Building new shop

Jeb Taylor said:

I got the delta 17-959L recenty and really like it. I think it's around 5" quill travel. The price was good from acme tools too, about $550 delivered, the table is nice for woodworking. There's a higher end delta too, and jet that I looked at, as well as the steel city drill press.

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why did you go with the delta over the others, I like the delta in theory but we originally bought the delta 17 950L and had to return it because the quill had so much slop, we ended up getting the steel city and I really like it, it also has a split casting so it quill slop would develop because of wear it could be tightened. I've heard that the 17 959L is much better than the 17 950L, but I'm kinda paranoid I guess. Does the 17 959L have a quill lock?

Bart Leetch said:

I'm confused... wouldn't it be better for dirty air to go out the top & clean air in the bottom, or do the fumes settle?

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Virtually everything coming out of a spray gun is heavier than air. (Unless you're spraying helium.) Dirty air settles, so it makes sense to usher it out of the room down low, and replace it with clean air from above.

Dave Black said:

why did you go with the delta over the others, I like the delta in theory but we originally bought the delta 17 950L and had to return it because the quill had so much slop, we ended up getting the steel city and I really like it, it also has a split casting so it quill slop would develop because of wear it could be tightened. I've heard that the 17 959L is much better than the 17 950L, but I'm kinda paranoid I guess. Does the 17 959L have a quill lock?

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It had good reviews, price was right, and the table was very nice. I know you can put a wood table on a drill press, but I'm just happier with a good iron table wtih t-slots that I can slide a fence in and lock down. I've had problems from a table moving on me before also. The foward tilt looks to be a nice feature, but not sure how much that will actually be used. I also had limited myself to drill presses with long quill travel, I wasn't happy with the 3" on my old drill press. Longer travel lets you get away with a lot less table height moves. The lasers aren't all that useful, but the light is nice. It would be nicer if they were wired together, but I could fix that I guess if i wanted. It does have a quill lock, as well as slide/screw adjust depth stop. My biggest complaint is there is no holder for the chuck key.

If this were a metalworking drill press, I probably would have chosen something else. Larger quill, bigger motor, or at least lower rpm. Probably finding an older heavy duty drill press would be a good route there. I also don't see me wearing this tool out, it likely won't see 10hrs/year actually drilling. Setup time, adjustability, and runout were what I was looking for. All the reviews had this delta model as good in those areas. I looked at the powermatic, but I was worried the variable speed thing would go out from age long before anything wore on it.

Dave Black said:

Since the shop may be moving into my basement what would be the best way to handle the spray booth exhaust. I have a couple of the small below grade window with window wells in the basement.

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You will need to open up one of the window opening and put a explosion prof fan in. There has been many house fires caused by just using regular fans. You can get one with steel flaps that close and open when the fan is operating.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Virtually everything coming out of a spray gun is heavier than air. (Unless you're spraying helium.) Dirty air settles, so it makes sense to usher it out of the room down low, and replace it with clean air from above.

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Thanks Vaughn kinda my second thoughts.

I have a 56x24 walkout basement under my house, and if I wasn't doing this for a living, that is where my shop would be. No doubt about it. Dehumidifacation would be necessary in the summer, but it is anyway. It would be awesome to just walk down stairs and play. The savings in heat alone would allow you to buy more tools, and isn't that the object after all!

If you have that much space for a spray booth, build it big. Mine was big enough for a car, and my new one will be too. Old one was updraft, new one will be downdraft.

Jeb Taylor said:

My biggest complaint is there is no holder for the chuck key.

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this is what I did with my key, it works very well. It is a retractable key chain like this,
http://www.amazon.com/Custom-Accessories-44446-Retractable-Chain/dp/B000FK9N3U
I got it at lowes for $2ish like that. I think its better than having a slot or something like that. I just grab the key use it and let go, and its back where its supposed to be. I just clipped the belt clip over the lower portion of the belt cover.

I just ordered the delta 17-959l drill press from S and S electric motors which is a local place, their price is as good as online and have good service so if there is any problems they will take care of it. It should be here in a week-ish.

Congrats. That's a nice drill press.

Dave Black said:

this is what I did with my key, it works very well. It is a retractable key chain like this,
http://www.amazon.com/Custom-Accessories-44446-Retractable-Chain/dp/B000FK9N3U
I got it at lowes for $2ish like that. I think its better than having a slot or something like that. I just grab the key use it and let go, and its back where its supposed to be. I just clipped the belt clip over the lower portion of the belt cover.

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+1 on the retractable key chain. It is quite possibly the only thing in the shop I never have to waste time looking for

Cool, I've had those before for keys at work, but never thought about putting a chuck key on one. Going to have to do that.

I started to move machines down into the basement, I have my sawstop, jointer, planer, bandsaw, oscillating spindle sander, bench, and some drawer units down there so far. I still have to move my lathe, 38" drum sander, cyclone, and edge sander, and I am waiting for my new drill press to arrive. I was thinking about installing the cyclone in the garage to keep noise down. My garage is 2 steps lower than my house floor so I can run the 6" pvc along the ceiling in the basement and go out through the ledger ( I think thats what its called) and which would take me into the garage at floor height. From there I can run up the wall and into the cyclone, then out of the blower and back down into the basement to the filters. Having the cyclone in the garage will also be nice because I can easily take the dust bin outside to dump it. In the old shop the 6" PVC duct always got coated in a fine dust ( on the outside of the duct). Does anybody else have this problem? I think that some of that was from welding smoke that would cling to the duct, and the fact that I didn't have good filters?

Heres my proposed setup, its hard to see but there are jack poles between the bump out and the main space as well as down the middle of the larger space, they are about 7' apart so that makes things a little difficult.

Dave Black said:

this is what I did with my key, it works very well. It is a retractable key chain like this,

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This is how I did mine, I epoxied a magnet to the back so it sticks anywhere on the drill press.

Heres some pics of the new shop, its a mess now but its coming together.

Love it. Love all the dust collection duct work... It's definitely coming together!

Lookn real good.

Here is the cyclone mostly installed in the garage. You can see the compressed air line running by the duct into the basement. The compressor will go to the left of the cyclone.