Unquestionably Confused wrote:
David Lankford wrote:

Delta recommends that the base of the drill press be mounted directly
to the flooor. If not, it needs to be mounted to a 21"X 28" minimum
sheet of 3/4" plywood.

I have looked at many of the mobile bases on the market and they don't
look stable enough to me to use with this drill press. The two that I
am considering at this point are the Shop Fox heavy duty and the Delta
universal mobile base that you put your own wood (2"X2") to fit the
machine you want to make mobile.

I have the Delta mobile base and the wood, so from a cost standpoint,
that seems to be the better option. The only downside of this mobile
base is that it has a pedal that raises the front of the base to make
it mobile and I am concerned it might case the drill press to tip
over, though I think it is relatively unlikely that it would and I
won't be moving it around much.

What has everyone done for a mobile base on a drill press?


I think that I would first try "living" with press for a bit to see just
how much it really "needs" to be bolted to the floor. I have the old
Craftsman floor model drill press that's heavy as hell even with the
weight saving "rubber band" drive beltg

I've never bothered to anchor it in the 19 years or so that I've owed
it. Never had it tip either. Longest work piece I've ever had on it
was a 1x11x8 oak ply carcase sides for a built-in book case. Needed to
drill the shelf pin holes. Unless you're going to hoist a chuck of
I-Beam on there or a 16' piece of 3/8" steel while fabricating a flitch
plate for a garage door header, I don't thing the average (or even above
average) woodworker is going to have a problem. We use work supports
with our other stationary tools, why not the drill press?

To make it mobile, could you "top mount" one of those jack type mobil
mounts to the top of the base so that when you lower the base (raise the
wheels) the cast iron base of the drill press rest on the floor? That
way you'd actually have an out-rigger of sorts to add stability to the
existing base.

Maybe even fabricate your own mount.


I expect that the reason Delta states you need to have the additional
wood under the base is that someone got hurt by somehow tipping a drill
press over and it is easy to update documentation to limit their
liability. Heavy as this thing is, I expect it won't go anywhere once
it's in place.

I am more than willing to fabricate my on mount and I like the idea of
the top mount setup. If I understood you correctly, a set of arms or
frame (outriggers) would be mounted to the top of the base, and at the
end of each of the arms would be a wheel that can be raised and lowered.
When lowered, the unit is mobile, when raised the base sits on the
ground stationary with the arms to be used as extra stability.

To keep the top of the base free, instead of top mounting, I could build
a base frame that has similar adjustable height wheels to allow the
assemby to be raised and lowered. This way the entire base would be on
the floor.

The question with either of these is, how do I make a set of wheels that
are easily raised and lowered to make the base mobile when I need it to
be. I could do the setup where the wheels are hinged and flip around
when the drill press is tilted. I will have to think on that a bit.

Thanks for your help,

David