jasonrohrer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2022
- Messages
- 119
I use a kit of Setup Blocks all the time, for lots of things in the shop, specifically one of these kits:
www.woodpeck.com
One of the things I use these for is for setting the depth on a drill press, to drill a hole to a specific depth in a piece of wood. But the problem here is that you need to take the thickness of the piece into account, and do some math. Let's say you want a 1/2 inch deep hole, and you measure the piece thickness at 1.327 inches. So you need to drill down to 0.827 inches from the top of the drill press table. So you look at the old fraction table, and discover that 13/16 is the closest one, so you grab a 3/4" block and a 1/16" block, remove the workpiece from the drill press table, stack the setup blocks on the table, lower the quill until the bit is just touching the blocks, lock the quill, and tighten down the depth-limiting nuts. You know, these kind:
But that's an awful lot of math and fiddling around for a simple 1/2" deep hole. It also involves pressing the sharp, hard tip of the drill bit (or shoulder blade of a forstner bit) against the soft aluminum of the stop block. I'm careful, but I don't love doing it.
Today I realized that you can put the setup blocks UNDER the nut on the depth stop.
First, you raise the nuts a bit. Then lower the bit until it just touches the workpiece, and lock the quill. Stack a 1/2" setup block on the stop-plate beneath the depth-stop nuts, and tighten down the nuts against the setup block. The setup block is now stuck between the bottom nut and the stop-plate of the depth stop.
Unlock the quill, and raise it. Now the setup block is free, and you can remove it.
Now when you lower the quill until the bottom depth nut hits the stop-plate, the bit will be exactly 1/2" deep into the workpiece.
No math, no need for multiple setup blocks to equal some weird fraction, no need to measure the thickness of the workpiece, and no pressing sharp bit tips against the setup blocks.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to discover doing it this way.... but doing it with normal setup blocks is still a bit of a pain. They don't balance well on the stop-plate, and you have to hold it there with one hand while tightening the nuts down, and as soon as you release the quill and raise it, they will fall off if you don't hold them.
So here's the invention:
Little U-shaped setup blocks that fit right around the depth-stop screw, and rest perfectly on the stop-plate without falling. They could come in various thicknesses, and you stack up however many you need to make the desired depth, and you can execute the above depth-setting procedure, but without needing to balance them there with one hand. When you have the depth set, raise the quill, and remove the little u-shaped blocks, and you're ready to drill at your chosen depth.
Do these exist?
Page not Found - Woodpeckers Inc
www.woodpeck.com
One of the things I use these for is for setting the depth on a drill press, to drill a hole to a specific depth in a piece of wood. But the problem here is that you need to take the thickness of the piece into account, and do some math. Let's say you want a 1/2 inch deep hole, and you measure the piece thickness at 1.327 inches. So you need to drill down to 0.827 inches from the top of the drill press table. So you look at the old fraction table, and discover that 13/16 is the closest one, so you grab a 3/4" block and a 1/16" block, remove the workpiece from the drill press table, stack the setup blocks on the table, lower the quill until the bit is just touching the blocks, lock the quill, and tighten down the depth-limiting nuts. You know, these kind:
But that's an awful lot of math and fiddling around for a simple 1/2" deep hole. It also involves pressing the sharp, hard tip of the drill bit (or shoulder blade of a forstner bit) against the soft aluminum of the stop block. I'm careful, but I don't love doing it.
Today I realized that you can put the setup blocks UNDER the nut on the depth stop.
First, you raise the nuts a bit. Then lower the bit until it just touches the workpiece, and lock the quill. Stack a 1/2" setup block on the stop-plate beneath the depth-stop nuts, and tighten down the nuts against the setup block. The setup block is now stuck between the bottom nut and the stop-plate of the depth stop.
Unlock the quill, and raise it. Now the setup block is free, and you can remove it.
Now when you lower the quill until the bottom depth nut hits the stop-plate, the bit will be exactly 1/2" deep into the workpiece.
No math, no need for multiple setup blocks to equal some weird fraction, no need to measure the thickness of the workpiece, and no pressing sharp bit tips against the setup blocks.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to discover doing it this way.... but doing it with normal setup blocks is still a bit of a pain. They don't balance well on the stop-plate, and you have to hold it there with one hand while tightening the nuts down, and as soon as you release the quill and raise it, they will fall off if you don't hold them.
So here's the invention:
Little U-shaped setup blocks that fit right around the depth-stop screw, and rest perfectly on the stop-plate without falling. They could come in various thicknesses, and you stack up however many you need to make the desired depth, and you can execute the above depth-setting procedure, but without needing to balance them there with one hand. When you have the depth set, raise the quill, and remove the little u-shaped blocks, and you're ready to drill at your chosen depth.
Do these exist?
