OCtoolguy

After looking at your pic, I saw that nice carpet and realized that you must be set up in a room in doors. How did you manage that? I mentioned something about bringing my saw inside and got the "stink eye" in return. What's your secret?

Thanks Dan. And JT I guess also. I will have to make it a point to keep an eye open for a used one. I see now what you are talking about JT. The little twist lock on the crank arm looks like it would work just fine.

JT, if you don't mind and have the time, would you post the model number of your bench top press and maybe a pic or two of what you are talking about? I'm not sure I understand it as you described it. I have been looking on C/L and have come to the conclusion that the old Craftsman presses were the last to include a quill clamp. I sure do miss mine. I never should have sold it.

Entirely possible Jerry. I have a box full of them and try to use them wherever I can.

Very nice stand. I built one for my Dewalt that is almost exactly like yours but I put the single leg in front so I could straddle it. Good luck with your new TOY!

Thank you to all. I have done some very serious (LOL) experimentation on this subject and the long and SHORT of it is, the bits are too short. With that said, I ordered a mini drill chuck and I also found that Grizzly has a nice set of 6" length bits so I ordered those also. I think I will be able to now do what I set out to do the day before yesterday. Another thing that I found out is, there is a wealth of knowledge here on SSV but there are also way too many ways for folks to jerk each other's chains. So, I will have to be very careful what questions I pose in the future. I don't want to be the spark that ignites the flame and burn this house down. Once again, thank you to everybody for taking the time to read and reply to my predicament.

Dan, it was a monsoon all day here. I had to turn over our deck furniture to keep it from blowing away. My wife's hanging plants took it tough. Almost gone.

I wouldn't do it until it's out of warranty and I also thought that you could get away with maybe taking just part of that casting nub off.

God will wait patiently on you until you find the pieces. I'm sure.

I will do that once I've got it done. Right now, it's raining cats and dogs outside and I'm not going out in it. Thanks for your interest though.

There is a post somewhere here on SSV that shows how to cut off that stop nub and gain a whole lot of arm height. Not sure you would want to do that to a brand new saw but it definitely solves that problem.

Really cheap!

Thanks Jerry, I stand corrected. I thought that I had checked it out and it was 1/4 x 20 but I may have been thinking of something else.

I was drilling in douglas fir that was a 2 x 4 in it's previous life. The bit I'm using is cobalt and I seriously believe that for it to flex that amount would cause it to snap first. Thanks for your suggestion. I think I have figured out what my problem is after reading all the info above. I feel pretty silly to have even had to post the question but it was late in the day and I was pretty frustrated at not being able to figure it out myself.

Ok, ok, lets all back up a bit. We have encountered that age old problem of the written word not "sounding" the same as the spoken word. I totally understand everything each of you has written. I keep coming back to the place where I feel that the problem is in the table height. That is the main reason I sort of dislike most all of the drill presses on the market nowadays. My old Craftsman had a "quill lock" and I haven't seen another press since that has that feature. I used to set my quill all the way down and lock it in place. Then I could make all the adjustments necessary with spacers, bits, etc. Now, it's a matter of having to hold the quill down, hold the table and unwind the table lock. I only have 2 hands and this task requires 3 or more. I do like Kevin's idea of using blocks under the table for different spacing but I just don't have room for all the stuff that most of you folks do. So, coming back to my issue, most everybody has all the correct ideas in their minds and I have to give all of you credit and thanks for taking the time to try to help out. I'm going to make sure that I have no slippage. I do have some of those hex shanked bits but I had forgotten all about them. I'm not sure if the 1/16" has enough bit length to it but I will check that out too. I have read and reread all of your suggestions and put them in my head so that I can re-enter my shop loaded with a ton of help. I love you all for your kindness and for taking the time and effort to chime in on this, for lack of a better word, silly problem. Now, let's all take a deep breath and move on to things that may be more important in life.

I understand what you are saying Kevin. It seems that as soon as I add the thickness of the backer, that's where the problem comes in. There is some magic combination of table height, backer thickness, drill bit length and quill capacity that I'm missing.

Kevin, You have touched on a subject that is of interest to me. I don't want to hijack this thread so I won't go into it here but I might shoot you a PM and we can go from there.

YES Kevin! I checked that. I have a bunch of new bits and they are all the same length. It's really weird though. I could make it work if the jaws of the chuck didn't protrude out so far when they get down to that small of a bit. I tried all different combinations of table height, drill bit protrusion, backer boards, you name it. I tried it. I know there is something I'm missing but I just got so frustrated, I gave up and just drilled the holes and didn't worry about the back side.

I had an odd situation happen today and I'm not sure what the "fix" is for it. I'll try to explain. First of all, I'm using a Delta 8" drill press. It's a little feller. It has about 3" of quill travel. I was trying to drill 1/16" holes in some 1 1/2" stock for a compound cut and I was using a 1/2" piece of pine as the sacrificial surface beneath the 1 1/2" piece. No matter what combination I tried, I couldn't get the drill bit to go all the way through the wood. It seems that even if I mounted the bit with as little shank as possible in the chuck, by the time I drilled down into the wood, the jaws of the chuck would contact the wood before the drill bit exited the back side of the wood. I took the sacrificial piece out of the equation and still couldn't do it. I finally had to increase my drill bit size up to 7/64" to get the length I needed but still wasn't able to use a sacrificial board. Is it simply that I'm limited because of the small drill press or what? I did mess around with the table height too but I just couldn't come up with the combination that I needed. I'm confused and stumped. I finally got all the holes drilled but I'm not happy about the back side of the piece. Luckily it won't show but there has to be a fix for this problem. Can any of you shine a light on this for me?

Not sure but you might try Steve Good's free pattern site.

There is one like that on C/L for a long time near me.

Just be aware of fine dust floating in the air around you and the open flame. It could turn into a "bomb" of sorts like a dust explosion in a silo.

You folks are NUTS!. If I can't wear shorts, I'm staying in.

If you haven't already fixed your dishwasher, check out the model/serial number on youtube. There is an easy fix for many of them with that problem. I had to fix one myself, that's how I know.

UPS and Amazon are just as bad. It's not the company, it's the drivers who are either overworked or not fluent in the language.