Drill Press Modification For Sheet Metal Boxes

[whydontu]

I do a lot of work with electrical junction boxes, and always need to drill holes for conduit connectors. It’s always a PITA, the boxes are too flexible to stand up in the drill press. So the holes tend to drift from the intended location. And my various sheet metal punches usually don’t have enough throat depth to reach.

So I’m thinking of fabricating a new table for my drill press, with a triangular table. This way I could hang the junction box off the table from the junction box side that I am drilling.

Kind of like cutting back the table as the red hatch marks on the photo. My thumbnail sketch of how the junction box (red) could hang off the drill press table (black)?

Any thought on this? Anyone else run into this problem?

 

[DavidR8]

What about short length of pipe sized to fit the swivel and weld a small square of steel on top. That way the table isn't changed and could be put back when more support is needed.
Heck, just take the table off and just use the swivel base as support.

 

[Susquatch]

My drill press is similar to yours. The table Clamps to a round post. Mine is floor standing but I think the issues are the same.

I put an X-Y table on mine and then added a drill press vise on top of that. In years gone by it was my poor man's mill. Then I got a mill drill and stopped using the drill press as a mill. But I've never taken all the other stuff off it because they add the flexibility to do things like you need to do.

In fact, I even just recently added a wixie laser cross hair to it. The whole drill press is a real rube Goldberg affair but it adds options to do things like you want to do and I've never regretted doing it.

In your case you could put a nose in the vise and hang the box off of that the same way as you illustrate - all without chopping your table up.

 

[PeterT]

I always have some MDF or plywood wood scraps handy around the DP as backing board. The only downside it it starts to get peckered with holes & those holes might adversely affect a new hole if its misaligned & drill happens to catch it. But I've also used the table slots to secure a waste board & with table fixed, drilling in the same position always aligns with a common through hole.

 

[Darren]

Sounds like a job for one of the cheap vevor mag drills

 

[mbond]

In my experience, stepped drills work well for this

a random one from Amazon

Amazon.ca

I have rarely had the luxury of using anything except a hand held drill. But one way or another, this kind of bit can drill large diameter holds in thin material without deforming it too much

 

[YotaBota]

Are knock out punches (Greenlee) not an option?

 

[whydontu]

Are knock out punches (Greenlee) not an option?

Problem is getting the initial hole in the right location. I love my Greenlee and Roper Whitney punches, but it's getting a pilot hole lined up right is often awkward.

Here's an example, and how I do this now. I swing the table off the centre line, lay down a chunk of scrap wood, and drill. Problem is often the junction box is smaller than the table. Works OK with the first picture, I can drill on the crosshairs, but won't work with the second picture when the box is too odd-shaped or too small to sit properly.

But, one way to solve a problem is to ask people smarter than me for suggestions. @David_R8 's idea would work perfectly, but my drill press is a piece of crap and the table doesn't have a centre post. Ahah! moment, dug out a beefy aluminum bearing bracket out of the leftover-bits pile. I'll machine the back of the bracket to mate with the drill press trunnion, and cut the bracket down to make my vee nose table. Easy enough to swap tables when I need to drill boxes.

 

[StevSmar]

Sometimes I clamp a piece of wood that hangs off the table, which the box can sit over and use that to drill into.

I love step drills for sheet metal (or for woodworking where I need to make a hole larger- I use the step drill to form recess to center the larger drill)