Drill Press Table

[derekcohen]

A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of a Black Friday sale and purchased a Nova Voyager drill press for a great discount. This replaced a Taiwanese model I had for 25 years. Yeah, I know this machine is OTT, but it is an amazing tool. For those who are not familiar with the Voyager, it is a computerised, variable speed drill press with a 2 hp direct drive motor (240v). I have already used it to determine the ideal speed for a selection of forstner bits, and then drill to a preset depth, and stop automatically at that depth. 

Putting it together was .. uh  ... a little scary. The motor section is extremely heavy, and I was concerned that I would drop it in my usual clumsy fashion. Anyway, it was put together without mishap. A Nova fence was one of the freebees thrown in ...

Nova recommend that one not use a mobile base, however I need to do so since my machines occupy one side of a double garage, and some machines need to be mobile. The drill press is one. The ideal mobile base is as low to the floor as possible. A low centre of gravity is more stable, but also you do not want to raise the drill press up too much as the controls and computer screen may be moved out of your comfort zone.

Steel mobile base on lockable wheels ...

This post is more about the table I built for the drill press. Some may be able to use the ideas here. Most of the ideas are old hat, but there are a couple of novel ideas. My old drill press  used nothing more exciting than a piece of plywood over the cast iron table. Somehow it was sufficient, although the work holding sucked ... and this is what I wanted to address here. Plus, the sacrificial board became chewed up and useless very quickly, and I had an idea to improve on this.

I was not crazy about the cast iron table as a work surface. For a top I found in my local salvage yard a 18" x 25" UHMW slab 30mm (1-1/4") thick. This is about as perfect a table top as one could get - it is very resistant to damage, and yet will not damage wood placed on it.

It planes without any tearout

The first task was to dado in aluminium tracks for the fence and hold downs, and then to create a circular mortice for a sacrificial section ...

Using a power router to waste UHMW is an interesting experience - lots of plastic string everywhere, and dust control was not working well. The circular recess was time consuming and finicky. The template began as a 2" forstner cut hole. This was then progressively widened to 4" using a rebate and a flush cut bit in the router table. Finally, the template was used with a pattern cutter to create the circular recess, above.

The circular sacrificial disks are 1/2" thick MDF. I found it quicker to saw them fractionally oversize on the bandsaw, and then turn them on the lathe ...

Here now is the basic table ...

There is a cut out at the rear for the winder ...

Now why did I choose a circular sacrificial section? I have seen many drill press tables using square sections. I cannot recall seeing any with round disks (unless it was dedicated to a sander, but that is not the same thing). The drill bit is not centred on the square. Instead, it is moved to the rear of the square. That way one can rotate the disk four times after it becomes holed. My objection to this design was that one only obtained four points, and as soon as one section became holed, it could no longer back up the drill. 

Now a circular disk, on the other hand, has an infinite number of positions (infinite until the circle is completed). Just rotate as much as you need. More work to make, but better in the long run. 

Here is the finished table ...

The Nova fence came with those twisty levers. They are useless ... difficult to achieve the ideal tautness and hard to get to behind the fence. I replaced them with the long knobs. These needed to be cut down by 3/4" to avoid fowling the downfeed handles. 

The tracks not only hold the fence, but also Incra hold downs ...

... and even the Micro Jig clamps for taller boards ...

I hope there is something you can use.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[pkinneb]

Very nice! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the drill press after you have used it for a while.

[gee-dub]

Sweet setup Derek.  Nice table approach as well.

[Mark J]

Did you flatten the table?

[drzaius]

Derek, I have a 17" General Int. drill press that like your's, needs to be mobile. The thing is monsterously top heavy. I used an HTC mobile base, but put it together a few inches larger than the DP base in both dimensions. This has made it much more stable. I still need to use care when moving; racing it over an errant cord or scrap would end badly.

[derekcohen]

1 hour ago, Mark J said:

Did you flatten the table?

No. It was flat as found. I selected the piece I ended with for size, but all were flat. 

If it had needed to be flattened, I would have used a jointer plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[derekcohen]

5 minutes ago, drzaius said:

Derek, I have a 17" General Int. drill press that like your's, needs to be mobile. The thing is monsterously top heavy. I used an HTC mobile base, but put it together a few inches larger than the DP base in both dimensions. This has made it much more stable. I still need to use care when moving; racing it over an errant cord or scrap would end badly.

My original plan was to build a simple base out of Pine 2x4’s and screw on lockable wheels. This has worked for me before. Well, I did this first, and then added the base, then the steel tube - all bar the drill head ... and then called over my neighbour to assist with the head attachment and hoisting. Bearing in mind the cost of this thing, dropping it was something I wanted to avoid.

It was Sunday morning and I caught Gareth just before he was due to leave for work (he builds houses and this was his display day). With the tube on the ground, we wrestled the head onto it with the aid of lithium grease, and hoisted the drill press erect. I cannot under state how much sweat went into the marriage of the head and tube. Some say it is easy. Not these guys - four left hands... Finally, done ! Congratulating ourselves, Gareth went off to change, and I stood back to admire the new drill. It dawned on me that the controls were a little too high for comfort. I am a Mr Average - a little under 5’10” - and the Voyager was obviously designed for me, but now the height would have suited someone about 6’2”.

What to do? I called Gareth over again, and together we hoisted the drill press up onto rafters so I could remove the base and install the one in the earlier photo, which was on another machine. This was not a fun activity. I was working frantically against the clock to resize the mobile base and then bolt it to the drill press before he left for work. It was held up there with his winch and, as I was unfamiliar with it, I did not want to attempt to release it on my own.

Resizing the mobile base and attaching it to the hanging drill press took a while longer than I hoped, and Gareth went off to work. The Voyager was left hanging off the rafter all day. It was a testament to his patience that he helped lower it at 7:00 p.m. on his return. Was it worth it? Yes, absolutely. This machine really does need the correct size/height base . The one I have literally skims the floor, adding perhaps 1" to the height, which is fine. It feels pretty solid on the wheels, which are hard without any spring. I would say that the extra width of the mobile base adds a little to its stability. Further, the head, while very heavy, is quite slim ... unlike traditional drill heads, which have to accomodate all the belts ... and so keeps the mass in the vertical.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark J]

2 hours ago, derekcohen said:

Some say it is easy. Not these guys

Ahh, brings back memories of putting together my Nova drill press.  Unfortunately no "Gareth" next door, so I was on my own.  If Nova would just have designed a handle or other lifting point into the top of the head it would be so much easier.

I had the base and pillar assembled and laying down with the pillar propped on some blocks.  I realized that with a little adjustment, the head unit on it's side would line up with the pillar and was able to marry the two.  Which sounds easier than it was and then there was the part about standing the whole thing up.  

I have mine on a mobile base, too.

[Chet]

On 12/9/2019 at 8:21 AM, derekcohen said:

Nova recommend that one not use a mobile base

Derek, do you know why this is?  Stability?

[drzaius]

Mark, mine is similar to your setup. the drill press is less than an inch about the floor.

1 hour ago, Chet said:

Derek, do you know why this is?  Stability?

I think that is pretty universal with drill presses. None of the manufacturers want them on mobile bases & they want them bolted to the floor. And yes, it's because of stability.

[curlyoak]

Stability is the cause, liability is the motivation.

[derekcohen]

I replaced the Nova chuck (which is actually a cheapish Chinese-made keyed chuck), with a 13mm keyless Albrecht clone I have used for several years. I had good results with this in my previous drill press, and was wondering whether to upgrade it or not. Consequently, I completed some run out tests for it. 

Set up ...

I used a 1/4" shank carbide router bit as the test piece. This was a one-time test, so I may have had better results from another router bit, or from re-positioning it. It is what it is ...

Results ...

This reads 0.045mm run out. That is 0.0017" run out. Is that good or bad?

My understanding is: there is run out that may occur with the spindle, then there is run out that will occur at the chuck and quill (which could also be measured separately), and finally there is the run out measured at the bit. The results here are a total of all these together. It was mentioned to me that around 5 thousands of an inch would be acceptable. I have 1 thousand inch.  

The other item I attended to was to add a Wixey laser guide ...

It tucks aware and is quite unobtrusive ...

It leaves a nice, clean line ...

... but it is a little wider than expected. The jury is out whether it is just a gimmick, or whether it will prove to be useful.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark J]

Derek, I too had difficulties with run out with the native chuck on my Nova.  I replaced mine with a Jacobs brand keyless chuck.  I don't recall the run out after the replacement chuck was installed, but I think that 1 thousandth of an inch is very acceptable.   It's a little disappointing to have to replace a chuck on a new drill in this price range, but I have heard that Powermatic has recently downgraded it's OEM chuck, too.  

I like your laser; I don't have one of the those.  But the intersection point does appear to be a little broad as you say.  Maybe that is in part an artifact of the photograph.  I think you'll like it for all but the most precise work.  A lot of the time for what I'm doing being off a 32'nd, or heaven forbid a 16'th, one way or the other will matter to me.  I use a drill point countersink bit to position the piece and start the hole.  Then switch out the DPC bit for the appropriate bit and drill the hole.  This technique has worked well for me when precision counts.

I wanted to share my experience with the auto stop feature on the Nova.  True it's automatic, but there's a little less stopping than I would like.  With the electronics programmed the drill motor will stop applying torque once you have reached the desired depth, but the chuck continues to spin due to momentum (and this is worse for both of us with the heavier chucks we've installed) and the quill does not stop its travel, hence you continue to drill beyond the intended stopping point.  You have to keep a close eye on the electronic depth readout, and an ear to the beeps and advance the quill very slowly at the end.  

It is possible to program the machine to go into reverse at the target depth, but again this is not instantaneous, and as an added amusement seems invariably to unscrew the chuck and dump the bit.  Not the most effective technique if you are trying to drill multiple holes to that particular depth.   A technique you can use if you are not changing bits (e.g. not starting with a DPC bit) is to set your zero from the wood surface, move the wood and use the electronics to accurately establish the desired depth, but then instead of programming this stop point set the old fashioned mechanical depth stop to this point.  You then get a positive stop at an accurate depth.  You may not need to get this fussy, but again a 16'th too far could be very bad for me.  

[derekcohen]

Thanks Mark.

One note - I changed the chuck because I wanted keyless, not because there was any issue with the Nova chuck ... I have not used it.

Update: Apparently Albrecht guarantees their chucks to have .0015" run out or less. I think I am okay 

Regards from Perth

Derek