T-nuts And Other Sundry Drill Press Hold-down Devices?

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Have you ever tried strong hand clamps? http://www.stronghandtools.com/stronghandtools/products/4in1.php

I use a pair of these to either hold the work or to hold the drill press vise whichever works best, They are strong and fast to deploy unlike a regular c clamp.

 

[ChipsAlloy!]

Have you ever tried strong hand clamps?

We use this style of clamp at work. No one would use C clamps around here anymore .
I have a pair at home in a smaller size and they are used a lot. With a bit of practice you can get to use them one handed!

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I'm not saying hold-down solutions don't exist.

What's wrong here is when you come home from the local big box with a shiny new drill press, you have to:

0. Risk life and limb holding parts by hand.
1. Jerry-rig something that's sketchy at best.
2. Order something from a specialty shop.
3. Make something, IF you have the mill and lathe.

You'd think with accessories being such a cash-cow, that you could buy accessories from the same place you bought the drill press.

 

[David S]

I have an Circa 1970's Jet 13R bench top drill press...made in Japan. It is an awesome very heavy and rigid machine. Best thing I ever did was get an 8" x 6" XY table for it. It bolted to the table fine and now I have T slots to mount all sorts of stuff, from vise for lots of stuff and toe clamps for other.

David

 

[ChipsAlloy!]

The thing with drill presses from big box store is that they are mainly for woodworking. The speeds they offer tells us that. If you hold the piece with your hands chances are if the bit wants to "jam" in it it will actually tear/cut through the wood instead of making it spin.

The ways to hold down stuff on the table are pretty much limited to our imagination. Sometimes im holding stuff with my hands and just use a piece bolted or clamped to the table. I rotate my work until it contacts that stopper wich prevents rotary motion while im drilling.

 

[AR1911]

Have you come up with an effective, convenient way to secure the drill press vise to the drill press table?

I've tried bolts, but the bolts are either too big or too small. When the bolt's too small, the head only "grabs" along one edge of the slot, necessitating a washer. The problem is finding a washer that's a good fit on the bolt (bin washers are very loose), and not too large to fit between the cast-in webs on the underside of the drill press table.

If you have a lathe, you should be making your washers. 1/8" thick, diameter to suit the vise, with a bevel on the upper side. 5 minutes "work", and they look great.

On some of the DP vises with the long slots on the side, an inverted T-nut or even carriage bolt works well.

 

[Charles Spencer]

Have you come up with an effective, convenient way to secure the drill press vise to the drill press table?

I've tried bolts, but the bolts are either too big or too small. When the bolt's too small, the head only "grabs" along one edge of the slot, necessitating a washer. The problem is finding a washer that's a good fit on the bolt (bin washers are very loose), and not too large to fit between the cast-in webs on the underside of the drill press table.

Firstly, you have to file down the slots in the base of the vise because of the cheap Chinese casting. Off the shelf I bought the largest bolts that fit in the slots, about 2-3 inches long. I also bought washers, nuts and wing nuts. The bolts etc. cost almost as much as the vise. I let the washers rest on the base of the vise. I usually just use the wing nuts hand tight.

Since I smoke a pipe I have tobacco tins available. I store the bolts in a Dunhil tobacco tin attached to the bottom of the drill press with a rare earth magnet.

 

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I found a older bridgeport mill vise and a drill press on craigslist that work great together.

 

[kwoodhands]

I'm not saying hold-down solutions don't exist.

What's wrong here is when you come home from the local big box with a shiny new drill press, you have to:

0. Risk life and limb holding parts by hand.
1. Jerry-rig something that's sketchy at best.
2. Order something from a specialty shop.
3. Make something, IF you have the mill and lathe.

You'd think with accessories being such a cash-cow, that you could buy accessories from the same place you bought the drill press.

You can easily make a plywood table with store bought Tee slots .I bought a mill table that I bolted onto the DP table. I usually clamp a vice to it using standard mill step clamps and tee nuts.If the work is larger than the vice I remove it and clamp with the step clamps.I prefer this way as I get precision with the X and Y movements.I rarely use the plywood table anymore.
mike

 

[Wobbles]

That vise-grip hold-down is handy as heck! A decent vise as well.

Agreed. On multi-part drilling I'm finding that using one of those clamps to secure the drill vice is a quick and easy way to get repeatable parts in a hobby environment.