Do you use a drill press table?

[Rod Sheridan]

OK, thanks.

I made a left and right hand hood for drilling 35mm hinge holes.

DRILLING 2.jpg

[tom lucas]

I have 2 DPs. One has a homemade table and fence. It's been on it for 30 years or so now. Good for wood projects. Not so good for metal.

Second DP (JET 17) uses the OEM table but I added a biesmeyer fence. It's not so much the table that is essential, but an adjustable fence with movable stops is a must for me. If the OEM table on the JET didn't already have t-slots, I would probably build a table for it. The table is the main reason I got the JET 17. Though it could be larger sometimes.

[Andrew Seemann]

Decades of using a drill press have not shown me the need for an auxiliary table. However my drill press tables often are used with a slab of MDF or a DP vise.

So are Andy and I the only ones here that don't use an auxiliary table on a drill press?

I don't have one either and never have had one as a matter of fact. My 1948 Delta drill press is a bench model of the large drill press and has a big cast iron table on it with T slots, so that is kind of like a table I suppose. My other one is a standard Delta floor model from about 20 years ago with a regular table.

I do use home made jigs occasionally, and I usually have a scrap piece of 1/2 baltic birch to drill into (that is important for the bench drill press as it has no hole in the center). I also clamp things to the table or in a vise. I guess I just haven't found it necessary to have a large semi-permanent auxiliary table.

[andy bessette]

So are Andy and I the only ones here that don't use an auxiliary table on a drill press?...

The only ones willing to admit we're not table fan-boys?

Probably has a lot to do with the type of work we do. For example I never do any kind of production runs. It's all one-off custom work.

Edit: take that back--did a (lathe) run of custom zinc anodes for Larry Elison's yacht "Asahi".

[Craig Day]

I also do one-off custom work. The very last thing I did the other day was drill 16 holes in mounting plates for casters... With a drill press table I can set the fence and stop in 15 seconds. Without a table I have to grab a backer board, grab a fence board, grab a stop block, then clamp everything together. Instead of 15 seconds it’s a couple of minutes. Not huge but I prefer to move from tool to tool in my shop and just get work done... not fiddle with my tools.

[andy bessette]

...Without a table I have to grab a backer board, grab a fence board, grab a stop block, then clamp everything together...

Sounds almost impossible.

[Craig Day]

Nothing impossible about it. Just takes more time. I prefer to spend that time building things instead of fiddling with tools :-)