Easily Adjustable Drill Press Stop?

[glenn bradley]

Made my own with push button threaded barrels.

DP Depth Stop (5).jpg

Available ay McMaster-Carr among others. My current DP came with them stock.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Another train of thought. Find a nut that matches the thread on your DP. Weld it into the jaws of the smallest pair of vise grips you can find, then split it in half, using hacksaw or cut off wheel. Get drill to correct height, and clamp it on. Just a thought

[Robert Hayward]

The downside to that is that the "resolution" would be defined by the positive locking setup. With the nuts, they have "infinite resolution" up and down, although it's certainly limited to human factors.

The push button stop nut on my Voyager is threaded. Push the button to get close then turn the nut to get the fine resolution, if needed. Mine has never slipped or failed to hold position. My Voyager is one of the first ones though and maybe they are made different today.

[Cary Falk]

Here is another option. If the thread is not right buy a smaller one and drill and tap it correctly.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=quick+qui..._ts-doa-p_1_16

[John Ziebron]

I thought the Nova Voyager could be zeroed out on the top of the piece and programmed to stop at the correct depth? If that isn't the case, I can't see much of an advantage to the drill press.

As for the depth stop, Wixey has a drill press depth stop that I believe can be installed on any drill press (although you would need to verify for your older model). It works by zeroing it out to the surface of the wood, then drilling to the depth required which is displayed as a negative number. It's not foolproof and you have to be careful that you watch the readout. I doubt it's exact but it does work and the result has always been functional within the context of the work being done. If you need an exact, precise depth, it won't work. Also, I would say that all depth stops are dependent on how carefully you zero out the bit on the surface of the wood. If you push too hard while zeroing, the hole will likely be deeper than required. The zeroing must be done while only just touching the surface. Here's the link:

http://www.wixey.com/drill-press-depth-gauge/index.html

You can program the Nova to stop at preset depth but I don't bother going through the extra steps to do that. It is much easier and faster to just hit one button to zero out the depth reading on the display. You can either bring your drill bit down til the flutes touch and zero out, then just drill down watching the display to your desired depth. Or you can move the drill bit down say to a depth off the top of the table and zero out. In this case you drill down til the display reads zero. I've used both ways.

[Tom Trees]

I made a lateral stop for mine, it works great.
It's for when one wants to be bang on centre after the pilot.
It's more than bang yer head off the wall silly that they haven't done this yet, and the principal would be so compact, that it would be basically un-noticable.
One could call this an indexable feature, which could be rigged up by many ways, i.e a hefty brace which is parallel with the column, or even the wall.

If I were a machinist I'd make a new column for the job, and possibly adapt or make a new knee with a sprung pin.

All the best
Tom

[Robert Hayward]

I made a lateral stop for mine, it works great.
Tom

Any chance you could post a picture of your stop?

[Ronald Blue]

These could be an option as well. Quick adjust and lock in place.

https://www.mcmaster.com/split-nuts/

[Tom Trees]

No bothers Robert, it's all a bit Heath Robinson, but I needed to accurately rebore some printer roller stock for bearing spacers,
so used what I had. (I spent a lot of time/wasted much material having less than steller results before this)

It could obviously be done on the fly as mentioned, but I like tools, and have used it since once or twice, and foresee that it will get lots more use.
As I suggested, it should really be the norm, using a sprung pin to engage into a slot on the column, (when you want it)

Indexable drilling jig on utoob should one wish to see for themselves, took some getting acquainted with how it works, so I suggest watching part 3 first.

SAM_5728.jpg
SAM_5844.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/Z5b6RTmj/SAM-5844.jpg

Tom

[michael langman]

What you want is a Bridgeport Quill Stop. It fits the older Craftsman drill presses. It is a spring loaded split nut with1/2" 20 threads.

[Don Peters]

https://www.icai-online.com/educated-nut/

Great tool. Well machined, reliable, simple, easy to use, non-slip. Practically standard on thousands of Bridgeports and drill presses.

[Rick Potter]

Not sure if every brand with the push button nut is the same, but my Delta 16" VS drill press sort of 'clicks' when it is locked. Gross movements are done with the push button, then a half turn or so will make it click, then I make the fine adjustment, and it stays just fine.

No way would I want to go back to a DP with the round rotating unit on the side, like my old Craftsman.

[Robert Hayward]

No way would I want to go back to a DP with the round rotating unit on the side, like my old Craftsman.

I had a Craftsman drill press for a major portion of my adult life with the round double nuts. Adjusting those nuts was the only complaint I recall ever having about that drill press.

[Rick Potter]

Hi Robert,

I was referring to the cylindrical height lock that twists to set height, and you screw it tight with a little handle. Used on a lot of DP's including my old Craftsman. No threaded rod involved.

[Roger Feeley]

Tare a look at the Morton Quill Stop. It screws on a 1/2”-20 thread which makes one Revolution 0.050”. It has a button for quick adjustment. I also have a craftsman DP from the 70’s.