Drill presses are great tools that can do quite a lot of of cool things, so just about every shop has one no matter what type of work they do.
For many people, their drill press is just used for basic hole drilling.
But are many accessories that can be added to your drill press to enhance it and make it much better for the specific work you are doing.
One the the best bang for buck accessories you can add to your drill press is an X-Y table.
Sound Familiar?
When using a drill press, even for basic hole drilling, probably the most difficult things to do are hold the workpiece and do precise/repeatable drilling.
How many times have you been drilling just a basic hole and the bit gets stuck?
The workpiece starts spinning around threatening to fly away and hit either you or the most important thing in your shop within range.
Does it sound like we speak from experience on this?
Why you Need One
If you just need basic precision then the old center punch method is pretty good, but adding an X-Y table to your drill press will take your precision to a whole new level.
The X-Y table is a great way to reliably hold your workpiece, and improve your drill press’s accuracy and repeatability.
If you need to do precise work with your drill press then an X-Y table is a must.
If you are familiar with a milling machine then an X-Y table will be familiar to you.
It basically mounts to your drill press platform and has two slides.
One slide moves the workpiece left to right and the other front to back.
My Drill Press can be a Mill Too?
One thing to keep in mind is that although you might be tempted to buy an X-Y table for your drill press and use it like a mill, don’t do this.
A mill is designed to handle the side pressure on the bit that milling will generate.
A drill press is not designed to handle this type of pressure.
Best case is you will prematurely wear out the spindle bearing, worst case would be a dangerous failure that could cause severe injury or worse.
Moving the Workpiece
Each slide has a hand wheel used to move the X-Y table back and forth along that direction.
Using these two wheels you can precisely move your workpiece to the needed position and hold it securely.
Tool Attachment
Most X-Y tables will have a platform with t-slots.
These slots get their name because they look like upside down Ts.
There are special bolts, nuts, and other fasteners that have a head that slide into these slots.
These can be used to secure different things to the X-Y table platform such a clamps to hold the work directly, vises, and other accessories.
Downsides
Nothing is perfect as we all know, and the drill press X-Y table is no exception.
The main downside is the X-Y table takes up a lot of vertical space, especially when additional accessories (such as a vise) are attached to the table.
If you have limited vertical space then make sure the addition on the X-Y table and and any other accessories on top of it still allow you to have enough space for your workpiece.
Another Option
If you don’t need to added functionality of the t-slot mounting provided by the X-Y drill press table then there are also X-Y drill press vises available that might better fit for your needs.
