Custom Drill Press Table: Shop Quick Builds

Custom drill press table is something that I’ve been wanting to build for quite a while so that’s today’s shop quick builds.

Here was my old set-up, and it worked surprisingly well for many months across many projects but as you can see, it has much to be desired.

Those clamps could be used for projects instead of holding-up two boards to transform a drill press table into something usable with a zero clearance.

The video above goes through the entire process, problem to custom solution but here are some highlights of the build.

The first thing I discovered was that the casting of the drill press table WASN’T SQUARE!

As everything I make is “perfect”, fixing a quick flaw in other people’s builds was quite easy this time around, just use a wood scraper to make my drill press table MDF board imperfect to match.

I wanted to use material from my scrap pile, the reason is simple, it’s material that’s already paid for and for a zero clearance drill press table, after a few projects, it needs to be rebuilt anyways so I’m using material that can be functionally used ONE MORE TIME before heading to the fire pit.

The way I designed it was as simple as I could think of, basically, a 1/8th inch or 3 mm thick scrap MDF board that goes around the table and then dropping two layers of 1/4″ or 6 mm on top with some glue.

I saw lots of videos showcasing incredibly accurate and precise drill press tables with guides and a bunch of other “features” but to me, a drill press drills a hole, that’s it!

I don’t need things to be accurate within a thousand of an inch.

Also, I don’t like measurements, as you saw, I built this entire drill press table without measuring one thing, all reference, which is quicker and more accurate for a custom build like this.

I also wanted a friction fit, that means that things stay where they are intended without me having to use glue, this is important for a drill press table because you don’t want the table shifting on you during production.

You glue blocks for reference points on the surface and then go about making stuff.

This is PLENTY solid and as the pressure is on the cast iron base, not the edges, more than fine for this application.

Once I cut out one piece, I like to use that as a reference for the next, this saves me time with the laser as I know exactly where to put things for optimal material use.

Again, this is scrap MDF so even if it has a few holes or flaws, it doesn’t matter as this if for use at the CNCROi.com shop and as long as it’s flat with zero clearance, that’s all I care about.

I was thinking of adding reference lines and grids but at the end of the day, when drilling hole in things, it’s overkill and still not accurate as any shift means they all go out of wack.

Just glue a block on the drill press table along 2 axis and you have the most accurate hole production for parts in the world quickly, easily and best of all, efficiently.

Here’s the finished table, looks rough but it’s more than fine for my drill press table.

Made entirely without taking any measurements, very quick to cut and built… and replace.

What’s holding it in place is the friction fit and the rolled-over duct tape underneath on the cast iron base.

This will be easy to clean as the surface is nice and smooth.

There you have it, a custom drill press table!

Need something custom? Contact me at CNCROi.com.