I recently purchased a new drill press, the Delta 17-990X variable speed
drill press. As my goal is to have all equipment in my shop mobile for
moving around the shop and to make cleanup easier. Given that this is a
top heavy drill press, I was wondering if anyone has one that they have
made mobile in some manner.

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?

Has anyone come up with an shopmade way to easily move a drill press around?

Thanks,

David

David,
I've had an HTC mobile base on my drill press for years. The style is
trapezoid shape with two lockable fixed wheels and a single caster
style wheel at the peak of the trapezoid. This configuration makes it
easy to rotate the drill away from the wall whenever I need to use it.
I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood bolted to the base and then the
drill base bolted to the plywood. I works fine for me.

TWS

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.

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

TWS wrote:
David,
I've had an HTC mobile base on my drill press for years. The style is
trapezoid shape with two lockable fixed wheels and a single caster
style wheel at the peak of the trapezoid. This configuration makes it
easy to rotate the drill away from the wall whenever I need to use it.
I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood bolted to the base and then the
drill base bolted to the plywood. I works fine for me.

TWS
I looked at the HTC at a Woodcraft and it wobbled more than I would
like. Of course this one didn't have the plywood bolted as you did
which is a great idea to make the unit more rigid.

Thanks,

David

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:13:31 -0500, David Lankford
wrote:

I recently purchased a new drill press, the Delta 17-990X variable speed
drill press. As my goal is to have all equipment in my shop mobile for
moving around the shop and to make cleanup easier. Given that this is a
top heavy drill press, I was wondering if anyone has one that they have
made mobile in some manner.

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?

Has anyone come up with an shopmade way to easily move a drill press around?

Thanks,

David

Others have made suggestions on movability, etc, and I wont add to
that, but I would strongly suggest you not consider the Shop Fox base.
Even the "Heavy Duty" model is not much more than sheet metal, and the
casters are way too small to support the advertised weight. But the
most aggravating thing about it is that once installed the two movable
wheels will not rotate a full 360 degrees so you have something akin
to driving a car which has no reverse. You can only go in one
direction.

LP wrote:
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:13:31 -0500, David Lankford
wrote:


I recently purchased a new drill press, the Delta 17-990X variable speed
drill press. As my goal is to have all equipment in my shop mobile for
moving around the shop and to make cleanup easier. Given that this is a
top heavy drill press, I was wondering if anyone has one that they have
made mobile in some manner.

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?

Has anyone come up with an shopmade way to easily move a drill press around?

Thanks,

David


Others have made suggestions on movability, etc, and I wont add to
that, but I would strongly suggest you not consider the Shop Fox base.
Even the "Heavy Duty" model is not much more than sheet metal, and the
casters are way too small to support the advertised weight. But the
most aggravating thing about it is that once installed the two movable
wheels will not rotate a full 360 degrees so you have something akin
to driving a car which has no reverse. You can only go in one
direction.
Thanks for the heads up / reminder. I have a shop fox on my jointer and
I know what you are talking about.

David

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:30:57 -0500, David Lankford
wrote:

TWS wrote:
David,
I've had an HTC mobile base on my drill press for years. The style is
trapezoid shape with two lockable fixed wheels and a single caster
style wheel at the peak of the trapezoid. This configuration makes it
easy to rotate the drill away from the wall whenever I need to use it.
I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood bolted to the base and then the
drill base bolted to the plywood. I works fine for me.

TWS
I looked at the HTC at a Woodcraft and it wobbled more than I would
like. Of course this one didn't have the plywood bolted as you did
which is a great idea to make the unit more rigid.

Thanks,

David
I didn't use one of the universal bases, this one is welded frame and
pretty rigid.
TWS

TWS wrote:
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:30:57 -0500, David Lankford
wrote:


TWS wrote:

David,
I've had an HTC mobile base on my drill press for years. The style is
trapezoid shape with two lockable fixed wheels and a single caster
style wheel at the peak of the trapezoid. This configuration makes it
easy to rotate the drill away from the wall whenever I need to use it.
I have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood bolted to the base and then the
drill base bolted to the plywood. I works fine for me.

TWS

I looked at the HTC at a Woodcraft and it wobbled more than I would
like. Of course this one didn't have the plywood bolted as you did
which is a great idea to make the unit more rigid.

Thanks,

David

I didn't use one of the universal bases, this one is welded frame and
pretty rigid.
TWS
I know which one you are talking about. The one at Woodcraft was the
same as yours but they had an undersized piece of wood just sitting in
the frame and the drill press base lightly bolted to the wood. Your
solution with the bolting to the frame would make a huge difference I
can see. It's funny how companies can do a product dis-service by not
proprely setting it up as it should be used. The twenty minutes it
would have taken them to do this I am sure would net significantly
increased sales.

David

David,

I have my drill press mounted on a Rockler mobile base. The Rockler
base is a clone of your Delta base with the do-it-yourself hardwood
rails. I sized it to just be big enough to hold the drill press base
mounted on a sheet of 3/4" plywood. Like another responder, I bolted
the press to the plywood and the plywood to the base. Its rock solid.
One of your design choices is where to locate the pedal. I saw one in a
woodcraft store with the pedal mounted on the side. I elected to mount
the pedal on the front because it gives me maximum flexibility to put
the DP in the corner and then move it around a few inches. It also
makes it much easier to roll the drill press right up to the wall
before releasing the pedal.

I am a big fan of having the drill press on a rolling stand. One of my
projects required drilling sixty-four 1" holes along the length of a
2x6 board 8 feet long. I moved the drill press into the center of the
shop and set up a shop stand on either side to support the long board.
This would have been impossible without having a mobile drill press.

When moving the drill press, its safe, as long as you roll it slowly
and carefully. If you got in a hurry and introduced a wobble, it could
go unstable and tip over. There is no danger of it tipping while
sitting still.

Bob

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.

The Delta mobile base (with decent quality wood runners) is more rigid than
the other metal mobile bases I have. Since you already have it, you might as
well use it. I'd suggest bolting the plywood to the runners, and maybe a
couple of supports underneath the plywood to strengthen the platform, as
3/4" plywood will likely give a bit with all that weight on it. You should
be able to adjust the amount of lift from the foot pedal so that it's no
longer an issue.

Some ply and caster's work pretty well for me. Granted, it stays in it's
corner on most days
but the times I have moved it, I've had no issues with it. I am cautious
crossing the expansion
joints in the floor but otherwise, for $20 or so, it works great.
Cheers,
cc

"David Lankford" wrote in message
news:Q4zQd.37260$Vg3.1273@lakeread05...
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

wrote:
David,

I have my drill press mounted on a Rockler mobile base. The Rockler
base is a clone of your Delta base with the do-it-yourself hardwood
rails. I sized it to just be big enough to hold the drill press base
mounted on a sheet of 3/4" plywood. Like another responder, I bolted
the press to the plywood and the plywood to the base. Its rock solid.
One of your design choices is where to locate the pedal. I saw one in a
woodcraft store with the pedal mounted on the side. I elected to mount
the pedal on the front because it gives me maximum flexibility to put
the DP in the corner and then move it around a few inches. It also
makes it much easier to roll the drill press right up to the wall
before releasing the pedal.

I am a big fan of having the drill press on a rolling stand. One of my
projects required drilling sixty-four 1" holes along the length of a
2x6 board 8 feet long. I moved the drill press into the center of the
shop and set up a shop stand on either side to support the long board.
This would have been impossible without having a mobile drill press.

When moving the drill press, its safe, as long as you roll it slowly
and carefully. If you got in a hurry and introduced a wobble, it could
go unstable and tip over. There is no danger of it tipping while
sitting still.

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the insight. I agree there are many advantages to having
equipment mobile. With the wood between the metal sections, due you
feel that this is adequate for the weight. Seems to me the drill press
I have weighs around 350lbs. I was thinking of adding some steel to
sandwich the wood, but I thought it might be overkill.

The mobile base on my BS has a similar setup and I would agree from
using it that the pedal in the front would be best. I have thought
about putting it in the back as it would still be easy to get to, but
out of the way for normal use.

Thanks,

David

Thanks for the insight. I agree there are many advantages to having
equipment mobile. With the wood between the metal sections, due you
feel that this is adequate for the weight. Seems to me the drill press
I have weighs around 350lbs. I was thinking of adding some steel to
sandwich the wood, but I thought it might be overkill.

Sorry I was slow to respond. You have a mighty big drill press if it weighs
350 lbs. No floor standing wood drill press found in home shops weighs that
much. I have a Jet JDP-17MF and it weighs 189 lbs. Its a 16 1/2" floor
stand model - a pretty typical DP. The corners fo the drill press base are
just about on top of the corner braces in the in the mobile stand. There's
no reason to reinforce the plywood and I've had no problem with distortion
or bending.


The mobile base on my BS has a similar setup and I would agree from
using it that the pedal in the front would be best. I have thought
about putting it in the back as it would still be easy to get to, but
out of the way for normal use.

Putting in the back will force it to sit out from the wall further. A drill
press takes up enough front-to-back space as it is (my opinion).

In normal use, I don't find the pedal gets in my way. I guess I just put my
feet on either side of it and never notice it.

Bob