Attaching Home Made Drill Press Table

[Joey Chavez]

What I thought would be fairly simple is turning out to be not so. I am making a drill press table that needs to attach to a cast iron table that has t tracks, not a through slotted table. The t tracks on the table are wide, 1 1/8" at the bottom, 5/8" on the top of the track. I thought I'd get some opinions on the best way to get the new DP table attached. Thanks for the help.

[Brett Bobo]

Joey,
I have recesses in the top of the table with washers and wing nuts, which connect to the t-bolts that fit into the t-slots on the drill press table. Traditional hex bolts will work just as well and you can add washers underneath the heads to increase the bearing area. Hope that helps.

[Trent Shirley]

If your T-Track is not parallel (for instance running in an X pattern) then you will have to slot through the top of the table to use Joey's method above.
You might consider clamps that attach to the edges of your cast iron table rather than into the slots.
Using the same method Joey mentions above you could use a J or L shaped piece of metal with a threaded top that attaches to the table at the top with the nut or wing nut and hooks under the lip of the table underneath.

[Bill Huber]

There is always many was to do thing, so better then other but the main thing is to get it to work for you.

Here is how did mine, it is and old 70s something Craftsman and has no T-Track on it. I used a wood nut and just some knobs I got at rockler.

205989 205990

[pat warner]

I'd ignore the tee-slots and tap the Cast. Screw your top right into it.
Might also put some MDF on the bottom so you won't have so much trouble clamping. That, could, if you drill through the cast, be screwed/bolted to your new top.
My microscopic table has through slots but I tapped the casting anyway.
You do not want the sandwich (http://patwarner.com/images/drill_check_list.jpg) to ever slip or slide lest you will lose center and booger that last drilling operation!

[Steve Jenkins]

I just drilled 4 holes in the cast table then screwed from below into the new top.

[Bill Huber]

I just drilled 4 holes in the cast table then screwed from below into the new top.

That is what I was going to do but then I changed my mind because I wanted to be able to take it off easy and fast. That way when I am drilling steel and using oil I will not get it on my table and then on the wood.

[Jim Heffner]

Bill has a good idea with the star shaped knobs, I used some toggle clamps on mine instead and it works well too. Either of these and the other ideas are good as well, just ignore the T tracks or miter tracks and use the best of these that work for you.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I did something similar to Bill along the front of the table, because the add-on table extends beyond the cast iron table.

However, the backs of the two tables are pretty close to in-line, and there I used two of these fence clamps from Rockler - and they happen to be on sale [$13/pair]

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=17821&filter=clamps

[Joey Chavez]

Thanks everyone. Bill,l I like your idea as I have a small shop and may want to remove the table frequently when not in use, I have some hardware and I'm going to see if I can make that work. My situation is the same as Kents and I happen to have two sets of those fence clamps. I had been wondering what else I could use those for besides clamping a sacrificial fence on the table saw.