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  1. #1
    Rails against Big Carrot JohnnyEgo's Avatar
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    Default Drill Press Cabinet Build Along

    In a previous thread, I posted some pictures of a drill press cabinet I had made to fit my Harbor Freight floor drill press, that is probably one of the best things with a cord to ever come from China. My friend Jim has the same drill press, and asked if I could build him a similar cabinet. I had a bunch of stuff left over from other projects, and I realized I had almost everything I needed to build one more. While I was building this one, I took a lot of pictures, and figured I'd share the amatuer wood destruction frenzy with the group here.

    So first thing's first, a lesson in plywood:

    Really good cabinet grade plywood with 'A' grade veneer faces is really expensive. Like $100 or more per sheet. Home Depot and Lowes put out an assortment of much lower grade ply, usually with paper thin C grade veneers that are very easy to sand through. Even so, their oak, birch, and 'Sande Ply' sheets are usually solid, reasonably void free, and good enough for things that are going to get painted. One day, I walked into Home Depot and saw a stack of 'cabinet ply' on clearance for $34/sheet, versus the $50 I usually pay for their other products. Thought it was a good deal, so I snapped up three sheets. Figured I'd build a couple shelves for my son and paint them in bright primary colors.

    I very quickly learned why this cheap Chinese plywood was on clearance.


    Typical paper-thin veneer. Unusually fragile, though, and not very well adhered to the sub layers.


    Uneven layers chocked full of voids. You never know whether a screw is biting into several layers of lamination, or one or two plys and a bunch of empty space. At least until you stress something and it all cracks and warps.


    All those uneven layers pressed into one another under high pressure?


    Cause a shit load of warp when you cut into them for just about anything.

    All those nasty little voids also have to be filled and sanded flush for any exposed surface. This is why real cabinet makers use veneered MDF for high end cabinets; consistency, ease of machining, and minimal warp.

    So these sheets suck, and the headache they caused me was not for the $20 or so that I saved. Fortunately, most of their limitations could be somewhat ignored in shop furniture. Plus I was never going to use the last sheet, making it essentially valueless, or in kinder terms, 'free'. Exactly the price I was willing to pay to build something for my friend Jim.

    Onwards to the sheet good breakdown:


    Set up my cutting table, which is essentially a couple of 2x4s and a sheet of 4x8 sheathing with insulating foam glued on it. Lets me slap up a sheet of ply and cut without bending over or jerry-rigging sufficient support.



    Carcass cutting went pretty fast with the track-saw, which is a very expensive system for breaking down sheet goods for those of us with no natural talent for cutting in a straight line.


    Math is tough. Let's go shopping!

  2. #2
    Rails against Big Carrot JohnnyEgo's Avatar
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    Default

    With the fast part out of the way, it was time to start on the mobile base. I had three Harbor Freight mobile bases that I bought on clearance some years ago, intending to mobilize a saw I subsequently got rid of. They have been sitting around gathering dust, so out they came:


    Mobile Base Stretchers:

    The Harbor Freight mobile base requires 1.25" x 1.25" stretchers. So first up, a scrap 2x4 gets cut roughly to length:



    Then on to the table saw to be cut into the appropriate width dimensions:



    Fitted into the mobile base pieces and marked for final trim:


    The very first of 20 some fittings of the base:


    A lot of drilling for the cross bolts:


    And a test fitting with the aid of a hammer and impact wrench:


    A lot of marking, trimming, and fitting with an oscillating tool and a chisel:



    And a mobile base is born:
    Last edited by JohnnyEgo; 01-15-2016 at 22:07.
    Math is tough. Let's go shopping!

  3. #3
    Rails against Big Carrot JohnnyEgo's Avatar
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    Carcass Assembly

    Of all the tools I do own, I do not own a jig saw, which would have been really useful at the point where I needed to cut holes for the drill press column. I also don't own a circle jig. But I have plenty of scrap and a circle cutter for the drill press, which will work well enough for my purposes.



    Armed with my circle jig, I put a straight bit and template collar in my router, and routed me a circle in the top and middle sheets of the carcass ply. That done, I moved on to drilling eleventy-million pocket holes in all of my carcass sheets:


    And cut some face frame pieces out of some Aspen 1x sticks:


    And then I pocket-screwed me a carcass together:




    And I had me the first appearance of a drill press cabinet:
    Math is tough. Let's go shopping!

  4. #4
    Smells Like Carp
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    Or bolt the drill press on a old steel file cabinet.
    I like sex, drugs and automatic weapons. That's why i'm a dues paying member of the Libertarian party. Struggling to keep the government away from messing with the above.
    My Wife has her own vice.

  5. #5
    Rails against Big Carrot JohnnyEgo's Avatar
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    Doesn't work so hot with a floor model press, unless you are Manute Bol.
    Math is tough. Let's go shopping!

  6. #6
    Witness Protection Reject rondog's Avatar
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    Damn, yer an ambitious feller ain'tcha? Oughta be bitchin' when it's done but jeeze Louise, looks like a lotta work.....
    There's a lot more of us ugly mf'ers out here than there are of you pretty people!

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  7. #7
    Gives a sh!t; pretends he doesn't HoneyBadger's Avatar
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    I am enjoying your posts, Johnny. Thanks for sharing!
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  8. #8
    Rails against Big Carrot JohnnyEgo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rondog View Post
    Damn, yer an ambitious feller ain'tcha? Oughta be bitchin' when it's done but jeeze Louise, looks like a lotta work.....
    Yes, it was a lot of work. I probably have about 20-25 hours into it, all told. The vast majority of which was in handling the small details. However, this is a hobby for me, and I am not particularly put off with a little bit of work. It was very easy for me to disappear into the garage for a few hours and fall into a rhythm where everything else seemed to fade away. If it was my job, I'd hate it and I'd be broke. If I had to sell it, I'd never be able to charge a decent wage for my materials. But as a gift to a friend and an opportunity to unwind and practice some skills that were otherwise rusty, I got a lot more out of it than I put into it.

    I'll update this tomorrow with some more pictures of the process and the completed project.
    Math is tough. Let's go shopping!

  9. #9
    High Power Shooter
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    Wow, that is awesome! thanks for sharing.

  10. #10
    The "Godfather" of COAR Great-Kazoo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cableguy11 View Post
    Wow, that is awesome! thanks for sharing.
    Tell me .if i had known there was this much work involved. I would have subbed it out

    John does amazing work. That he would call me a friend well..................Humbled am i. Now i need some warmth to get a painting it. Have a few projects need drilling. Just can't see having coolant and metal bits all over the top.


    Thank you doesn't cover how pleased i am with the quality of work done. This means i have to upgrade the other tools in the shop to keep up appearances.
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