I’ve always been frustrated with the depth stop on my old-school drill press. The trouble is that I can’t twist the two lock nuts firmly enough together by hand, so they tend to shift when the machine is running. Here’s how I solved the problem. First, I removed the threaded rod and filed a flat along one side of it. (You don’t have to file to the bottom of the threads.) Some threaded depth rods already have a flat milled on them, so the filing step might not be necessary. Next, I found a stop collar—the kind used on drill bits—that fit the threaded rod pretty closely, and replaced its little setscrew with a thumbscrew. I slid the stop collar onto the depth-stop post and reinstalled the post in the drill press. Choose a thumbscrew with a handle that’s easy to grip. You’ll be able to apply plenty of clamping force, and your new stop collar won’t slip.

—CHARLES MAK, Calgary, Alta., Canada

Drawings by Dan Thornton

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