How To: Inject Your Drill Press Table Crank with Steroids

First, I would like to explain that among my family members, I am considered somewhat of an oddball. Mostly because of some of the mods that I have performed on a few of my woodworking tools. After I show you what I did to my drill press, you may be inclined to agree.

When I first hatch an idea in my little pea brain, the first thing I take into consideration is whether or not this mod is irreversible and will destroy my tool. In the case of my drill press, I determined that it was safe to proceed, so this is what I did.

Equipment - Shop Your Shop

I use my drill press a lot and got very tired of cranking the table up and down, up and down - very monotonous to say the least. I decided it would be advantageous to use my foot for something other than to keep me from falling over. It turned out that I had an old drill motor I purchased from a secondhand store some time back. It cost me $10.00. I also had lying around my shop a variable speed foot pedal, which I assume once lived at the foot of an old sewing machine. Using these two things, I made it so I could step on the foot pedal and move the drill press table up or down as slow or as fast as I wanted.

Procedure

The first thing I did was to release the stock crank handle from the DP and stow it in a safe place, in case I ever wanted to revert back to moving the table the old way. 

I drilled and taped a hole in the side of the housing, so I could attach a stabilizer. See photo:

I made the stabilizer from a piece of wood, with great expectations of someday replacing it with a pretty metal one, but the wood one worked, so I set aside the need for aesthetics and stuck with what worked. Then I simply chucked the shaft of the table lift mechanism into the drill motor, and attached the stabilizer.

I then plugged the drill motor into the foot switch, and the foot switch into the wall, and let my foot do the work.

The drill motor I used had a reverse switch on it. This is a necessity, for obvious reasons. I tied back the trigger with a tie wrap.

To change directions you simply need to move the directional switch on the drill motor and step on the foot pedal. That's it. If you have any questions, comment or contact me by clicking on my name.

Try it, you'll like it!

A famous man once said, "Necessity is the mother of invention".

A not-so-famous man, i.e., ME says "LAZINESS is the mother of invention".

Have fun!

Warnings

• Keep your foot off the pedal while changing directions.