Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Hawkeye]

I picked up a 'new' drill press from a friend this summer. Bigger than my other ones, but it didn't have a quill (depth) stop. Most factory stops use a threaded rod with a nut or pair of nuts that you have to spin down to set the depth. Time consuming, so I tend not to use them. I found a posting by Gadgetbuilder that made more sense. He used a smooth rod with a pinch-type block for the adjustment. Much quicker to set.

I started with a big piece of 5/8" aluminum for the quill arm. Just needed to cut the 'arm' off one end. It takes a while to cut through a 10" wide slab of metal.
   

I set it up on my 7 1/2" rotary table and used a 2 3/8" hole saw to rough out the big hole, followed by bringing to finish size with a boring head.
   

Here we have the finished installation, including the aluminum quill arm, stop bracket, rod and stop clamp. The screw on the clamp will be recognized as an old appliance foot with a 1/4"-20 screw. If it seems too clumsy, I'll eventually replace it with a custom-made knurled screw.