length of a

2x6 board 8 feet long. I moved the drill press into the center of the shop and set up a shop stand on either side to support the long board. This would have been impossible without having a mobile drill press.

When moving the drill press, its safe, as long as you roll it slowly and carefully. If you got in a hurry and introduced a wobble, it could go unstable and tip over. There is no danger of it tipping while sitting still.

Bob

Reply to
bluemax1811-newsgroups

The Delta mobile base (with decent quality wood runners) is more rigid than the other metal mobile bases I have. Since you already have it, you might as well use it. I'd suggest bolting the plywood to the runners, and maybe a couple of supports underneath the plywood to strengthen the platform, as

3/4" plywood will likely give a bit with all that weight on it. You should be able to adjust the amount of lift from the foot pedal so that it's no longer an issue.
Reply to
mp

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson

Bob,

Thanks for the insight. I agree there are many advantages to having equipment mobile. With the wood between the metal sections, due you feel that this is adequate for the weight. Seems to me the drill press I have weighs around 350lbs. I was thinking of adding some steel to sandwich the wood, but I thought it might be overkill.

The mobile base on my BS has a similar setup and I would agree from using it that the pedal in the front would be best. I have thought about putting it in the back as it would still be easy to get to, but out of the way for normal use.

Thanks,

David

Reply to
David Lankford

Sorry I was slow to respond. You have a mighty big drill press if it weighs

350 lbs. No floor standing wood drill press found in home shops weighs that much. I have a Jet JDP-17MF and it weighs 189 lbs. Its a 16 1/2" floor stand model - a pretty typical DP. The corners fo the drill press base are just about on top of the corner braces in the in the mobile stand. There's no reason to reinforce the plywood and I've had no problem with distortion or bending.

Putting in the back will force it to sit out from the wall further. A drill press takes up enough front-to-back space as it is (my opinion).

In normal use, I don't find the pedal gets in my way. I guess I just put my feet on either side of it and never notice it.

Bob

Reply to
BillyBob

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