Shop-Made Mobile Base for Drill Press

[Jason Hanko]

Hey all,

Here's another project I finished recently - a mobile base for my Drill Press. Id been meaning to build one forever since I kinda have my DP shoe-horned into a corner where I cant easily reach the knobs and cranks to tighten and raise/lower the DP table. I made it from 4" x 3" beams of barn-beam pine that I had laying around. Its more than stout enough so far to hold the DP as well as the screw organizer bins I recently got from my father in law.

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I wanted to keep the DP as low as possible since it's top heavy to begin with... So rather than build a platform to set the foot of the DP onI built a frame of outriggers that just fit around the foot, and then carriage-bolted the foot to the bottom. The end result is that Ive only added about 3/4" of height, and greatly increased stability since the outriggers place the wheels much wider/deeper than the original footprint of the base.

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The casters are from double-locking 3" from Stanley E Smith (SES Caster). I have their wheels on almost everything in my shop. From using the unit so far I dont think I need the back wheels to be locking at all, so Ill likely replace them with plain old swivels and use the double-locking ones for my forthcoming Bandsaw Mobile Base.

Thanks for looking!

[Thomas Canfield]

Nice looking mobile base. You will like storing under the table since 95% or more of your drilling is done at the higher height.

[Bruce Page]

Very nice, I bet it's stable too!

[Rick Moyer]

Nice. Let us know after you've used it a while whether that wide front footprint is a problem or not. I only have a bench top press but it looks like that outrigger might get in the way, to me.

[Dick Mahany]

I like the way you did that. Looks super stable and obviously heavy duty. The locking casters and rear wheel spacing look like you have an excellent combination of maneuverability without excessive foot print.