Attaching a table to my Drill Press??

[Lincoln Myers]

Hi All...

I recently got the FastTrak Drill Press Table and Fence from Woodcraft, ala Mark Duginske. It's a real nice setup and seems like it will work great. I've got a flip stop, a couple of integrated T-Slot clamps... My only problem now is How do I attach it to the table on my Delta DP350?

The Delta table has a hole in the middle for the bit, the only other hole is threaded hole at the back left of the square table. Which I assume is for draining or plugging for oil for metal work.

The cast iron table seems pretty tough to 'just drill a couple holes in'. But maybe not. Any suggestions or "What I did's" would be great.

Thanks a Lot!

[Lee Schierer]

Can you make the table with "L" shapde edges to hook under the outside bottom of hte existing table? If you make it on three sides, you can slide the table on.

Drilling cast iron is not all that hard to do. Use a slow speed and lots of cutting oil.

[Keith Outten]

Lincoln,

It's been my experience that drilling cast iron is just about as easy as drilling plastic. When drilling cast iron it doesn't produce chips like mild steel, its more like a fine dust or powder. Cast Iron drills rather quickly so don't use a lot of pressure, let the drill do it's work at a medium speed. Don't overtighten the bolts when you install the new table just snug em up and use lock washers.

If it was me I would prefer to fasten my auxiliary table by drilling holes in the cast table rather than using clips. I use my drill press for just about any type of machining you can imagine and having a table that is absolutely stable is a must. Too bad you don't have machined slots in the cast table, you could use tee nuts to fasten the new auxiliary table.

Last year I bouht the Grizzlly radial drill. I need to make an auxilary table for this press but haven't found the time. Mine will have to be a custom table as I need a good platform to bolt to the base to reduce the distance from the base to the chuck. Another welding job in my near future.

[Matthew Curley]

One of the drill-presses in the scene shop I used to work in had a sub-table of 1-1/8 ply bolted to the square (metal working) table of the drill press (solid table with the oil well like yours). The diagonal slots in the factory table were "T" slots sized for 1/2inch bolt heads (I don't know if yours is the same). We just used 1-1/2inch bolts and countersunk the nuts into the plywood. You could do the same and then attach your purchased table with bolts or screws through the plywood and not need to drill holes through the factory table.