Dust Control and the Drill Press
I use a drill press (bench-top style) occasionally, do not have a dust collector (but do have a big shop vac). The dust problem with the drill press is a nightmare. Have to laugh when I see a picture in a magazine with the drill press sitting on the workbench surrounded by small tools and such. Can’t see how they keep them from being buried in sawdust.
How do you control sawdust when you’re using your drill press? I had a big cardboard box around mine for awhile, rigged up the vac hose to be close to the table, but it was pretty hoaky looking and, more importantly, difficult to adjust the table without the whole hose thing falling apart.
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Replies
The drill press is one of those machines where a floor or bench sweep come in handy for the dust. Just sweep it in.
Don
What if the table for your drill press was a small sanding table? The shop vac hose is attached to the box, this makes a down draft taking the fine dust, thus a cleaner work environment. Just a thought.
'just ordered this dust chute from Lee Valley for use on my drill press:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=30198&category=1,42401&ccurrency=2&SID=
'seemed like a good approach.
Hi Barry, thanks for the tip! Hmmmmm, can't just order one thing now...what else do they have. Oh Yeah! Wanted to get their router table. No, no, something smaller will do.
Seriously though, appreciate the heads-up. They've got a couple of marking tools and such I've had on a list somewhere. Today, while the sun was shining, I just lugged the thing outside and drilled away.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
FG, I have a small shop vac. when I am gonna make a lot of dust at the drill press I just take one of the detachable straight wands and duct tape it to the bottom of the table (covering the hole in the middle so it can suck more stuff). I then just push the end of the hose into it and turn the vac on before you make dust (is is saw dust if you make it at the dril press???) I leave a wand permanently attached to mine and use it all the time. It works great. HTH Todd
Great tip Todd. Amount of vacuum has been a problem, but your idea of covering the hole would increase the effectiveness. Having the wand permanently attached makes it more convenient for sure. And...everyone knows duct tape makes it work, LOL! Thanks.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
forest girl. I push the wand up to the hole in the table through the bottom. this way the entire hole is actually the vacuum. when I do this i never have anything to sweep up afterwards. I couldn't tell if you understood about the wand covering the hole, so If you want me to I can take a couple of pictures tonight and post them. I hope this helps Woody
I think I've got it -- thanks for the offer of pics though. Much of the drilling I've been doing has been with Forstner bits. Shavings go flying all around -- that's stuff I'd like to capture somehow. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
> ..... Much of the drilling I've been doing has been with Forstner bits...
You're drilling all them lumber rack holes with a Forstner? Some piece of furniture, that rack (just kidding ....)Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Hah! Fooled ya...nope -- am using spade bits for the lumber rack. Forstners are for another project. Think I'm going to go magnetic for the drill press/vac hose. Epoxy some magnets to the hose. Problem with clamps is they clutter up an already small table (haven't made a big drill-press table yet), and a hassle to move around and reset when needed. Am getting to like magnets. Used my magnetic featherboard/hold-down for a drill-press fence today for the lumber-rack project.
Did all my drilling outside in the sunshine again today. 2x4's are up on the wall now, cutting up pipe tomorrow and adding some stabilization pieces to the rack before I load it up. Yes!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
> ....Hah! Fooled ya...
Yeah, I figgered you had something else going to use up the edge on that Forstner.
> ....Did all my drilling outside in the sunshine again today.
Live it up while you can. The monsoons are headed our way.
> ....2x4's are up on the wall now,
Nothing succeeds like success! Congrats. I've got all sorts of oddments and falloff from a job where I'm working - nothing big enough to make furniture out of but lots of nice little pieces to cooper up cannisters and boxes. I'm having a love affair with my lathe! (g)
Just finished my mallet project. Reasonably successful for a weekend woodbutcher.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Using Forstners on another project: Suuuure... Are you having the pipes dipped in chrome locally or sending them off ? It probaly would have been easier to get that hand-rubbed finish on those 2 x 4's while you had them down! he..he....
Though I would stir you up early on a beautiful Sat. morning here. Glad to see the racks about ready. Got to head off to meet with a bunch of sawdust boys, girls and kids locally. Have a good day and keep that momentum moving forward in that designer shop you're putting together. Ha..Just kiddin" of course....grin>
sarge..jt
Hi Sarge -- givin' me a hard time are ya? You forgot to address the "color" issue on the roofing felt. That coal-black is so yesterday! BTW, somewhere we were talking about the chuck problems. It stayed on yesterday -- must have hit it just hard enough! I slowed the drill down to the slowest speed, and Please! I never would burn wood, LOL. Had no idea how long one spade bit would last drilling in Doug. fir, but it did 'em all and still has plenty of spunk left.
Bought one of them cheap cut-off blades to cut up the pipes with -- thought of doing them by hand was not pleasant.
Have to work today, but will be "Singin' the Blues" tonight, getting the lumber on the wall. If you don't hear from me by 10am tomorrow, call 911 -- I'll be pinned underneath a 10-foot 4/4 walnut fletch!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
LERT:
What do you mean yesterday. I'm yesterday. Give it one coat of Geritol and trim the 2 x 4's in metallic gold. It'll look fine.he...
You weren't supposed to take it down to the slowest speed. Is that 600 RPM on your press? If so, that it metal cutting speed. Try about 1750 RPM. Bump it up to next faster pulleys and see if it scorches. Just play till you find the proper speed for what your doing. Hardness of the wood will come into play.
Do you have a re-ciprocating saw. I cut pipe with it in a pronto. They come in awful handy for a bunch of things around the house, not just the shop. A simple plumbers $6 pipe cutter will cut it smooth. Would take a little long for what you got to cut. Be careful while your doing it.
Final thought, pay a little attention to what you be doing. Don't get too carried away with Lightin' Slim, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Moss, and B.B. King! Throw in a now and then zydeco Beau Jacque with Cornbread and maybe a pure ol cajun Jolie Blon with Jo-El Sonnier. To really keep it sober an occasional Van Morrison and Bob Seger. But by Quittin' Time get back to the delta where the sun beat down hard and your baby done gone and left you...
That's if you are into that neanderthal thang. I'll be very quietly listening to Mozart's 5th and 9th. Maybe smooth it out with a little chamber music by Handel. Who knows, I might go over and re-read the entire Artist Thread..
But no matter what you do, it's Saturday Nite and as they say down in "Louisi-anne", LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLLE !!
sarge..jt
Jamie, i understand that one of those orange traffic cones works pretty well to collect the peelings and funnel them into your vac. You cut the tip of the cone off a bit smaller than your hose and force fit the hose into the cone, like those gas containers where you pull the spout out from under the cap. Combined with the magnets, this sounds like a good idear.
Apparently, this is a county government-sanctioned use of these safety devices. <G>
I don't see how the vac hose in the center hole will work, if the hole is covered by the work.
I've been collecting garbage bags of Forstner peelings from a bunch of small lathe-turned pots that get their centers drilled with a 3" bit. All kinds of exotics--prettiest tree mulch you ever saw!
Thanks Splintie, I've got a few of those cones around even. Watch out with those exotic shavings -- in case some are toxic? I dunno, but I've heard that can happen. Maybe the garden people know.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I've been putting all the shavings in the compost and/or mulching with them for years, or rakign them into the lawn if i don't have much time. Drought is the worst worry here, so anything that holds the moisture is better than the alternative.
Hi Sarge, the rack's ready for lumber! The bit worked well at the lowest speed, no chuck-falling-off problems (don't know exactly what helped that problem. Maybe the bigger hammer approach I took). The slow speed felt just right -- since the holes had to be drilled in two stages due to the depth, there was some vibration and rattling on the second step and having a slower speed kept things sane.
Not as much Blues in the Shop last night -- see my upcoming "Kudos to Home Depot" thread for more info! -- but cruised along from 10 to midnight anyway.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Dear Miss Forest_Girl,
You might try securing the intake hose from your shop vac behind the bit and workpiece with a spring clamp. Turn on the vac and drill and watch the chips get sucked right up. If you have a DC then use it instead.
Forest Girl -
I have a small drill press that I occasionally use for sanding, but mostly for drilling the plane knobs. I found a small black plastic fitting at HD. It is 4" diameter on one end and is rectangular (3"x4") on the other end. The whole thing is only about 5" long. I hold it to the drill press steel column with a strong magnet. It is strong enough to hold it firmly, but weak enough (through the plastic) to be able to easily slide it up and down the column. I hook my 4" DC hose to it and then move the piece so that it is only a couple of inches from the piece i'm working on. It grabs all the dust and most of the chips. And, it has even grabbed a knob or two! It helps to polish the steel column and wax or oil it occasionally.
I think the fitting is used to connect a rectangular downspout pipe to round drain pipe. Only cost a buck or so. The magnet came out of an old disk drive. It is so strong that it can't be removed from the top of a table saw. You have to slide it over to the edge and then pull like H_E_L_L. You can buy rare earth magnets from some of the woodworking order catalogs.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
Mike, thanks for the great tip (and for telling me this is a drain thing and not a vacuum thing -- could have spent hours trying to find it!). Now you're giving me an idea about what to do with that old 486 in the closet. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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