The second big power tool I bought years ago was a floor drill press. Its been ever faithful and still does the job. But two things about the drill press that have always aggravated me: 1) chip collection and 2) track mounted hold down clamps.

For chip collection, I have tried all manner of hoses connected to holders, fences, etc. The problem is that a drill press presents an infinite challenge in terms of hose locations, type bit used, shape of the work being drilled, etc. I asked Leon what he does. He said he just has his wife hold the vacuum hose. The only thing that works consistently for me is to hold a vacuum hose crevice nozzle near the drill bit. But that is only possible if you have a cooperative partner, or your work is so securely clamped that you can operate the drill press with one hand.

I built a decent drill press table with tracks years ago and I have tried many styles of track clamps. They all worked well some of the time. But there are those occasions where the clamp is not tall enough, or the track is in the wrong position. Also, the setup time was aggravating.

I finally came up with an idea, triggered while drilling more dog holes in my workbench. I love Leevalley dog hole hold down clamps. Why not see if they will work on the drill press? So I drilled 8 dog holes in the front edge of my drill press table. Voila! They are super strong clamps, fast to set up and do not ever interfere with the drill press handle. They are expensive and not for everyone. But I am very happy with the solution.

Here's a link to a photo of the setup.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0Gor...-_Crystal_Lake

Bob