Neil's News

Depth Stop

24 January 2019

Like most drill presses, mine has a depth stop. This allows one to make consistent holes, with the drill stopping at the specified depth.

Unfortunately, the mounting plate for my depth stop is made of ABS plastic. So there's a lot of flex, which introduces an error of around 5mm.

I drew up a template for a new depth stop using Inkscape, printed it out, and glued it to a scrap of aluminum I found in the trash.

Then using a bandsaw and a lot of hand filing, I cut the shape out. This was my first time machining a metal block; all my previous work was done in sheet metal. Tapping holes was a new experience for me, but worked as expected.

The new mounting plate for the depth stop is much more rigid. I can't imagine why an otherwise reasonable-quality drill press would use a cheap plastic part here.

I might need to machine another one of these since my daughter quite enjoyed wearing it as a bracelet. She was very patient as I used a screwdriver to put it on her wrist and take it off.

As always, I'm thankful to be able to use Google's workshops for personal projects.

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