Harold & Susan Vordos wrote:
You'd have more than one problem. Even with decent fixturing, it's
entirely possible that your drilled holes, assuming you had success,
would not line up. Part of the problem would be the condition of
the material, which most likely is not uniform in size, nor square.

Thanks, Harold. Fortunately one of the benefits of a half-rack is that
there is less of a need for precision - there are no back tube holes to
match to the front tube holes as in a four-corner rack.

The holes themselves on my rack receive a one inch diameter steel peg, and
are only used to prevent vertical motion of the barbell hook once it is
attached to the upright. To prevent movement in the horizontal direction,
the barbell hook uses a wrap-around metal strap. You might be able to get
an idea of this with this image, on the off chance that you haven't come
across such an animal in the past: http://i41.tinypic.com/2mgw787.jpg

The big problem you'd have isn't just power. Small drill presses are
expected to turn small drills, so they are geared accordingly. In
order to run a 1" drill without damage, it would have to be turned
down around 475 RPM. If you can't run that slowly, you're likely
to damage the drill from heating.

Thanks Harold, I hadn't calculated the feed rate yet, and I appreciate you
doing that for me. My drill press only goes down to 620 RPM.

As for damaging by heating, wouldn't the cutting fluid (in this case water)
keep the bit from burning out if it were run at 620 RPM? (I am not
experienced enough to know this).

One more thing to consider. Drilling large holes in thin material
generally results in three sided holes (holes that will not accept a
pin the same size as the drill used to drill the hole). I expect
you won't enjoy much success with your plan. A mill would really
help.

Aye, I may likely have to ream the holes out, depending upon the diameter of
the one-inch steel pegs to be inserted into them; thanks.

Alternately, if you can run slow enough and can step drill, you could
use a reamer to size the holes. Overall, you would be best served
if you could drill through both sides at the same time.

Indeed, that would save half of the work. One solution I am considering is
to incorporate my jig with a dowel inline with the spindle, underneath the
tube which has already had one side drilled. Using this method, the tube
would lock into place on the dowel, locating the upright drill with an
accuracy based on how well I can set up the jig in relation to the spindle.

Thanks again Harold,

Jon