Geared Drill Press Table - aftermarket options?

[Len Rosenberg]

Hi all, I have a General (made in Canada) drill press that I bought in the late 80s. Still runs smooth as silk and quite accurate, so no need to replace it. I had the option to buy it with a geared column for raising and lowering the table height, but did not (have regretted it ever since). I've rigged up a scissor jack that's clamped to the table with an aux. table on top of that, but it's cludgy and not stable. Are there any aftermarket options that I can use to convert my drill press to one with a gear adjustable table? The steel column is 2.75" in diameter. Thanks.

[Bill Dufour]

2.75" is small. Find a make that used that size column and a geared table. Switch your head over or switch over just the table. Walker turner table raiser could be used to lift the head on multihead units on one big fixed table. Clausing as well that I know of.
I suppose a unit from a bigger column could be adapted to fit with a bushing.
BilL D.

[Rick Potter]

My rich buddy used a boat trailer jack from HF on his floor model DP. Worked out well, and worked smoothly.

[Randall J Cox]

I did the same thing that Rick Potter's rich buddy did. As I greatly expanded the table for woodworking it turned out heavy. Turned a HF boat trailer jack upside down, had my son weld some "wings" on it to lift the table from right next to the column, then had him shorten the crank handle a tad and attached to column with U bolts. Been working fine for many years now. Think my total cost was around $19.xx. Randy

[Bill Dufour]

My brothers first house had a home made counterweight for the garage door. Simple wood box full of rock and scrap metal stuff. In winter when wooden door got heavy he added. a little weight. took it out in summer as wood dried. Good source of hunks of steel for projects just add equal weight to balance.
You could do similar for a drill press table if using a heavy vise, fence auxillary table etc.
Bill D

[Bruce Wrenn]

Mount a cheap boat winch on column near head, and attach cable to area where clamping bolt passes thru table. There may be enough room between halves at bolt to run a loop of cable around bolt. Down and dirty, but it works.

[Doug Garson]

I have a old car scissor jack under my bench top drill press table and it works great. It's bolted to the base not the table. No stability issues.

[Perry Holbrook]

Many years ago there was a tip in one of the magazines, maybe Wood. Someone had moritized his table lift with a few spare parts. He used a fractional hp gear head motor. He removed the hand crank and coupled the motor to the hand crank shaft.

I used his idea and built a motorized lift. The motor is 1/20 hp and has an output of 30rpm, and was reverseable. I got it from Surplus Center. It's been in use ever since and is very useful.

[Tom M King]

I forget who made this one that I have on one of the 1150's, but I really like it. You can still swivel the table any kind of way, and it's a better fine adjustment than fooling with the knobs on the stop. I bought it off ebay years ago. This is a crude rat rod of a drill press in the mechanic and metal shop, but it works great. Best drill press mobile base ever.

[andy bessette]

I have 3 drill presses in my shop. The one with the manual table is fastest and my very favorite. Instead of constantly changing table heights, I keep a set of wood and plywood "spacers" (scrap cutoffs) handy at the DP and use these for providing the correct height in most day to day use.

[Jim Becker]

I tend to do what Andy mentioned with my Jet DP...and for those times I need to move the table down (or up) it's not difficult as the tool does have a geared raise/lower feature. I can appreciate that a machine without that can be cumbersome for sure, especially if one does need to change the table height with any kind of frequency.

[Len Rosenberg]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lots of options!

[Ole Anderson]

Here is my trailer jack conversion:
504030

[Bill Dufour]

The thing that worries me about all these ideas is I may forget to release the table lock and then the table will snap off. I have occasionally gone to crank the table up or down, by hand, and realized I forgot to release the lock. No big deal with doing it by hand. Not enough lift force to break things.
It also seems like a waste of time to have to drop the table by power.
Bill D

[Mike Delyster]

I added a counterweight to my bench top Buffalo 15 about five years ago and it works great. I believe the General is very similar to the Buffalo 15. You can lift the table with two fingers now. All so when you let go of it without tightening the clamp on the post it stays wherever you moved it to and doesn’t fall down. I used a piece of 18”X2-3/8” cold roll to use as the counterweight. It weighed about 22 lbs. I had some 1/8”X1-1/2” angle iron, the aircraft cable and little sheaves I picked up at local hardware store.
I took the two screws circled that holds the guard on and used longer ones to add the modifications
504066504067
504068504069
504070504071
504072504073

[Bill Dufour]

That looks good. Why two sheaves?
Bill D.

[Rick Potter]

Nice job, Mike.

[Bert McMahan]

If you search eBay for "Linear Actuator" there are a ton of 12V ones in various sizes. You'd need a pretty solid power supply but nothing super expensive.

[Mike Delyster]

That looks good. Why two sheaves?
Bill D.

The spacing of the two sheaves worked out right to be in the center of the column and the unused hole going through the bottom of the belt guard. It just worked out that way once I gathered up the parts, not really planed at all. I got the idea off the internet. That setup had the cable going out the side of the guard and the weight hanging down beside the drill press.
504089504090

I had two machines almost identical at the time. I added the counterweight to both of them. I notice I have pictures of both posted here. I set the table bottomed out on the base and the weight right to the top. That set up ended up with the weight hitting the bottom when the table is about 3” from the bottom of the chuck. With a floor model you would have lots of room.