Drill Press mobile base

[Ted Derryberry]

I know, large drill presses shouldn't be mobile, but that's what I need. I have the large Delta 19" press. I only use it about ever two weeks but when I do I need about 4' in 180 degrees around it. I can't afford that much shop space when it's sitting idle. I also don't have a good place where it can "share" the open space with other equipment. When I bought it the manual said it needed to be bolted to the floor or mounted to a board of a certain size. I ended up building a box 24" wide by 30" deep by 6" tall as I'm 6'3" and wanted the extra height anyway. It did sit in one place for a long time, but my work has changed and I got a sliding table saw in December that's forced me to rearrange things.

What I've done for now is add two fixed casters on the back SIDE of the box that are just off the floor. On the front center I put a step down caster. Now it works like a lot of router tables and Grizzly's built in mobile base on their jointers and planers. You step down on the front caster and it lifts the box just off the floor and onto the two back casters. The problem is my shop floor is far from flat and when I move it from my work area to my "equipment parking lot" it gets hung up on high spots. Nothing I can't manage, but irritating and a little nerve racking considering how top heavy it is anyway.

I could re-do the back casters so it sits on them all the time, but then it's less stable when it's in use and I'm afraid they'd get flat spots considering how much it weighs and how long it sits at a time. I've thought about four heavy duty double locking casters, but seems a little risky.

Has anyone else come up with a good mobile base for a large drill press that would care to share ideas and pictures? Thanks in advance.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, no photographs however I make a base out of angle that fits the drill press base.

Make the rear angle about 4" wider than the base, weld a piece of 1/2" round into it for an axle and put 6" wheels on it.

At the front put a tab on it for a tow bar to make it a semi-live skid design.

Very stable and easy to move.

Regards, Rod.

[andrew whicker]

Haha, this is an old photo. Shop looks MUCH better now, especially with a proper ceiling and lighting. Anyway, here is my trusty drill stand. Love it.

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Edit: Not in love with the drill, but someday I'll have a knee mill.

[Mike Weaver]

Hi, my dad made a base similar to this:

He sized the blocks so that the carriage bolts through the plywood *barely* clear the floor.
Works well.

-Mike

[Cary Falk]

Here is mine. It is under a PM1200 20" drill press. It is ~600 lbs.
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[Dan Friedrichs]

Here's mine - the grey is welded angle iron, and there is a mid-rail that the drill press base bolts to. Two fixed wheels in the back (that you can't see), and two double-locking swivel casters on the front off to the sides. Very stable, no nervousness when off-roading

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[Mike Cutler]

Ted

IIRC, someone here on the board made a mobile base that was also a cabinet for storage. He/she put sandbags in the base of the cabinet enclosure for weight. It looked really nice from what I remember.
You're going to need a significant amount of weight as low as possible.

Dan
I like that mobile base!

[Jim Becker]

While philosophically, a top-heavy drill press isn't the best candidate for mobility, for many of us, it's a practical requirement. I have one on my 17" Jet DP and it does the job. I generally only move it a few feet to accomodate workpiece length, but having the mobility means I can tuck it back to the wall in a corner so it doesn't take up space when not actually being used. I forget which base I used, but it may be one of the bolt together HTC bases...I bought it in the mid-2000s...

[Keith Weber]

Ted,

I just posted pics of mine about a week ago or so. I try to avoid using casters whenever I can, especially on machines that you don't want moving around. Even locking casters will have a little wiggle in them. If possible, I like to use leveling feet, which have a few benefits in that they're vibration damping, much more solid, and give to the ability to quickly level the machine to the floor in it's placed position, so that it doesn't rock. I design my bases so that I can use a pallet jack to move stuff around.

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The forks on this pallet jack are a little long. You can get shorter forks that would be handier around a small shop. They're extremely useful for moving anything heavy around, and they don't really take up much extra room because you can park them under a table or a machine when they're not being used.

My last drill press had an angle-iron base I made up that I lowered the drill press base into, but I always hated that it created a trap for all the drill shavings, especially the metal ones. With this design, there's no place to trap the shavings. The larger, 4-post footprint makes for a very stable base. If I set it down somewhere new, I just give a quick twist to one of the levelers by hand and it's rock solid in seconds. I would be cautious of a 3-point base for a top heavy machine like a drill press. Instantly stable, but still tippy.

[Jim Becker]

Keith, I like the lateral stability you provided in that base design for the DP. The pallet jack is an excellent idea for someone who has a shop that permits enough space to utilize it for sure and as you state, no wheels; no movement.

[Keith Weber]

Keith, I like the lateral stability you provided in that base design for the DP. The pallet jack is an excellent idea for someone who has a shop that permits enough space to utilize it for sure and as you state, no wheels; no movement.

Thanks, Jim,

I've got a few different variations (or evolutions, I guess) of the design. My first was my air compressor, which was a similar but stacked design. The drill press version offered a lower height. If you have a sturdy, 4-hole base like my 2600 lb. Bridgeport, you don't even need a crossmember. The two beefy, square tubes are independent of one another. I have the option on both the Bridgeport of coming in from the side as well in case I ever need to move it through the double doors of my little machine shop, as it's too wide to fit through otherwise.

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I ended up buying that pallet jack on Craigslist for cheap. Some guy was selling a bunch of them, and this one happened to be a US-made, 21" x 48", 5000 lb., low profile (2") one mixed in with all the Chinese ones. I think I paid about $150 for it. It still had the manufacturers cardboard on it. I don't think the guy knew anything about pallet jacks. Met him in an abandoned warehouse. My bigger 27" x 48" one was a little too big for machine bases, so I picked up this one as an extra. I just wish the forks were shorter. It's fine in the main shop, and I can get it into my woodshop, but I usually have to do a 10 point turn to get into some places. 30" forks would be perfect, but I've only seen 36" forks myself. I'm sure that they're out there.

[glenn bradley]

I have a 17" machine and added 100# ballast-box to counteract tipping.

1 DP BASE MT.jpg2 DP Base Filling.jpg3 DP Metal Base.jpg

That being said; placing a DP at a 45* angle into a corner minimizes shop footprint while still leaving quite a span, left to right, for material placement.

[Mike O'Keefe]

Ted I have a old Delta 17''. I got my mobile base from HTC. It's not the universal one. They use to have custom bases but don't know if they do anymore or not. Mike O'Keefe

[Jon Nuckles]

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I built this using casters from Home Depot and some oak scrap I had on hand. It works fine for my needs so far, but I would make it with casters I could raise and lower if I did it again. Stable enough for moving, but only the swivel casters in front lock and it has more wobble than it did on its base. If I need to drill big and unbalanced pieces in the future, I’ll probably stick some wedges under the base to provide a firmer connection to the floor. Also, more work involved in building this and lifting the drill press into the box by myself than it is worth!