accessories for drill press? wire brush/buffing wheel?

[Brian Peters]

Just took delivery of a brand new Jet 17DX drill press and I'm thoroughly impressed and even more impressed with the free delivery from amazon (no lift gate/palletjack/residential charges either!) But I've seen people here cleaning up old bench planes and sorts with wire brush wheels and polishing/buffing wheels for the drill press. I have my lathe buffing system (beal) but I don't want to get that dirty as this will be for steel/cast/brass.

Any recommendations would be appreciated (including any cool accessories I might need to buy !:D) Thanks.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
A good aux. table is the best add on I can think of.
There's plenty of plans on the web.

[Michael Wildt]

Congrats with the new tool.

I would use a bench grinder with a brass wire wheel for that kind of cleanup. Not the drill press. You can get a cheap bench grinder that can take the pressure on the bearings.

I just started building a drill press table since most drill presses do not have a big enough table any way. I will use a modified version of one from shop notes. This will allow me to clamp the item down properly.

Other thing to do is to wipe it down with some Boeshield, wax or similar so it wont rust.

I also bolted mine to a BB ply base with sand and put that on a mobil base with wheels. Now it can be moved around, but it does raise it a bit. I got the box idea from this forum and it is a good solution since the extra weight really makes it more stable. Though putting it onto the base was a challenge since these ones are really heavy.

[David Hostetler]

I second the comment about the bench grinder. You really don't want too much lateral force on the bearings of a drill press...

As far as accessories for a drill press, in general since I am not familiar with your specific model I like to have...

#1. Proper woodworking drill press table. Lots of vendors sell them, the best ones are shop made though... Use plenty of T track, and hold downs, not to mention a fence and stop block system.

#2. Rockler retractable chuck key retainer or similar. I think Woodcraft has something similar.

#3. Drill Press accessory tray for holding bits and pieces close by.

#4. Work Light.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I would also vote for an aux table. You can get plans from the web. That little table that comes with the DP is woefully small and useless. For wood working. If you don't want to get/build an aux table, I would then reccomend that Vise-grip bolt on clamp. Most beneficial to preventing hitting yourself in the chest with that long piece of wood. Pretty cheap too.

I also like the aftermarket laser crosshairs, although many don't like it. I do a lot of hole saw drilling, and the laser helps a LOT for targeting a 3" hole saw.

[Myk Rian]

I'm with Michael on the bench grinder.
Delta makes a couple nice variable speed models. 6" and 8".

[Bill White]

Gotta remember not to side-load the arbor bearings too much or you'll end up with a junk DP. Saying that, I've even milled aluminum stock on my DP.
Bill ;)

[Pete Bradley]

Gotta remember not to side-load the arbor bearings too much or you'll end up with a junk DP.

This is oft-repeated (twice in this thread already!) but not a big concern. Most DPs that you'll see discussed here have the same radial ball bearings found in other tools. Sure they'll wear but in a hobbyist shop, age and dust will get them long before load does.

A bigger concern for machines with only a taper holding the chuck on is side loads popping the chuck. Not a big deal if you don't load it up so much that you pop the taper out, but you don't want to make a habit of popping it or spin the taper and wear it. This is not a problem for threaded chucks or taper chucks with threaded collars.

Pete