drill press vise

admin

Do you bolt the drill press vise to the table or clamp it or just let it run free? I put my new drill press together today and saw the nice grooves cut into the table and wondered what kind of bolts fit into those puppies. I bought a 4" vise to go with the press and some vice-grips that bolt down. Now I just have to learn how to organize and accomplish the job right the first time.thanks for all your helpRaymond
Reply:Raymond;Is your table slotted all the way through, or does it have "T" slots?If it's all the way through just use bolts and flat washers.If it's a "T" slot, usually you use "T" nuts. You can get a nice set of clamps for T slots for about thirty6 bucks from HF. Or you can grind the head on a Carriage bolt to fit the T slot. This works good.You can also just clamp the vise to the table with a clamp. I have to confess this is what I do most of the time on my drill press.
Reply:It looks like "T" slots but they are big! I'll measure and see if I can find the right bolt.
Reply:Here's some more pictures from "The Magic Garage" I clamp my vise to the drill press table with a "Visegrip clamp" Attached Images
Reply:Here's a couple of different size "T"nuts, with studs and nuts. Attached Images
Reply:Just a bit of caution when it comes to securing a vise to the table; Carriage bolts are soft, and have been known to turn vises to spinning masses on the end of a drill bit.A vise should always be bolted down with 2 bolts, and you should wipe both the vise and table before mounting the vise so it will sit square to the table.Any combination of T slots and a drill press vise will generally orient the vise in the wrong position.Mounting a vise to a table with C clamps or vise grips will often lead to loud utterances of such words as SH!T and OUCH.  If you must clamp the vise down, drop a bolt or pin thru the vise base and a slot in the table for extra safety.NO, I'm not going to tell you how I learned all these things.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:another good thing to do is to install a covered foot switch ....for the on/off switch ....that way if things get out of wack on you when you jump back it will shut down
Reply:IMHO these are the best clamps to use on a drill press.http://www.eaglerockonline.com/WAHLSTROM/M189a.htmhttp://www.eaglerockonline.com/WAHLSTROM/M189.htm
Reply:Originally posted by Paychk IMHO these are the best clamps to use on a drill press.http://www.eaglerockonline.com/WAHLSTROM/M189a.htmhttp://www.eaglerockonline.com/WAHLSTROM/M189.htm
Reply:The safest way to set the drill press up is to bolt, clamp, dog, etc the vise down oriented such that some portion of the vise or the work is against the column of the drill press. Then, in CAN'T rotate with  the bit. For small stuff, I usually leave the tail of the vise against the column. Longer parts, one end or the other of the part. If I can't, two bolts go into the slots, or at least one bolt and a stop thru a slot to bear against.A 10HP morot turning a 3 1/2" bit will happily shear a single 7/8" bolt clean, by the way--- you can figure out how I know.
Reply:Originally posted by Franz NO, I'm not going to tell you how I learned all these things.