Drill Press Workholding

Hawkeye

Hawkeye

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H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Jun 17, 2011
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I watched a video by Joe Pie a while ago on the topic of drill press safety. He suggested making a pair of hooks for the drill press vise that would both prevent the work from spinning out of your grip and prevent it from jumping up the bit as it breaks through the bottom of the hole. Either action could do nasty things to your fingers. I made a pair of them.


I have often attached a bolt through the slots in the drill press table to prevent the work from rotating, but I got to thinking that it would be a good idea to also prevent the work from jumping up at breakthrough. I designed these to fit both my big floor press and the smaller benchtop press.


The lower section is only 1/8" thick to handle the common thin stock. The narrower portion of the upper part is the same diameter as the lower section. The wide flange can be screwed down to hold the work down to the table - not so much a clamp as a stop. For work less than 3/8" thick, the top part can be flipped over (good down to 1/8") or a shim can be used under the flange.
 
In the top photo, the vise really should be bolted to the table for maximum safety
 
Yea that, I have had the whole vise jump up off the table at break thru and start spinning.
 
I have had a bit grab and spin my vice too... but my vice is on and off my drill press table so often if I clamped it down I would never use it. On some big holes through metal where the chance of catching is high I will use a couple C clamps to hold the vise down.

In the video the spindle speed looked WAY to fast for that big of a drill bit. I would have used a step bit to drill the bracket he was drilling. Step drills don't have the propensity to grab like a twist drill... especially the single flute step drills which never seem to catch for me. Even my HF cheapy step drills have given me excellent service with much more life than I would expect from them for the price.
 
That is another good reason to bolt down the vice.
 
Pro tip, those cross slide vises don't do a damn thing for safety if you leave them in the box under the drill press! :grin:

Now if you will excuse me, I need to grab my box cutter.....

I like the clamp things. Might have to cut a set.
 
The vise photo was just to illustrate where the idea for the table stops came from. I've been on fora long enough that I should have anticipated a $$t storm for not throwing on a bolt or two. :grin:
 
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