production drill press table.

[Gregg Feldstone]

I got a great deal on a Jet production drill press for about the same price as a top of the line "woodworking dp". Only problem is that I need to come up with a way to clamp pieces at an angle, since the table does not tilt. I thought that an angle vise would be the answer but they all have one big problem for use in woodworking. The plane they tilt in is parallel to the jaws, not perpendicular. This makes all your holes indexed to the width of a board, not the length, which would normally be what you want. There are 3 axis vises which are very expensive for a model with much capacity. I don't know why nobody seems to make a vise which tilts perpendicular to the jaws? Has anyone seen one?
I am thinking about getting something called a tilting sine plate to simply clamp a simple vise to or try to make a very sturdy tilting vise platform out of wood....has anyone done this? pics? Thanks!!

[Gregg Feldstone]

back up for more viewing.

[Norman Hitt]

Greg, I saw something recently, (somewhere) where a fellow laminated two pieces of baltic birch together for a table, and then fastened them with a piano hinge to another piece of plywood for the base and attached adjustable locking bars at each side to set the angle with. He had a 3/4" tall fence screwed to the top pieces across the front edge above the hinged edge to hold the work against when drilling, and clamped the base piece to his DP table with the hinged edge parallel to the front edge of the DP TABLE. He reported it to work well and it did look like it would. Anyhow, you might give it a try and it wouldn't be much money lost if it wasn't satisfactory.
Good luck with whatever you try, and let us know how it works out.

PS: After thinking about it, it seems that the base was two pieces also with a couple of guidebars on one running in dado slots on the other so he could adjust the top in or out under the bit.

[Aaron Berk]

Here is a table I've got.

It's 100% JUNK

The concept is PERFECT, but the execution is worthless.

It has a piano hinge in front, and flimsy guide bars on the sides. When tilted, it deflects like crazy.

So what I've done, is cut wedge blocks that match the angle I need to drill, and then insert the blocks in under the tilting portion of the table.

Hope this helps.
This is an old pic from about 4yrs ago, things are not like this anymore

PS: Norman,
You recall about the double thick ply tables sounds like it would work much better, as long as the lock bars (for the tilt) were robust enough.