# Mobile Drilling Station



## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

My shop shares a two bay garage with one car. One bay houses all the shop equipment, most on wheeled carts to allow easeof transition into various working configurations utilizing the second bay.

I finally upgraded from my 8" benchtop drill press to a 15" floor DP. I chose the PCB660DP from Lowes and proceeded to trick it out with an enhanced Woodpeckers DP table, a Steel Citymobile base, a four drawer under press cabinet with capture tray to house all my drill press accessories & a flexible dust extraction component.

The dust extraction hose is stored in the right rear compartment & extends to about 4 feet to connect to various extraction ports around my shop. The left rear storage compartment can house both table fences - the low profile Woodpeckers 36" fence & my custom high profile fence as well as other miscellaneous DP jigs yet to be fabricated.
If necessary, but unlikely for my needs,the four drawer cabinet can easily be removed from the mobile base & slid onto an accessory dolly if the need arises for greater drilling depth, simply by removing the 1-1/4 dowel at rear center of the base cabinet. 

I chose the Woodpeckers DP Table because it allowed me to easily increase the table depth by adding a 4-3/8" rear table extension. This gives me a fence to drill center of 5-13/16",reclaiming an additional 3-1/2" from the original Woodpeckers design. The custom high profile fence is equipped with two stops & a combo L/R Center rule in both metric & imperial. It easily attaches with two knobs after dropping onto slotted brackets riding in the Woodpeckers dual track. 

All that is left to complete this Drilling Station is to compartmentalize the four drawers for maximum capacity & ease of accessibility. I expect that to take some time as I need to get going with some other projects.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Welcome to the forum Bob. That looks great, congratulations.


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## greenacres2 (Dec 23, 2011)

Welcome aboard Bob. That is nice. There was a plan in a recent Wood or ShopNotes that is on my list of builds, but the rear compartments you did are a great addition. Can't see for sure, but i'm assuming the table is on its own casters?

Thanks,
earl


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

Earl, thanks for the kind words. You are basically correct, the DP is bolted to the 3/4 plywood floor of the Steel City mobile base upon which I fabricated a receiving sub-assembly for the 4 drawer cabinet. The cabinet then slides onto the receiving assembly. Casters are on mobile base - cabinet has none. I should have taken a photo of that sub-assembly. If I get some time I will post one.
Bob


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Great job, Bob, and welcome!
I'm not sure I'm clear on how easily the front cabinetry separates from the DP cast base. Is it just in the same space or is it in physical contact with it?
What's involved in moving it out of the way in order to drop the table (much) lower?


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Great idea Bob. I might have to seriously consider putting a cabinet on top of the pedestal on my DP. It would be nice to have all my drilling accessories at the drill.


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

Nice.
Drilling large objects doesn't come up very often but can the cabinets etc. be removed and set aside? A large object like a drum shell or round planter box for instance. To do those, I remove the entire table...


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Ralph I was thinking I would put the cabinet on casters and just roll it away when I need to drop the table down that far.


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

And looking back at the original thread pictures it looks like it is all modular and can be removed as needed. 

If I had the room, I would straddle the base and use locking casters.


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: Cabinet removal*

Ralph & Charles

If you re-read my OP I state that "the four drawer cabinet can easily be removed from the mobile base & slid onto an accessory dolly ........ simply by removing the 1-1/4 dowel at rear center of the base cabinet"

When I get some free time I will do that operation & post pictures of the process.

Ralph - The table can also be easily removed by undoing four knobs on the underside of the DP's original cast table


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

I agree with you, Ralph. I can't think of a reason that I'd need my DP base 'attached' to the rolling cabinet(?)...
But it'd be great to have the cabinet , more specifically that nice big top, available to roll to other locations for a temporary work surface, or support.
Perfect for laying out small parts.


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

DaninVan said:


> I agree with you, Ralph. I can't think of a reason that I'd need my DP base 'attached' to the rolling cabinet(?)...
> But it'd be great to have the cabinet , more specifically that nice big top, available to roll to other locations for a temporary work surface, or support.
> Perfect for laying out small parts.


If you re-read my OP I state that "the four drawer cabinet can easily be removed from the mobile base & slid onto an accessory dolly ........ simply by removing the 1-1/4 dowel at rear center of the base cabinet"


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Yes, I did read that, Bob. I'm not being critical; just saying that I personally would like it to be instantly available, with no mechanical connection to the DP. I'll definitely be using yours as a model, less the connection part. 
(You obviously had a reason for doing it the way you did!)


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

Dan,
Never thought you were being critical, just assumed you miss-read the OP. 
I built it this way so the DP & cabinet would be mobile as a unit as I do not have a fixed location in my shop for the DP. Rather than moving two pieces separately when relocating it, I only have to deal with one unit.


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

Very nicely done, Bob. Your setup will give you great control and consistency for any drill press operations and all the storage is an additional bonus. Cool.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Aha!! Excellent idea, Bob. I_ knew_ there was a reason!!! 
Makes perfect sense now, and I'll have to rethink _my_ concept. Mine's not mobile and it would be a lot better if it was.


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## thomas1389 (Jan 4, 2012)

To date I've been more of an observer than a participant. I am regularly humbled by the extent of the skills and knowledge of the members of this forum. The advice hints, tips and many solutions coming from a disparate group of people spread world wide with the common denominator of the joy of woodworking. I always learn something each and every time I enter the forum. When I think I know something well, I am awakened once again to the reality that I really don't. That's not at all a bad thing, it just taps me on the shoulder and reminds me once again to slow down and rethink.
All I can give at this time is an honest and humble thank you to each and all for the contributions that have helped me to grow in this field. I feel like I'm on that front porch that was mentioned in an earlier post, with a bunch of people that are considerate, kind and very helpful to those of lesser abilities.
I thank you all.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Woodhobbyist said:


> Ralph & Charles
> 
> If you re-read my OP I state that "the four drawer cabinet can easily be removed from the mobile base & slid onto an accessory dolly ........ simply by removing the 1-1/4 dowel at rear center of the base cabinet"
> 
> ...


Bob my DP is in a permanent location so I would only need it to roll away when I need the table down low or swung out of the way. My DP sits next to my wood lathe so I'm thinking that a few of the items for it might go in there too.


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

*Seperating cabinet from Drill Press*

Had some time today between projects in the shop so I photographed the process of taking the 4 drawer cabinet off the DP

The first photo shows the underside of the table - just have to spin off the four knobs & lift the Woodpeckers table off the DP cast table. Self-explanatory.

Now for those who might be wondering how easy (or difficult) it would be to remove the cabinet just follow the remaining 10 photos

Photos #1,2 show my accessory dolly with extension mating tongue
Photo #3 shows dolly mated to DP mobile base
Photos #4,5 show removal of locking dowel at rear of DP column
Photos #6,7,8 show cabinet moving onto dolly
Photo #9 shows cabinet fully seated on dolly
Photo #10 shows mobile base with the cabinet receiving sub-assembly


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## Ratbob (Apr 6, 2015)

Kudos Bob, this is exactly where I'm going with my PCB660DP. I'm wondering if you might have some hints on how I can go about attaching an HTC-2000 base to my already assembled drillpress. I'd like to find a way to get access to the underside of the base by myself, without dis-assembly, so that I can attach the roller base.

I like your table attach, but that requires 4 holes be drilled through the cast table (at least on mine). I solved the problem by dropping a ~3" x 1" dia. dowel centered on the bottom of my table. The dowel drops into the hole in the center of the machinist table. This has the added benefit of being a slightly loose fit, so for quick and dirty drilling I can just tap on the table to line up the hole. When I need rock solid, I use two knobs through a piece of oak scrap screwed into inserts mounted under the table.


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## Ratbob (Apr 6, 2015)

Never mind Bob, as with most things, I just powered on through attaching the base. It wasn't hard at all, even without any additional help. It sure is nice to have wheels on this puppy so it can come out an play with the 'big' tools!

Cheers!

Jeff


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

Jeff

Only if you still have the DP carton.

I made the mistake of assembling the DP prior to receiving my mobile base. Fortunately, I still had the DP carton with all the Styrofoam formed packing so I laid the DP carton horizontally on the floor and tipped the DP slowly onto the carton. The solid Styrofoam forms were strong enough to prevent the carton from collapsing. This raised the base off the floor to allow for attaching same to the DP, then I slowly raised the DP upright.

Hope this works for you. If you do not have the carton you might want to cobble together a 2 x 4 frame about the size of the original carton & then use this method.

Bob


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## Woodhobbyist (Jul 9, 2010)

Jeff,

You beat my reply out by one minute. Glad you managed. Enjoy your new toy!

Bob


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Bob, I am glad to see the thought you put into your dust collection. Nicely done project.

I encourage everyone to use dust collection for the obvious benefits. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to work. Until people get around to making a nice drill press station as you have; a couple of pieces of wood and a clamp will do the job. You can flip it over to capture dust from drum sanding too. Just stick a vacuum hose in and you have greatly reduced your clean up time.


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## Ratbob (Apr 6, 2015)

Thanks for the reply Bob, after I though about it all I did was gently tilt the press forward till it was supported between the jaws of my little workmate table. I was then able to lift the DP base enough to slip the mobile base on, bolt it up, and tilt it back upright. Took less than 15 minutes and I didn't even break a sweat!
@Mike, you make some great points about dust collection on the drill press . . . gears turning!


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## papasombre (Sep 22, 2011)

Hi, Bob.

My DP is still in the box, more than one year since I bought it. In my to do list I have a stand for it. Yours, if you don´t mind, I´ll copy some items from your project.


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