drill press question

It's CYA on their part. If it falls on you they can claim that it was not properly installed. Drill presses are notoriously unstable due to their high center of mass and small base and heavy enough that if they build up some momentum before they hit you they can do serious damage. Whether you really need to do that is a judgment call you need to make. Consider though that kids tend to climb on anything climbable, that a drill press is highly climbable, and that if they're halfway up it and it falls on them they're likely to get hurt pretty bad.

You might build yourself a stand that's a bit bigger than the drill press base.. maybe add some fold out supports like a Christmas tree stand, if needed... another option if your shop setup allows it is to fasten it to a wall.. not usually a lot of action of feed from the back of the drill press..

I find that a good long term setup for me is to put it on wheels.. most of my tools (RAS, cutoff, sander, etc.) are on wheels and used in the driveway when possible.. lot less cleanup and dust problems..

Mac

Just move everything away from where it might fall, and when it does=20 fall just stand it back up, weld the broken bits back together and keep=20 going.

"Steve" wrote: (clip)Does anyone know is this is really a requirement? (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ First, a legal disclaimer: If you follow my advice and get into trouble, I never wrote this, never heard of you, and therefore am in no way responsible if you are dumb enough to believe everything you read on a newsgroup.

I have never seen a drillpress bolted to a piece of plywood. I have seen many drillpresses standing free on the shop floor. However, if you are brave enough to ignore the instructions, and the drill press falls over and crushes your toe (odds are about 1 in 10,000,000), good luck trying to sue the manufacturer. I believe that instruction was added by their legal department.

Now, please reread the disclaimer above, written by MY legal department.

My floor model DP is bolted to a wooden floor with one 3/8" lag screw, which holds it well from rocking or tipping.

Just make sure it's on a flat floor surface, you can weight the base with a couple concrete blocks or a box of sand.

Ken Grunke

Hi Steve

If your floor space is so small that you cannot work around a 4" post (the rest of the drill press is mostly out of the way) than not if but when your drill press falls over it surely will fall on some other stuff like maybe tables or planer jointer belt sander etc., now as far as I am concerned it is not a big job to install a couple nuts into the floor and bold down your drill then when you really want it out of the way, you move it, see the " I've seen other shops " thing is BS sorry, but some people don't have guards on their saws, grinders, planers, etc., that just don't cut it for me. But then again you are your own boss.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Steve wrote:

Steve, I have the G7944 and did almost exactly that. I cut a 4x8 sheet of 5/8" plywood into two 4x4 pieces. I setup for stacking the two pieces. I used four 3/8" carriage bolts coming up from the bottom of the top piece, used a forstener bit to make some matching recesses in the bottom piece, to accomodate the bolt heads. I glued the bolts into the top piece and screwed the two pieces together. I then bolted the drill press base to the plywood sandwich and completed the assembly. The piece of plywood is a little bit of a nuisance when rolling things around the shop, but I have bumped into the drill press enough that it would have fallen over several times.

Matt

I wonder if you can sue them when you trip over the plywood?

Hi, Steve! I mounted my Delta DP on the end of my work bench. It is a workbench model; however, it had a swiveling head, so I can swing it over the edge of the bench on the side and end drill long pieces. To make sure it stayed there, I used science and logic and a couple of 16d nails that I pounded through the bolt holes in the foot of the DP, leaving enough to bend them over the bottom feet. Works just fine. To fancy it up, just cover the foot of the DP with a rag!*G*

Steve what kind of floor is it? Whether wood or concrete you can drill into it and bolt down the DP through it's own base-holes without using space hogging plywood. They make a bit for everything in every size. It's what I would do. Just how a bolt will stay in a hard concrete hole and be solidly fixed is another issue I don't know about, but it is a normal practice.

Alex

Any hardware store will carry a lead anchor that you put into the hole drilled into the concrete and then screw a lag bolt into the core of the tube. It expands the lead to the side of the hole and can also be used to achor a lathe to a concrete floor

. Just how a bolt will stay in a hard concrete hole and be solidly

There you go! That's it!

Alex