Guys I was wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for a jig for the silver bullet to hold stuff tight. I have the 10" harbor freight drill press and right now I just use a 6" L square that I drilled holes in to give me 2 areas to hold the block against. My problem is my table is really small and when I slide the silver bullet to do the axles it goes off the table a bit. I have to loosen the table and turn it keeping the bullet in the center. Not sure if this is ok or not. I always get one wheel to migrate out but the other seems to not gravitate as much. Anyone have any ideas of what I can make, or buy to keep me a bit more stable as far as a jig. Thanks guys
Jig for silver bullet
- Thread starter whitaker717
- Start date
Loosening the table and retightening it in the middle of drilling the rears is bad and probably is your problem. I attached a larger table to my drill press to solve this issue...
I would suggest making a bigger table for it. You should be able to bolt down a short piece of laminated shelving. Counter sink the bolts. Otherwise for like $25 you can get a cheap drill press table from Harbor Freight. It has a fence system as well. It is made from cheap laminated press board too but just the cost of the hardware alone to make your own costs about the same.
I don't think it's the end of the world that your silver bullet lies partially off of the DP table. My long time fastest bearing car, where the drilling platform is even more critical, was drilled on an original style HF 10" drill press in this manner (that I paid like $58 for). So it certainly can be done. You absolutely can't change any part of the setup though during the drilling process (like 5K said) - unless you have the most perfectly plumb DP table known to mankind that remains that way no matter the position !
One of the advantages of the small table is less surface material to not be flat. To me this is similar to the reason that John prefers a short pin for canting the silver bullet. I doubt you will find a 'flatness specification' on the table from Harbor Freight though. /images/boards/smilies/rolleyes.gif Even on larger drill press tables, this is one of the reasons why people have gone to laminate, acrylic or even granite surface plates on top of the stock DP table.
I recommend just trying to drill some scrap blocks first, without adjusting the table position. See how that goes.
One of the advantages of the small table is less surface material to not be flat. To me this is similar to the reason that John prefers a short pin for canting the silver bullet. I doubt you will find a 'flatness specification' on the table from Harbor Freight though. /images/boards/smilies/rolleyes.gif Even on larger drill press tables, this is one of the reasons why people have gone to laminate, acrylic or even granite surface plates on top of the stock DP table.
I recommend just trying to drill some scrap blocks first, without adjusting the table position. See how that goes.
Ng, I have that fence from harbor freight. My problem is the clamps don't let me hold it up against the fence if you know what I mean. I like the idea of getting a bigger table for the drill press. Any ideas where to purchase one?
You could PM down4derby, he made me a jig for my drill press and I haven't had a bad drill since. Its super easy to setup and works great.
I took a screen grab from John's video. See where he uses a spacer? I have the same clamps. I do have a correction, you don't have to make it short to fit between the 2 clamps. Just make sure it is thin enough so your clamps sit above it when flipping from one side of the block to the other. I had the same problem you did then I remembered the spacer John used. I think he uses his mainly to set is depth without ever moving his fence, using 2 different spacers, one for the canted holes and one for the straight holes. For the video he didn't switch out the spacer though but told me that is what he does when messaging him.
Why use two different spacers? I typically just rest the SB against the fence directly. I think I need to bite my tongue before I show my ignorance...ngyoung said:
These work well for this and many more applications in the shop.
http://www.amazon.com/BRASS-SETUP-BARS-Peachtree-Woodworking/dp/B00153LKI2/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1422717147&sr=1-3&keywords=Brass+Set-up+Gauges
Brass Set-up Gauges
http://www.amazon.com/BRASS-SETUP-BARS-Peachtree-Woodworking/dp/B00153LKI2/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1422717147&sr=1-3&keywords=Brass+Set-up+Gauges
Brass Set-up Gauges
FWIW, I dont use an additional spacer bar. I just free-hand the front straight axle holes and dont have to move my fence for rears. They are marked for location and height. I dont think it matters if NDFW is off a few thou, and I also dont think the DFW matters too much if its close on height and spacing from rears either. The tolerances from bending the axle and wheel dimensions probably stack up to be worse than a front hole off a few thousandths.
