Most drill presses come with a small cast-iron table designed for metalworking. Like many woodworkers, I’ve added a larger plywood table to mine. I made it with two layers of Baltic birch glued and screwed together, which let me build in a sliding insert that can be moved forward and back—or replaced entirely. The insert lets me maintain zero clearance under any drilling operation. The insert is held in place by simply locking down the fence.

The fence has T-tracks for attaching my JessEm routertable accessories—which also work well on the drill press—but the tracks will hold other commercial and shopmade accessories as well. The table has T-tracks also, one pair for attaching it to the cast-iron table below, and the other for attaching the fence on top.

I gave the fence and table a rear cutout so that they could slide closer to the column, allowing more capacity behind the chuck. The various tracks, knobs, and T-bolts all come from Lee Valley.

—Walter Baziuk, Ottawa, Ont., Canada

Drawings by Dan Thornton

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