Drill Press

If your woodworking projects become a little more complex than tackling the occasional DIY job around the house, you might want to consider adding a drill press to your power tool collection. A drill press is handy for cabinetmaking, furniture building, and many other types of woodworking projects that require precision hole drilling. One factor to consider before purchasing a drill press is that having a designated workshop area to keep it in is almost mandatory – most drill presses are floor standing and even the bench top models are a little too large to be lugging around your home. It’s also much easier to keep them calibrated if they’re secured in one spot.

Drill presses perform the functions of a power or cordless drill, but with much more precision – you don’t need to worry about a hole being angled due to your hand being canted when using a drill press. Once the drill press is adjusted properly, you can create a perfectly straight hole every time and even the depth of the hole can be set. This can be very convenient for cabinet making and furniture building where you might need multiple holes at precise depths.

You can also adjust the drill speed of many presses to accommodate the type of material being drilled – metals and dense hardwoods such as oak or hickory should be drilled at slower speeds, but most softwood such as pine require higher speeds to reduce the chance of the bit becoming gummed up by sap.

Types of Drill Presses

Most varieties of drill presses are very similar with the primary difference being size and whether the unit is a floor standing model or bench top mounted. In general, you can normally drill larger materials with floor standing models as they have deeper throats – the distance from the bit to the framework of the machine. Many floor standing models also allow you to angle the work table up to 45 degrees for angled drilling and some models offer the ability to swing the work table completely out of the way to drill a large item that could be too big to sit on the table. Floor standing models can normally handle larger bits than many of the bench top units.

While you may be giving up some power and versatility by choosing a bench top model, they take up less space in your workshop and can usually handle most of the tasks anyone other than a professional woodworker might have – they can also cost quite a bit less than many floor standing models.

Regardless of which type of drill press you choose, make sure the work table is designed so that clamps can easily be attached to hold materials down securely while drilling.

Drill Press Safety

A drill press is like any other power tool in that you should take precautions against injury when using it. Always wear eye protection when drilling and ear protection can be a good idea as well – especially when working in a confined space. Avoid wearing shirts with loose sleeves that could get caught up in the bit or chuck as they operate at high speeds and may cause an injury before you have a chance to react. The high rotational speed of a drill press makes it imperative that the material you’re drilling be secured down prior bringing the bit into contact or the material may begin spinning due to the torque of the machine causing damage to the material and possibly to you.