Ah, the lowly drill press. An under appreciated and space taking tool. Well you can give it a fix up, add some storage, collect chips and dust, and otherwise improve its contribution to the shop. The drill press is a 17" Jet model. I added a drill press table from Rockler, but didn't like the fence so I built my own fence from two 18" sections of Incra Track mounted to a piece of 3/4" Baltic Birch Plywood. The Stop is great when you need to drill repetitive holes or when your stepping out a given distance (i.e. making a shelf jig).
I tried to have a mobile drill press but could never make it stable (I having a sloping garage floor). So now I leave it in once place and used machine levelers to make it good and level and stable. The base cabinet doesn't have a back. Two sides, a top, and a front brace are all that hold it together. It's a bit flimsy when the drawers are removed, but with them in it's very stable. The cabinet is made from 3/4" birch plywood, solid birch face trim, and the top is Formica laminated to a piece of birch ply. The cabinet measures 18 1/2" (w) x 20 3/4" (d) x 24" (h). The drawers are simple baltic birch boxes with birch ply face and are 4 3/4" high and 11 1/2" deep. I used blum drawer slides on this cabinet. Finish is shellac. It's nice having a place to store drill bits and assorted items.
The
dust collection is provided by a length of locline available from
Woodcraft. The locline is fitted into a 2 1/2" dust collection
fitting. As you can see I used two 2 1/2" dust collection fittings that
sandwich a piece of pine. The pine block is then attached to the drill
press column with a couple of hose clamps. The clamps are left a bit loose
to make it easy to adjust the nozzle. The whole rig then feeds a length of
2 1/2" dust collection hose and into the DC. In operation the nozzle
picks up all the dust and the vast majority of the chips produced by the drill
press. It works very, very well.