Do I need two drill presses?

[jpor4180]

Hi there,

new member but been lurking for a bit. I've had a brief search of "drill press" in the search bar to see if this has come up before. Couldn't see it but might have missed it.

I'm doing up my (small) one car garage that doubles as family storage area. On one side I will have my woodworking equipment and the other my mechanical stuff (fixing motorbike mainly but also occasional metalwork)

I need to know this now, as I'm acquiring all my equipment to model the space around, and most of that is sorted in my mind except for this conundrum: do I need (want) two pillar drills or just the one? I don't really want to settle into the space and after 6 months realise I have made the wrong choice. At the moment I think two pillar drills would mean forgoing a dedicated bench sander arrangement, and just taking a belt sander out and mounting it to my bench when needed. It's possible I've overlooked an efficiency and could have both pillar drills and a bench sander but that solution is apparent as yet.

Why do I think I need (want) to drill presses?

For woodwork I'd want a dedicated wooden drill press table on the Fobco Star I've just acquired

For metal work I think I'd want a vice mounted to the drill press table. I've not acquired this one yet as I'm hesitant.

Money isn't the deciding factor here since, as far as I'm concerned, all of the equipment I'm buying is only going to appreciate

 

[Beau]

I do woodwork and metalwork on the same press. I just use a couple of G clamps to hold the vice in place. Ditto for holding the wooden base in place. Give it a quick wipe down to clean off swarf before going back to wood.

Welcome by the way

 

[jpor4180]

thanks for the reply

do you leave the wood table on there most of the time as it takes up more space?

 

[memzey]

Here's the table I have on my Fobco Star, which also always stays put:



Vices can be held down using the T track or cramps. The sacrificial strip in the middle is held in place with a dovetailed way and is easily replaced when it gets too manky:



I made it out of 9mm mrmdf and oak. I drill wood and metal on it all the time. I'd recommend making one yourself and just just keeping the top clear of swarf when you want to work wood. The key thing imho is to use stable materials to make the table and ensure it is always flat and square in all aspects to the drill bit. Other than that - enjoy the Fobco. Mine is a wonderful machine that is a joy to use.

 

[sunnybob]

If you were making production quantities of wood AND metal items, I could understand two drills for time saving. If its only your hobby, theres no rhyme or reason why you would want 2.

 

[paulrockliffe]

I do wood and metal on the same press, I just use the round metal table thing that came on the table, sometimes I add a sacrificial board to stop breakout. I just hold the work with my hands, never had a need to clamp wood or metal, works fine. You definitely don't need two drills, especially if it means not getting something else.

 

[Beau]

I do wood and metal on the same press, I just use the round metal table thing that came on the table, sometimes I add a sacrificial board to stop breakout. I just hold the work with my hands, never had a need to clamp wood or metal, works fine. You definitely don't need two drills, especially if it means not getting something else.

I am not normally a stickle for HSE but I would highly recommend clamping down wood and especially metal. If a bit binds and the work starts spinning all hell could break lose. Sure someone on here will have some horror stories on the subject.

 

[jpor4180]

I really liked the idea of the g-clamps, I have loads of them already and I've picked up a record 413 vice to mount on the metal base.

I'll then fabricate the wooden table to fit over the platform.

I only asked because I am exceptionally lazy and if it involved too much rearranging each time, I'd just end up using a hand drill for all metal drilling

If it's a case of a couple of clamps, even I can bring myself to that!

While I have your attention, I've picked up a Wadkin AGS. Needless to say I'm delighted. I'd originally planned to have it butted up against the wall on the left, mounted on the base of my outfeed table on castors (so the table resembles a step function, with the table saw on the lower base and then the surface of the outfeed table on the higher side) then I could pull it away from the wall to work on. I thought I'd do a piano hinge fold up section on the left as well to give myself some more space while ripping and to remind me to stand on the left of the blade. If I have a sufficiently strong base, castors and carriage bolts I don't see the issue here. I've done some free body diagrams and research on material strength and it alls seems perfectly reasonable but I didn't take any vibrations into account. Do you think this is a bad idea?

I've also seen lots of people saying that you shouldn't have your back facing the garage door as if you get disturbed it can go very wrong. I completely understand this reasoning but I can't really see any other way for me to get this into my garage and my whole design centres around this. I can come up with some sketchup designs in a week or so if this wasn't clear. Obviously there are loads of threads on garages etc for me to research but I guess each set up is ever so slightly different

Thanks guys

 

[sunnybob]

Where the door is should not be relevant.
Whatever you are doing, on whatever machine, you carry on with the job regardless of disturbance.
If you are the nervy type, then lock the door.
When my wife comes to find me in the garage, she has been trained to stand still and wait for me to notice her. Its just a matter of disipline.

 

[jpor4180]

If you are the nervy type, then lock the door.
When my wife comes to find me in the garage, she has been trained to stand still and wait for me to notice her. Its just a matter of disipline.

Not so concerned about family, more so delivery drivers etc, I get a lot of Amazon stuff

Not the type to be jumpy but I guess I just want to be super safety conscious when starting out on these table saws. I've designed it such that the table saw is right in the car doorway so that the door has to be open, giving me loads of space to stand in and feed sheets through

I think I'm going to work a fold out shaving mirror from the side wall so that I can see behind me between cuts

Thoughts on putting the table saw on a platform at the end of the outfeed table so it's all on castors? I can't see why it's a bad idea but at the same time I can't work out why I haven't seen it done on Pinterest or Youtube (my two main sources of ideas)

 

[MikeJhn]

All of my machines and bench's are on locking castors, all arranged to be the same height to act as outfeed and infeed tables to each other, pic does not show the finished table saw as it now has draws and peg board ends.

Mike

 

[sunnybob]

as long as the floor is level (and flat, unless you fit locking ones) casters are a very good add on. many folk have them.
My workshop has a distinct left right slope and is pressed concrete. No way can I have them, although I am starting to consider laying more concrete to level it up..

 

[MikeJhn]

You need locking castors even if your floor is level, pushing timber through any machine will move the machine otherwise I use these: http://www.castors-online.co.uk/acatalo ... tml#SID=39 they have proved very durable in use, unlike the castors originally on the Record Power Bandsaw. :roll:

You can see the levelling platform in the picture above, I put this in my barn to level up a dirt floor, just remember how heavy some of these machines can be and build the structure accordingly, not just for the machines you have now, but those you may own in the future, also headroom can be a problem you should take into account.

Mike

 

[MikeJhn]

sunnybob

Pressed concrete is something someone has suggested to you is what your garage floor is to impress you, cant be done, concrete is vibrated to displace the entrained air, in an open area this would be done with a concrete vibrator, in the workshop either the same or a mould vibrator would be used, it can be machine finished with a power float, but that is as close as it gets to being pressed.

Mike

 

[DTR]

I do woodwork and metalwork on the same press. I just use a couple of G clamps to hold the vice in place. Ditto for holding the wooden base in place. Give it a quick wipe down to clean off swarf before going back to wood.

Welcome by the way

+1.

When I drill metal I use either a home-made machine clamp or a small vice (both visible in the photo below). When I drill wood I put the stock on a sacrificial bit of ply to protect it. I used to use a dedicated, bolted-down table for drilling wood, but I got fed up of mounting and dismounting it all the time.

 

[Racers]

I have two why shouldn't you.

One is under my bench and doesn't get used.

So I drill metal and wood on my floor standing Axminister one not the Fobco.

Pete

 

[Neil S]

I drill all my wood on a metal working press. When I was choosing, the only difference between wood and metal models was that the tables were different. The metal working table had a trough built in to catch lubricating oil although I've never used enough oil that it spills that far to be honest.

-Neil

 

[chaoticbob]

I think that this question has probably been answered (no!), but for what it's worth I have two - a Fobco Star and a Jet floor standing job. My idea was the same as the OP's, one for metal (Fobco) other for wood. In practice the Jet gets used only on the rare occasions I have something too big for the Fobco. When I first set up a workshop I tried to anticipate my needs, but with hindsight I'd have done better to sit on the money and buy stuff in when it actually added new and needed capability for a job, or speeded stuff up when really necessary. That's what I do now. Different of course if you know in advance what your work pattern is going to be.

Drilling all but the the smallest holes in metal without clamping - well, you might get away with nine times out of ten or even ninety-nine out of a hundred, but that tenth or hundredth time is bloody painful I can tell you! A fractured thumb in my case, could have been worse. Never again.
Rob.