Official Luthiers Forum!

I bought a Wagner Safe-T Planer and now need to build a drill press table. I've been thinking to make it 24" X 18". For those of you who've been through this, what size would you recommend? My drill press allows plenty of clearance between the post and the spindle, so I'm not cramped in the fore-and-aft direction.

Also, I've been thinking about building a box rather than just a flat surface, drilling some holes in the top, and hooking my dust collector up to it; making it a downdraft drill press table. Has anyone tried this? Do you have any advice?

Thanks.

_________________
John Cavanaugh
Saint Paul, MN
"What could possibly go wrong?"

BUMP!

Ooof! Thanks, Serge!

_________________
John Cavanaugh
Saint Paul, MN
"What could possibly go wrong?"

No prob John, i'm also curious of what you'll learn here!

if you make a table and plan to do much sanding some form of dust collection is needed. some use a box type table as you suggest with replacable inserts to allow the use of different sized drums/drills. the inserts can be perfed to allow the downdraft.

i prefer to use a collection hood placed near the work.

either works and plans have been published in the various woodworking mags.

Make the table as large as you have space for. My table is 40"x20" (actually it's in metric!) but I also add a longer piece when thicknessing, or rather thinning, sides to give extra support. The down draft table is a good idea that I may have to steal.

For dust collection I use my swan neck funnel attached to my extractor, this is moved into place for whichever machine I'm using. One thing that I have found important is to have a cut-out on the fence to allow dust and chippings to be sucked from the table next to the planer.



Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

My setup is similar to Colin's above, I really like your idea about the box with down pull dusk control. I agree with Colin, the larger the better to work on. Keep us posted and if you come up with a working design, please share, I am always open to new ways to handle the dust in this process. I have the ported fence as well with my dust collection intake sitting just behind. This works OK, but still get alot of throw off.

Mike
White Oak, Texas

Thanks for the input on this. I guess I'll have to go figure how much room I have. If I build a downdraft table, I'll certainly share my design and my results.

_________________
John Cavanaugh
Saint Paul, MN
"What could possibly go wrong?"