drill press

[Alexis]

Hi there,

as anyone ever tried to modifiy a drill press so it would clamp on a timber and bore mortise? I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the drill table and cutting the bottom part off. Kind of like a power boring machine... I think it would be quite easy to slow the rpm a lot by modifying the belt.

anyone tried something like that?

Alexis

[Gilman]

Why do you want to bore a hole in the table?

[Alexis]

cause it would be the table that I clamp on top of the timber...

Alexis

[Don P]

How deep does a hollow chisel mortising attachment go? I'm not sure that you would need to slow it down  ???.

[moonhill]

Alexis, my brother made a hand crank boring machine.  It works fine.  The next one he does is going to be with a electric drill sort of along the same line as tha traditional machines.  We have looked into the drill guides, just clamp the drill in and go.  But where is the fun in that.  We are between jobs now so the motivation is slowed a bit.  Will pick it up soon and try somthing new.   I like the drill press idea.  It might be a bit heavy.  I would screw a sheet of that thick plastic stuff on the bottom as a non-maring surface, maybe a chunk of wood even, long enough to sit on.   How about a pin or a fence on the edge as a stop to keep it from turning, there will be more torque than the old machines.   Crappy weather coming and I have exposed foam that needs covering.      Tim B. 

[treenail]

For years , I've been walking by a large drill press in my barn, with the same idea. Can't see why it wouldn't work.

[Jim Haslip]

I had a local welder fab a Drill guide out of a piece or 14 inch plate and a stub of pipe.
The pipe is offset on the plate so that one edge references a 2 inch offset and the other side references 1 1/2 inch, which are typical layout measurement.

The stub is set for 90 degrees and is plenty accurate. The plate is long enough to throw a clamp on if you are really concerned about the accuracy, but I find the best way is to drill short of the line and clean it up with a chisel.

Works fine, just need to watch that the front end of the drill bit stays sharp and isn't turning as you withdraw from the guide.  Ouch!  ;D

[shinnlinger]

JUst to play devils advocate on this one...

I must admit to having thought about doing the same thing you guys are talking about, but when I think about the time to make the rig and then the time needed to set it up on each mortise I doubt I am coming out ahead of the ol hole hawg and speed square method.  Especailly if you are drilling short and cleaning up with a chisel anyways   

BUt I do like the idea and I would like to see pictures.

[kerfer]

I converted my sawhead into a drill press so i could predrill mortises and drill peg holes. Here's some pictures h://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4097343&a=31104718&f=0

Edit from Moderator: If you'd like to see this album you'll have to copy the link to your web browser. Active links to off site photos are not allowed.
Jim Rogers

[beenthere]

kerfer
Welcome to the forum.
You have some clever ideas there, and hope you stick around to tell us more about them.
Pull up a stump..
Check out the gallery for your pics...

[Dave Shepard]

Welcome to posting kerfer. I don't think I could have hung around here for four years and not said anything. ;) But then I'm not the quiet type. :


Dave

[DWM II]

I'm with beenthere, I want to see more! 8)

Cool Ideas.

[kerfer]

Thanks for the welcome fellas!!
Glad you enjoyed the pictures. The epson site is shutting down the end of March so i thought i would share them with ya before they went into cyberspace.
Kerfer

[StorminN]

Kerfer, those are great ideas... keep them coming!

You should upload those pics to your gallery here, so they will be saved. You will need to resize them, as the max size for the Forestry Forum is 450 pixels in the biggest dimension, and not more than 35Kb for each pic...

-N.