New home for the drill press

[steven c newman]

Ok, last fall, Landlord had a crew show up to re-roof the house...There was a sheet of 3/4" plywood on my back porch, from where I had tossed out the old queen-sized bed. Plywood was from under the mattress. Ceiling guy left a pair of 2x4s out there, as well.....as he had cut one to make a crutch to hold up new drywall...then just left them outside..

Drill Press needed a new place to call home in my shop. I brought those 2 x 4s down to the shop, to let them dry out a bit..
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I needed 4 "legs" at around 34" long...then split up the remains into stretchers....Let those sit a day...

Back to that sheet of plywood. Seems the roofers needed a patch, so they cut a piece of the plywood...badly. I took a framing square and a black Sharpie out to the sheet....was fairly nice weather outside....sheet was leaning against the side of my house....Marked a line about 10" in from an edge..

Then brought out the saw..
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And made the cut. Took the panel to the shop, for now..
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This will be the top of a stand...and, since the legs and upper stretchers took all the available pine....I had to go and cut a second larger panel....

I did not like the rounded corners of the 2 x 4s...set up the rip fence to peel them off both edges...
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Both the stretchers and the legs got this "treatment"...then the second plywood panel was run through..
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Yep, void free 3/4" pine plywood...these will be the lower stretchers...wanted them to match the width of the pine stretchers.....trying to make the joinery as easy as I can.

Joinery will be in the form of half laps, and dados.....dados where the plywood will be.

Lumber all set....Single Brain Cell Sketch Up has a plan....

Stay tuned...we are about to get.."chippy"

[steven c newman]

Ok..half lap joints...took some fussing to get things set up right. I could have done this with all hand tools,,,but....there was a BUNCH of these to cut, and a very limited time to do it in...Tablesaw and the rip fence.
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I make a series of cuts, working towards the rip fence, using it as a stop block...Bunch of cuts..
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And this was the easy one. mallet to break most of the chips loose, then a wide, sharp chisel to pare it smooth and flat..
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Worked my way through all the joints...
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Legs included...test fit..
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This looks this way, because the longer side stretchers lap here...short ones are the front and back. There is also similar cuts for the lower stretchers..
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Soon had all 4 legs done...
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And all of the stretchers...
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Stay tuned...

[steven c newman]

Lower stretchers...sit in dados...same as before with the saw cuts....then bust out all the chips..and then pare flat..
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Then the test fit...
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Takes a mallet to drive fully in...should be tight enough?

Shop floor was a mess..

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had to move the tablesaw back out of the way, to sweep this mess up..and...
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Lots of chips to sweep up...
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Ok, that's better...wonder how long it will stay like that?

Parts were all stacked up waiting for assembly to begin...decided I might wait a day...that WAS the plan...:rolleyes:

Stay tuned..:D

[steven c newman]

Got bored last night...nothing worth watching...decided to try some assembly,,,at least get the ends put together...
Got to start somewhere...ok. I have a pair of cordless drills, one with a #12 counter sink bit...the other to drive those #6 screws.
Had plenty of clamps handy, and the bottle of glue....and a square...

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Plan being to glue and screw each joint together,,clamped as needed to hold the parts together. Square to check the corners..
Did not like just laying this on top of the bench, needed an extra "hand" to help out

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Counter sinks were done before the part was set into the glue...Bench vise is a 3rd hand helper...came in rather handy...

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When the second leg was added..set this aside..and do the other leg assembly. Could have stopped there, for the night? Nah..had to keep going..

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This was where the real "fun" and cussing happened....order of assembly here....Add the upper and lower stretchers to one leg assembly....flip that over, and add the other stretchers.....then, add in the second leg assembly...fasten one side, flip the mess over, and complete the assembly on the other side....Took a LOT of clamps to pull things together,, and keep them together....

Was finally able to stand this thing up on it's own 4 feet...so I could install the top..

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This is that 1st plywood panel I cut from the sheet. Bead of glue around the top edges of the leg assembly...then 6 screws to lock the top in place...I even sanded the top....needed a good clean up.

Moved the drill press over to it's new home, bolted it down, plugged it in...and let it run a bit......seems to sit stable enough...
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I have a lot more elbow room, now...even with the table all the way down, it still clears the top of the dryer.

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need to clean out the old spot...made a bit of a mess. Now the Tool Cabinet door has room to swing open...less cords in the way, too.
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Debating on drawers for under neath the top of this stand...and whether to paint the darn thing....I got to bed about 0400 this morning...total time spent on this little stand? 5 hours.

I'm still worn out..

Thanks for looking in...:D

[Stew Denton]

Steven,

The stand looks very stout and looks like it should hold up well. Good job.

Regards,

Stew

[Richard Hutchings]

My kind of stand. Good use of materials at hand too.