Thread: (Drill) pressed for space?

Hi Groggy!

That's a dastardly cunning ploy that you've come up with there

Like you, I am desparately short of space, so might well make use of this idea on the small bench that houses my bench grinder - and so free up at least 1000mm x 1000mm of shed floor space.

Thanks for that!

That's a nifty solution to your space problem Groggy.

Love it! Love it! Love it!....I, like most have a restriction on space, and like yourself use only a portion of the adjustability of the DP capacity, this is a very good solution to a problem that most just accept as part and parcel of being the owner of this particular bit of machinery.

The other benefit that I can see, is the ease of clean-up after use, as most of the swarf/shavings would fall onto the table/bench top. When I clean-up my DP a lot of rubbish gets under the foot of the DP, this only get's cleand when the DP is moved.

Here's a greeny for your great idea!

Nice one Groggy! I just bought a press this very afternoon and am already discovering it is too low and am looking to lift it by at least 100 or 150 mm.

Cheers

Groggy - great one. The inventivness of guys/gals on this formn never ceases to amaze.
Les

I like it. I have similar space problems.

A big space saver for me was wall mounting bench grinders. Releases table space... and generally improved my sharpening, cause I could stand straight, and bring everything closer to my eye. uno, have it mounted close to shoulder height.

Something useful I've found, to be used with drill presses, is xy vises. Carpatec sells them cheap.

and that car jack you mentioned. I just gota use one of them under the little drill presses table, whenever possible.....cause my table flexes a little under pressure, taking the drilling off vertical. (cheap bloody drill press)

This has worked out better than I hoped. I drilled some scrap aluminium last night for holding hole saws and the clean up was a piece of cake. Also, the height of the press made it much easier to use, no more bending over at 30 degrees.

One thing not obvious in the pics is that the space above the base is still useable for storage, an added bonus! I'm one happy camper.

Future modifications. One modification I'm toying with is putting a small series of drawers in front of the post, over the base, to hold drills etc - but maybe that's getting carried away a bit. The last upgrade will probably be to replace the benchtop with something decent.

apricotripper - there is an xy vice barely visible behind the post in the 2nd pic.

Steve, feel free to copy to your heart's content!

Groggy would it have been easier to set it up so it was outboard all the time. I would get frustrated having the vice in the way all the time. Especially as it would be about family jewels height.

One other mod I need to do is put on the easy riser kit and do away with the rack and pinion set up. Easier to move the table up and down.

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

Groggy would it have been easier to set it up so it was outboard all the time. I would get frustrated having the vice in the way all the time. Especially as it would be about family jewels height.

One other mod I need to do is put on the easy riser kit and do away with the rack and pinion set up. Easier to move the table up and down.

Jim, the drill press is about as cheap and nasty as they get. I am about to get another one that has no less than three crank wheels, weighs 500kgs and a 1hp motor. It will be my user DP, and this one will probably only get occasional use. That said, I didn't find any issues with the vise last night and was using the DP for probably 20-30mins. I did find it very handy to have the table space to put things down (oil, drill set, countersinks etc) and it also saved me time. I can still apply an easy riser kit without difficulty if I want, and I have thought about it, though I want to play with one first. To swivel the entire assembly 180 degrees only requires loosening two allen screws, which takes 10 secs. If I have it reversed I'd bump it all the time when using my other bench (behind the DP).

As for the family jewels in the vise - the married guys are thinking "so what's new?"

Thanks for the input!

Great idea.
Just curious?

Is there a particular reason why you chose to have the "front" of the drill over the vice rather than out the back [would the motor be in the way when working on the vice?]
or,
have the front of the DP facing the left of the vice [in other word 90 degrees clockwise]

Originally Posted by Bob38S

Great idea.
Just curious?

Is there a particular reason why you chose to have the "front" of the drill over the vice rather than out the back [would the motor be in the way when working on the vice?]
or,
have the front of the DP facing the left of the vice [in other word 90 degrees clockwise]

There is an aisle behind the bench with the drill press on it, so I've positioned the drill to reduce it obstructing access. I can very easily swivel the head anywhere I want to anyway.

Your workshop looks a lot like mine, Groggy. Or at least what I imagine mine would be like if I finished cleaning it. SWMBO always laughs when I say I'm going to "clean the shed" beacause I've been doing it for years, but to my way of thinking that's what I mainly do down there (my shed's a one minute walk from the house).

I'll post some pictures when it's finished. At present I've extended it by five metres to make a 6 by 11 metre shed. It's an odd size because I had to stop short of a blue gum.

My drill press is an old three phase thing that is close to impossible to move. I can only hug it and "walk it" from one space to another, and although this suggests that I like it, it has inspired few epiphanies.

But I do tend towards buying older, heavier stuff that is hard to move, so my answer is to - try and - put wheels on everything. Then whenever I do have changes of heart about where things belong, I just dance them around (wow, this hugging and dancing analogy draws attention to my fetish ).

Groggy,

You could probably do away with the rack & pinion table height adjustment mechanism if you got an Easy-Riser Kit from Timbecon.
I bought one & it works very well.........If, I don't have the XY vice on the table. (it weighs 27KG)

I think your idea is fantastic!

Originally Posted by MajorPanic

You could probably do away with the rack & pinion table height adjustment mechanism if you got an Easy-Riser Kit from Timbecon.

You're the second person to suggest the easy riser kit. I looked them up and at $70 it's more than half the cost of the drill press! Two pulleys, a cable, a few swages and a weight. Sorry, but I can't justify $70 to avoid cranking a handle; not for non-commercial use anyway.