Projects – Bench drill base – Part 2

Following on from Part 1

This morning I took delivery of two 4′ by 8′ sheets of Birch plywood, one 12mm and the other 18mm.

The local supplier delivered them free and ripped them in half for me, which slightly reduced the sting of the £120 price tag!

(I was half expecting the sheets not to have been ripped in half before delivery, as the person I spoke to seemed a bit “fluffy” and disorganised, but I needn’t have worried).

I obviously don’t need all this ply for the stand, but I object to paying almost as much for a half sheet as a full sheet and I have a few ideas for what to do with the “offcuts” (which will be well over half each sheet!)

I could perhaps have bought something rougher and cheaper from Wickes, but I’d be paying £25 delivery and painting myself into a corner as any future projects might require something better.

Now that I’ve justified the stupid expense to myself let’s get down to making sawdust! 🙂

After a bit of thought about how best to arrange the cuts I got the two 62cm x 47cm pieces I need from one of the 122cm x 122cm sheets. They will be glued together to form a 32mm thick top which I can bolt my drill press to without much fear of sagging.

(The Sagulator seems to indicate about 1mm per foot, which is fine by me).

I used my Bosch PKS46 circular saw with a Faithful 40t blade and my 50″ guide clamp

I was able to balance the sheet on my larger bench, supported by the fully extended vice at the front and counterweighted by a few tools at the back. I arranged each of the cuts to pass between the jaws of the vice (as you can imagine I checked and rechecked I wasn’t going to give it any more scars!)

With hindsight I should have used my zero clearance base, as there was some tearout in places, but I was planning to edge the glued up top with one of my various offcuts, so I’m not too bothered.

I then tidied up one rough edge using a flush cutting bit in my Draper router.

I doubt I’ll make any more progress until the weekend now, as I have the joy of early starts and commuting for the rest of the week 😦

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