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Thread: Totally Insane, Ridiculously Over Engineered, X-Y T-Track DRO Drill Press Table

  1. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Ole Anderson View Post
    I love the Nova, but you can get a mini-mill for less than the cost of a Nova plus X-Y table. Great engineering/fabrication though.
    I didn't build this table to do milling as stated above and this table is quite a bit bigger than those on a typical mini mill. This table is meant primarily for woodworking drilling in a more precise way. However I do agree if you want to do some milling on small parts that will fit on a mini mill table the cost is less than a Nova and this table for some of the brands available.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    Denver
    Posts
    142
    Tom - I appreciate your sense of humor and would love to ridicule you....But I think it's awesome and I want one. I suggest you go into production and single-handedly put Woodpeckers and Woodcraft out of business.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Upland CA
    Posts
    5,548
    That is a thing of beauty, and I can only imagine the work that went into it.

    One question though..........are you really gonna drill holes in it?
    Rick Potter

    DIY journeyman,
    FWW wannabe.
    AKA Village Idiot.

  4. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Potter View Post
    ..........are you really gonna drill holes in it?
    Nah. I have a series of various sized MDF spoil boards to actually drill into pretty much like how CNC machines are used.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hockenberg View Post
    Tom - I appreciate your sense of humor and would love to ridicule you....But I think it's awesome and I want one. I suggest you go into production and single-handedly put Woodpeckers and Woodcraft out of business.
    So given the number of folks that say they would want one, would you buy it if it was offered in Kit form and you just had to assemble it? What is the max you would be willing to pay for it knowing that I haven't finished calculating what it cost for the parts but with assurance that it is over $500?

  6. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Dixon View Post
    So given the number of folks that say they would want one, would you buy it if it was offered in Kit form and you just had to assemble it? What is the max you would be willing to pay for it knowing that I haven't finished calculating what it cost for the parts but with assurance that it is over $500?
    I just spent my accummulated WW'ing marital capital, so you can - sadly - categorize me as the Bold-Talk-For-A-One-Eyed-Fat-Man sort. Maybe next year?

    But some questions, the answers to which would sway me mightily (& maybe others?):
    - Fence and clamps included? Or priced separately?
    - Total size?
    - Total X-travel?
    - Total Y-travel?
    - Usable X-travel? (assume this is highly dependent on the DP's throat?)
    - Table rigidity? Not sure how to test this to be meaningful to a range of users, but maybe measure/report deflection at each corner with a 5lb(?) weight on one corner and full travel in both axes? (= probably worst case.)

    Apologies if I am making this seem like a job of work, but for >$500 - - I gotta ask.

  7. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm McLeod View Post
    I just spent my accummulated WW'ing marital capital, so you can - sadly - categorize me as the Bold-Talk-For-A-One-Eyed-Fat-Man sort. Maybe next year?

    But some questions, the answers to which would sway me mightily (& maybe others?):
    - Fence and clamps included? Or priced separately?
    - Total size?
    - Total X-travel?
    - Total Y-travel?
    - Usable X-travel? (assume this is highly dependent on the DP's throat?)
    - Table rigidity? Not sure how to test this to be meaningful to a range of users, but maybe measure/report deflection at each corner with a 5lb(?) weight on one corner and full travel in both axes? (= probably worst case.)

    Apologies if I am making this seem like a job of work, but for >$500 - - I gotta ask.
    Those are fair questions and I'll get the answers I'm missing on deflection and add them later.

    - Fence and Clamps could be optional. For certain the clamps I see no problem with making the fence optional either but I probably would include hardware, (4 M6 screws and 4 8mm T-Track nuts). I'm using a 20mmx40mm 8020 angle that is secured with the M6 screws and T-Track Nuts to the T Track and Peachtree 1/4-20 star knobs to secure the Peachtree Fence to the 8020 Angle. You certainly could devise your own fence or use no fence at all if you wanted.

    - Total size Table size 750mm wide X 450mm deep (Total Depth is approximately 525mm when including the X axis crank wheel)

    - Total X-travel 100mm from center, (~4")

    - Total Y-travel 225mm from center, (~9")

    - Usable X-travel? X travel is limited by DP throat from Table to Column. On the Nova Voyager that is less than 25mm, or less than an inch.

    - Table rigidity The table is very rigid. I'll have to test it with a 5lb weight on the corner but the full length 20mm steel bearing rails supporting underneath the make it highly unlikely there would be any deflection at all with 5 lbs. The support plate is 3/8" thick, (9.5mm), since I couldn't buy the ATP5 aluminum plate in a 10mm thickness. The Misumi T-Track is 20mm thick. The bottom support plate is 320mm wide by 400mm deep


    My purpose for asking the question was some folks seemed to want to build it and some seemed to want to buy it built and I wanted to know if there was a business opportunity to compromise and offer it as a kit. My plan had always been to offer it up as a design and parts list at at no charge and you'd be on your own to shop, and modify but if there was enough interest maybe a cottage industry approach might be viable. I'm just exploring at the moment and there might need to be some other optional items such as the DRO units and the DRO Fence Bracket. I haven't done much experimenting on their accuracy yet.
    Last edited by Tom Dixon; 01-28-2020 at 10:05 PM.

  8. #23
    Really cool!

  9. #24

    Post Thanks for your interest!

    Well I've spent the last couple weeks putting together 4 page Master Parts List with Purchasing Notes and also a 14 page Build Notes document with illustrations. This should conclude my efforts to provide interested folks with additional details necessary to tackle building a version of this project. If you previously downloaded any of the Sketchup drawings from my 3D Warehouse collection X-Y DRO Drill Press Table you should download them again because I have updated them with minor modifications I made during the build and some corrections that I found needed to be made while putting together the build documentation.

    Now for the shocking part. The total cost really surprised me when I finished putting together the master parts list. Not including tools, the price for all the parts was $990.98 YIKES!!! I know that since Ii purchased everything over a 3 month period while I refined the design, I experienced the boiling frog effect of not noticing how much I was really spending all the while thinking it was half what reality was. Sheesh! No regrets though. I think this thing will be worth every penny I spent on it in the long run.

    If you do decide to tackle this project for yourself and have questions please don't hesitate to ask me.

    Cheers!

    teetomterrific.jpg
    Last edited by Tom Dixon; 02-08-2020 at 7:05 PM.

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