Nice, looks good, and if youre going to build it, overbuild it and build it to last forever, lol.

I did a base for a drill press a number of years ago and it as far from elegant, but it worked. It was just an old cabinet from a garage I think, but my grandparents had it in thier garage for a while and was tossing it out, so I grabbed it and put a plywood top on it, lol. So yea, yours is far better built than mine is by the looks of it, lol.

 

Nice, looks good, and if youre going to build it, overbuild it and build it to last forever, lol.

Agree with all of the above. My drill press stand is far from elegant as well. Thought, why not buy a file cabinet and turn that into a tool stand? Found a decently beefy one on marketplace for like $10. Threw some scrap 3/4" melamine on the top and bottom. Couple of casters. And it's been great. Since then have used the file cabinet solution for my jointer as well.

 

I just put my drill press on that same cabinet. Works well

Very nice! I was a little concerned it may be a little "tippy". But it's never even come close to swaying. Think having the cabinet filled with stuff helps.

lol, that'll defenitely work and you get the benefit of plenty of storage, which in a shop, is always a much needed thing, lol. Im not sure I would want to have it on movable caster wheels tho, I like moving mine in place and never having it ever move again, lol. Here's mine, but it's a wee bit older, lol. You can see it in the corner, but has some 3/4" plywood on the top of it that was spray painted silver, lol.

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Yeah, my "shop" is also our two car garage. So mobility comes at a premium. Table saw, miter saw, drill press, belt sander, jointer, planer. All are mobile. And storage may be just as important, if not more than mobility. Hence why I've really come to love repurposing file cabinets as tool stands.

Your drill press looks right at home in that corner. Do you ever encounter tasks where the placement poses a challenge? I can think of some times where I was locating holes in the middle of a longer board. Trying to think through the logistics of tackling that type of scenario.

 

Very nice! I was a little concerned it may be a little "tippy". But it's never even come close to swaying. Think having the cabinet filled with stuff helps.



Yeah, my "shop" is also our two car garage. So mobility comes at a premium. Table saw, miter saw, drill press, belt sander, jointer, planer. All are mobile. And storage may be just as important, if not more than mobility. Hence why I've really come to love repurposing file cabinets as tool stands.

Your drill press looks right at home in that corner. Do you ever encounter tasks where the placement poses a challenge? I can think of some times where I was locating holes in the middle of a longer board. Trying to think through the logistics of tackling that type of scenario.

Nah, Ive never really had much of an issue with placement and all of that. I dont really do really large stuff on the drill press anyhow in the machine shop, and for woodworking stuff, I dont do furniture or any of that stuff. It's usually pretty small stuff and the largest pattern I think Ive done is around 18-24" long, and those are pretty rare tbh. I usually run out of vertical height more than I do horizontal tbh. I do foundry patterns, and maybe the occasional box or turning a pen or chisel/file handle on the lathe, but yea, no large furniture. I grew up doing that and swore to never do it again, lol.

 

We put our benchtop drill press on a cheap Harbor Freight "Universal Bench Grinder Stand" (SKU: 59196). The base is small, but it is not "tippy". It comes with a lower shelf, which is handy to hold sanding cylinders and other parts. I made an adapter plate out of scrap plywood. When we switched out our "toy" drill press for a slightly better drill press, I made a new adapter plate. I drilled a hole in the adapter plate to hold the chuck key. It does not get lost there.

(That Harbor Freight grinder stand now sells for $49, which is overpriced, in my opinion. We paid less than $30 years ago. When I looked just now, a banner display says it is $29.99 for Inside Track members until 26 June 2025. I am not an Inside Track member.)

Our drill press is the one tool that is not on casters. Most of the time we use it inside the garage in the place where it is stored. If I must pull it outside to use, I just pick up the entire drill press and stand together in a bear hug and walk it outside. It is not too heavy to carry.

 

I made a stand from 2x4s and a top from a piece of a sink cutout from the local countertop place. Fits my drill press and bandsaw.

 

I like the idea of casters in theory, but in making my shop a reality I’m avoiding them. To get the kind that would be strong enough for me to trust them and lock down securely, well, I could buy a couple more machines if I had that kind of money. I also have a tendency to lean on things as a result of various medical issues (not while the machine is running, of course) so I figure I’m better off with things as solid as I can make them. I figure down the road I might do the kind of casters that just fold down when they’re needed, on whichever tools I find myself needing to move. In the meantime I was glad to discover that I actually can lift this 66lb drill press fairly easily if I need to, even now with a couple screwed up ribs. I have to be super careful and I can’t get it to/from the floor, but I figure it’ll be enough to do any project I’d conceivably tackle in the next few years. I figure if I need more vertical clearance, I’ll bolt the stand to the wall, bolt the press closer to the edge of the table, and turn the head 180 degrees, sort of Iike this:

 

I figure if I need more vertical clearance, I’ll bolt the stand to the wall, bolt the press closer to the edge of the table, and turn the head 180 degrees, sort of Iike this:

I've though about doing this as well (i.e., rotating the head on the drill press). Kind of curious that I can't recall ever seeing someone set theirs up that way. Would imagine it could really come in handy.