Drill Press Cabinet
#11
I have the Harbor Freight drill press, and I have been mostly happy with it, except for the fact that I always felt I could use more storage. I used to have a very small cabinet that held some odds and ends, as you can sort of see from this picture in 2007. I wanted something a little bigger.


I usually don't take a whole lot of pictures while I am working, because my time in the shop is pretty limited. But this was not a terribly complicated thing to build, and the few pictures I have make it clear how it was built. Since this is shop furniture, I used a lot of pocket holes for expedience.



I made the drawers using a lock miter bit. They aren't quite perfect, but for the limited practice I have had with the bit, I think they came out well enough.


I gave the carcass a couple coats of Rustoleum Flat Black high durability oil-based paint. I've been using this stuff on a lot of my shop furniture, and I like it. Goes on quick, hides a lot, and it can be touched up with a Sharpie when necessary.




The doors I painted with some leftover Killz white latex primer. It was free, and it more or less matches the white of a lot of the melamine work surfaces in my garage.


I am sure a ton of people have thought this up before and implemented it in a thousand better ways, but this is my one bit of clever in this whole thing:



Used the back half of the cabinet behind the column to store the long and/or obscure stuff I use with my drill press. However, it can be hard to get at it up against the wall where my drill press commonly lives, so I did this:



I have had the time to do very little in the way of woodworking this year, and most of it has been small shop projects such as this one. It may not be master craftsmanship, but I am proud of it nonetheless.

Thanks for your time!

JohnnyEgo
Math is tough. Let's go shopping!
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#12
Well done, Johnny!

Enclosing the back for added "covered" storage is a great idea!

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyrany, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
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#13
Just because you saw a design somewhere and changed it to suit your needs in no way detracts from your finished product. You know what your needs are and it is evident that you found a great solution. I really like the flip up lid to access the storage in the back, a clever solution to sometimes wasted space. Overall, a very fine job done very well, high five !
I no longer build museums but don't want to change my name. My new job is a lot less stressful. Life is much better.

Garry
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#14
Very nice set-up! Three cheers for the lock miter drawers. I make my shop drawers that way and find it makes a strong drawer box. I too like the back storage design. Nice use of the space. Great job all round!
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#15
Heck of a job...I likey... may copy...



If it can't kill you it probably ain't no good. Better living through chemicals.

 
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#16
JohnnyEgo said:

I made the drawers using a lock miter bit. They aren't quite perfect, but for the limited practice I have had with the bit, I think they came out well enough.




Shop furniture is a good place to hone your skills, where you're working on something for a client with less demanding expectations.

That's a very nice set up.
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#17
Looks good. I like your take on the cab surrounding the post as well. Any time e you can add weight to the base of a drill press is a good thing. To me drill presses on mobile bases are scary. They are just way too top heavy.

I have some drawers from the kitchen demo I am planning to use for a drill press cab and will most likely use some of your ideas. Imo everyone should do allot of looking at others work before designing your own.

I have virtually the same drill press but mine has a one piece handle not the old style one which I prefer. I don't like the round table for woodworking though. I originally bought mine for reaming the upper ball joint hole on gm full size car spindles. I used to sell a kit to put 12" brakes on g body cars and had to change the taper due to a different upper ball joint
At the time the only better drill press was the big one with the square table but it was too pricey however I wish I had bought it.

Only problem I ever had was the usual cheap switch and the chuck fell off a few times until I replaced the shaft and chuck with a better one..
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#18
Very nice work-----pretty cool.

Just for those thinking of building such a cabinet. I made mine a bit taller, but never tried to incorporate the column---it's just a square box, with two drawers and lower cabinet with two shelves. Casters are set so they just fit over the base and when I need the table lower than the cabinet will allow---easy-peesy to roll it out of the way.
Dave
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#19
Thank you all for the kind words.

My drill press sits on an HTC universal mobile base, which in turn is wrapped around a 2'x2' stack of ply that I routed to fill all the space in the channels. Two stout bolts hold the drill to the base. The cabinet sits on top of that base, with the cabinet floor sandwiching the base plate and providing a little extra stability as well. It's pretty solid and doesn't seem very tippy in motion, but a lot of that is probably due to all the weight.

I'm on my third switch for this drill press. Factory provided me the first replacement after weeks of waiting on the slow boat from China. The second one I rigged up from a toggle switch at Radio Shack. The one in there now is a Jet switch from the clearance table at Woodcraft. It has lasted the longest of all of them so far. Wish I had bought a couple of them.
Math is tough. Let's go shopping!
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#20
~A switch is a switch is a switch. It turns it on and off.



If it can't kill you it probably ain't no good. Better living through chemicals.

 
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