Supporting LARGE stock at the Drill press...

Art Mulder

Member
Messages
3,383
Location
London, Ontario
Just a quick post on a simple technique...

I have a modest sized basement shop, so I'm wary of adding in anything that takes floor space. As such, I don't have any mobile outfeed supports (like this). Normally, that isn't a problem.

Today I wanted to rough out some shallow mortises in the head+foot of a bed I am making, to accept the stub-tenons from the rails. I suppose I should have done this before I assembled the head and footboards... Oh well, live and learn.

I considered a chisel, but that's too much work. I considered a hand drill, but feared it would be too hard to get consistent results. But my drillpress table is only about 14x20inches at best, which is way too small for this job! I needed some help.

As I was looking about for something to use for stock support, I happened to notice that the fence on my jointer was almost the same height as my drillpress table. That'll work! I checked with the tape measure and adjusted the drillpress table to match the height. I draped a protective mat over the jointer fence, and set up the drillpress to make my mortises.

Worked like a charm.
IMG_6733.jpg
 
Looks like it worked great, Art. :thumb: My lathe runs parallel with the outfeed from my bandsaw. When I've needed to resaw long boards, I've swung the lathe banjo out so it's in line with the bandsaw outfeed, then adjusted the tool rest to the same height as my bandsaw table. For as seldom as I have a need to resaw long lumber, it's just the ticket.
 
Top