My completed holiday projects- drill press table and tool cabinet

[Darren Fast]

I've finally completed my two holiday projects and wanted to show them off to someone other than my family who are duly impressed (as am I). I built a table for my new drill press and a tool cabinet to replace a big piece of pegboard that was tagged to the wall and hopefully keep some dust off my tools. Next up is a workbench which is a much bigger project.

Thanks for taking a look.

[Peter Quadarella]

Very nice Darren, you are two steps ahead of me. Looks like the drill press I will buy next month and the table I will build for it :). How's the drill, and which brand rails did you use for the table?

[Thomas Canfield]

Darren,

Impressive table and clean neat storage cabinet. You might look for an old post of mine where I built a "skirt" to go around the lower height of the drill press (leaving normal 12" or so working height unobstructed to lower the table) but also can be removed to use the full height. I have moved my skirt about 2 times in 2 years, but the storage is great and worth the effort.

You have a hole under the table that allows some storage which my commercial Woodpecker table does not have. Good use of existing ideas out there.

[Darren Fast]

Peter, the rails are T-track from Lee Valley. I've had great success with pretty much everything else I've bought there, so I didn't even look elsewhere. The drill press itself is fabulous. The laser is a bit finicky to adjust, but once set up, works like a charm. The 6 inch drilling depth is great if for no other reason than you don't have to adjust the table as often if you are doing a simple one-off hole. This is my second Steel City purchase and I will definitely look at them for future purchases.

[Jim Becker]

Nice work Darren. Your DP table is very similar to the one I build a number of years ago and I couldn't imagine using the machine without it at this point!

[Darren Fast]

Thomas,

I found your storage unit for your drill press and I'm VERY impressed! I'll definitely do something similar. The little shelf under the table is there really as wasted space as there is a dust collection port off the side of the table underneath for when you use it as a sanding station. The top insert is removable, and if you use an insert with a hole, you could use it with a sanding drum, although I haven't tried that yet.

[Ron Hedrick]

Very nice table and fence. I have the ply ready to make one for my drill press. Mine is one of the Craftsman $179 jobbies, is yours one of those>

[Dan Forman]

Darren---Nice job on both pieces. I have a couple of suggestions for your drill press table. As long as you have that shelf underneith, might as well make a little drawer to go in there. It's keep the dust out, and it's much handier to retieve things from.

The other thing would be to make a circular replaceable insert. It's not too late, just cut a circle out the the rectangular one that's in there now. As it is, you will have to dispose of the rectangular insert after moving it three times (90 degrees each time). With a circular, you can move it incrementally as needed, and it will last much longer.

Dan

[Darren Fast]

Thanks,
The drawer is coming, just waiting for the right leftover pieces to make it out of. As for the round insert, I'm not convinced, I can cut an awful lot of square pieces in the time it would take to cut a circle. Suppose, I could make a jig, but then I've got some more interesting projects I'd rather be working on.

[Peter Quadarella]

Thanks for the information Darren. I'm going to take a look at Thomas' post also.