Do your interior decorating plans include DIY woodworking projects? Whether you’re a severe home renovator, a crafter, or a parent completing projects with your kids, you’ll have the right equipment for your DIY projects.
Depending on the types of projects you’re hoping to complete, a drill press could be an excellent investment.
What Is A Drill Press?
A drill press is used to drill holes of various sizes into wood, metal, plastic, and other materials. While you can also use a power drill or cordless drill to make holes, a drill press is a much more precise tool. The chuck on a drill press is easy to keep in alignment so that you can get perfectly drilled holes.
Floor-standing drill presses are popular models because they come with a platform that can be raised and lowered. However, you can buy smaller tabletop models if you don’t need a large floor model. Floor-standing drill presses are more likely to be recommended but not that necessary. Most of these drill presses for a workbench available on the market are way cheaper and still provide the same power and features. However, there are smaller tabletop models you can buy if you don’t need a large floor model, just like benchtop hydraulic press models used for manufacturing purposes.
If you’ve never owned a drill press before, you’ll probably have several questions, such as “How can I find a good chuck for my drill press?”. The good news is, that there are some guides and resources out there that will help you find the best drill press and accessories that meet your needs.
What Are The Advantages Of Using One?
Drill presses are a must-have tool for woodworkers. They are easy to operate and have some functions.
Accuracy
Drill presses include clamps, which allow you to hold pieces of wood in place. You can even set your piece of wood at a certain angle and incline. A stopper feature prevents you from drilling down too deep. With these various mechanisms in place, you’ll drill holes with precision and accuracy.
Power
Drilling through hard materials with a power drill can be exhausting and require serious effort. A drill press can drill through even the hardest of substances quickly and requires less manual labor.
Consistency
Drill presses work quickly and add flexibility to your work. If you’re drilling multiple holes at once, a drill press will make all of your holes look identical. This will help your projects come together more quickly.
Increased Safety
The clamps on the drill press ensure that your hands are nowhere near sharp blades. Once the wood is in place, you have free use of both of your hands to control the speed and power of the drill bit.
Drill Holes Of Various Sizes
You can fit the heads of drill presses with a range of drill bit sizes. No matter what the materials, a drill press can quickly provide you with whatever size hole you need. The bits of a drill press are changed similarly to the bits of a hand drill. If you’ve already used a hand drill, you’ll have no trouble learning how to change the bits on a drill press!
Sanding
Sometimes, drilling leaves interior holes rough. If you need to sand the interior surface of your vents, there is a sanding drum attachment you can get for your drill press. This attachment fits inside the chuck of your drill press to help sand down newly drilled holes.
Deburring
Drilling also sometimes creates a chipped and uneven exit surface. There are additional attachments for drill presses that allow the material to remain smooth.
Sample Project Ideas
There are several DIY woodworking projects out there that will benefit from the accuracy of a drill press. If you’re all prepped to take on a new project and you’re looking for project ideas, try one of the following:
Knick-Knack Shelves
Knick knack shelves are designed to hold small trinkets. If done well, they are a great addition to interior spaces. Building a rack is a simple project, and a drill press helps simplify the process even more! You’ll need to add pilot holes to your shelves to help prevent the wood from splitting, and a drill press will quickly provide you with the holes you need.
Book Stand
If you’re an avid reader, you might enjoy creating a book stand so you can display the cover of a book or a specific page of a book. Bookstands typically have hinges, and a drill press can be used to drill the necessary holes.
Gliding Chair
This is a slightly more complicated woodworking project because you’ll need to make all parts of the chair separately and then piece them together using hinges, bolts, and screws. This project requires several holes of various sizes, which is where the drill press comes in.
