Ever since I started thinking about drilling my spar caps, I've been scratching my head about the best way to drill perfectly aligned holes into them and still support the remaining ends so no bow is built into the spars. I've seen where other guys set their drill press beside their work table and swing the head around, and I even tried it, but it was a little like driving a car from the back seat. It was hard for me to make sure everything was perfectly aligned, and for this critical drilling operation I felt like I needed to be a little more in control.

Here's my solution. I used one of my hole saws to cut a hole in the workbench so I could stick the post of the drill press up through it. The head of the drill press comes off with two simple allen screws, so it was really easy to remove it, then stick it back on. The drill press is resting on a solid small table under the bench, and I've even got the normal adjustable drill press table cranked up and braced against the bottom of the workbench - further stabilizing it. After leveling and making sure everything was square, I cut some small wedges and wedged the post in the hole. It's solid as a rock.

After I'm done drilling, I can remove the press and will be able to put a c-clamp through that hole and clamp things from the middle of the table. Pretty cool.

 

Debo Cox