DIY Gone Wild - Drillpress Hack
There is light at the end of the tunnel for the remodeling project that I've been working on for the last several months. The heated tile floor is done. The tile shower is done. The barn door style glass shower surround is done. The vanity carcase is done except for a coat of paint. All I have to do is finish the counter top, then it is just painting and other easy stuff.
The catch is that I bought a soapstone counter top kit, which is really just a slab of soapstone and a backsplash. Turning it into a beautiful stone counter top requires drilling holes for the faucet and sink opening, cutting out the rest of the sink opening, smoothing the cut edges, attaching the sink bowl, and fitting the backsplash.
Drilling the first five of seven holes on the drill press went smoothly, then I noticed that the last two holes are too far from the edge of the slab to use the drill press. My drill press has a 7" throat which is about an inch too short. I tried using a wooden guide and a hand drill, but it just didn't have enough power.
What I need is a way to get the drill press spindle more than seven inches from the support post. My plan is to make an adapter so that the entire drill press head can fit onto the arm that holds the drill press work table. That should give me an effective throat of about 14" - that is plenty.
A trip to the local welding shop netted a 3.5 x 8" piece of round steel. The first step is drilling a center hole for the tailstock.
This lathe is a 1915 Monarch. The old girl has been through a lot but she can still get the job done. It is pretty impressive to see a machine at work that was designed before the widespread use of electricity and ball bearings.
The bottom part of the workpiece needed to be turned down to 1.810", which is a lot of metal to remove. I was able to make cuts as deep as 0.125" with a freshly ground tool bit. That takes a quarter inch off the diameter in one pass, but each pass took about 10 minutes.
The top part only needed a little bit shaved off. It is very satisfying to watch the rusty surface being peeled away to expose bright, fresh steel below.
The finished adapter has the same diameter as the drill press post on top and the same diameter as the work table socket on the bottom.
Here is the adapter fitted into its place on the drill press arm. The drill press head is in the background. You can see the big hole in the center where it will fit onto the adapter.
The new configuration feels nice and rigid. Drilling 1.25" holes in stone takes a lot of force, so it better be stiff. We will find out tomorrow.
Cheers, Professor Bromide 
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Very good! I'd love to have a late, that's a hell of a tool. I've never used one myself, but I bet I could figure it out. That's an awesome hack you've done on your press, let us know how it works!
They say that a lathe is the only tool that can make a copy of itself. One tool to rule them all.
I set up the piece of stone on the drill press this afternoon. It looked pretty good, but I was too chicken to start cutting. I will post a picture of the results tomorrow.
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