Free Standing SS Drill press

[cooch366]

After following this thread a some thinking about the shop, I came up with the following with some spare parts. Not because I had to, but because I could.

Nice work cooch, thanks for sharing this! I would really like to see more pictures and details of your black frame. I like how you attach the base castings directly to it. I was concerned about the strength of the casting in this position so I was not planning to do it this way, but perhaps I should reconsider based on your results. It's sleek.

Tom

Thanks Tom. Here are a few more pictures.

This is the unit minus the table (for space saving. I used 2" welded angle iron. The sides are made to fit from my header, to the floor. The width of the frame is just enough to slide the press into it. I made sure to only tighten the (8) bolts enough to secure it, and not so tight that the castings would crack. The top and bottom are resting on and in the angle iron as to not float, this i think will give it even more support. I also added a couple of stop collars from McMaster-Carr to the bottom of the head to make sure it does not drop

Drill-4.jpg (49.86 KiB) Viewed 2898 times

The weight to the press is on the floor, with the bolts at the top just snug enough to support it without movement. I used (2) 3/8 x 2 1/2 lags to attach the top the header

Drill-1.jpg (40.72 KiB) Viewed 2898 times

I used all 8 holes to attach it.

Drill-2.jpg (41 KiB) Viewed 2898 times

Because the weight is resting on the floor, I just used a couple of tapcon's to stabilize the bottom and prevent any movement or twisting. You will see under the floor frame on the right hand side, I had some pieces of a pick up truck bed mat that I rested the frame on. My thinking it would be softer, quieter if there was any vibration.

Drill-3.jpg (34.9 KiB) Viewed 2898 times

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info, pictures or if I can help with anything else.

Steve

[tomsalwasser]

Awesome work Steve. Thanks for the pictures and descriptions. Very helpful! You'll see my wall mounted drill press pics one of these days.

Tom

[masonsailor2]

I put the finishing touches on the drill press this weekend. The casters made the whole thing too unstable so I installed some adjustable legs using 3/4 bolts which made it rock solid and also enabled me to level the whole thing. I built a fine adjustment for the carriage which gives a finer control over the depth. Finally I welded up some right angle pieces of 1 inch tubing which fit into the extension table and allowed me to slide on two floating tables to give me a place for my bits. Now I can get back to my project.
Paul