Thanks again, Colin. But this time you inspired me to just buy one. Igaging just released a DRO for a drill press for $38 USD (of course that’s $170,000 CAD 😂). But I bought one. Hasn’t gotten here yet but I’m eager for the precision. I bought their DRO for my router table and it is just SUPERB! And under $100. Being able to specify a depth of, say, 6.3mm or 0.161” and actually achieve that, and repeatedly, is a real joy. Money well spent.

Great tip. Just what I have been looking for. Thanks.

About grinding. As a bridge builder most of my life, I was on the job one day and one of my workers was grinding some steel beams. He was between the late sun and me. As I looked toward the sun, I could see billions of particles in the air. Remember this. When you are grinding steel, pieces of steel and pieces of the grinding wheel fly into the air. The sparks you see are just a minor part of what is in the air. Therefore, it is critical that you wear eye protection that totally surrounds your eyes. I was amazed that day at to what was in the air. At that time, I was wearing contact lenses. I went to. the Dr. for my annual exam and as he looked at my eyes with the contacts still in, he said, you have a piece of medal in your lens. I always wear eye protection and a shield when grinding. That had to have come from the flying dust in the air and got onto my contact. Without the lens, it was have been in my eye. Next time you are around someone grinding outside, check it out. You will see what is in the air.

My god, I can't thank you enough! I've wanted to do a project like this for a real long time but wasn't quite sure how. You make it look easy. As it happens I have four calipers two of which I use infrequently. I also have a collar I made a long time ago, and never used. It's now in my junk drawer. I'm getting towards the end of my current project, My next one will be the depth stop according to your video. Thanks So Much!

This is fantastic!!

Perfect timing. I’m preparing to make a hanging storage shelf that will require drilling 40 holes each for Tee Nuts and bolt heads. Thanks for another great idea!

Mr Knecht, your channel is pure gold. Much respect and thanks.

Thanks for posting this video, I have a older drill press that has a round bar with to nuts affixed to it for depth setting & its difficult to set, so this with modifications (to match my drill press) will be an AWESOME add on to my drill press!!! Thanks a million!

I love it! Thank you Colin!

Great idea!

Genius! Thank you

Awesome idea

Great idea! Thanks

Superb idea. I literally just came out of the shop after counter boring some holes to a guess at the depth. I have exactly the same mechanism as you and it's a bit of a lottery. Going to add this to my list of 1001 shop improvements I must have. Thanks Colin.

I have to say, i got a depth stop on my drill press, but its more like an "ish" kind of thing. This one really give a well acceptable accuracy as it looks like. I think i am gonna try to combine this with mine. thanks a lot Colin!

I liked the idea so I adapted it to my drill press.

I`ve been working on that idea so thanks a lot, time saved

What an innovative idea. Thank you!!

I don't know if you'll get this after all it's old. But here goes. After watching your video on mounting a caliper on a drill press, i went out and built one. I got one part mounted but couldn't figure out how to mount the other half of the caliper. I came in from my shop and reviewed your video and discovered I'd mounted the caliper wrong. Now it's right, thanks a hundred times!!

Great idea. Going to use this on mine. I think I will benefit more from this then the bolt/nut combo I have.

Nice work! I really need to install that on my drill press. Thank you for sharing 👍😎🇦🇺

Such a Awesome rig, going to see how to make adjustments for my drill press. Take Care

This a really good idea. Thanks for sharing!

Brilliant idea! ✌️

Absolutely great idea! I had fidgeting with the nuts on mine and they always seem to want o vibrate loose as I don’t over tighten them. This is on the to do list!

Great video, thanks for sharing!

Great idea Colin!

Great Idea

Brilliant Colin...ace

As always, very useful information, well and cheerfully presented. Again, thank you.

Kool ideal Colin, DRO for the drill press I like it.

Thank you for showing me how to build a new drill stop.

nice idea colin

Great idea

Thanks for the idea. Going to pick one up next I’m in Princess Auto

really enjoy the video, a great idea!!!

That was very clever and well put together, might have to try in on my press. Thanks again Colin, always learn and enjoy! Happy Holidays from DT in MT

How ingenious !!

Thats a Great Innovation....

Happy Holidays to you and your family, wishing you all the best for the New Year. Thank you for the many videos you've posted, I've really enjoyed them and learnt so much.

Nice Job!!

What a ripper idea, mate. 👍🏽 Definitely be incorporating this one in the shop. 👌🏽 Cheers.

Very cool!

Great idea and execution Colin. Merry Christmas.

I didn't think that was going to work. I'll be making one now😁 most of the time I go a little deeper and use hot glue to hold nuts and t-nuts in place. Great tip!

Top tinkering Colin!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😲

Great idea.

Totally brillant idea Colin! I will have to remember that. Have yourself a very Happy Holiday season...... 👍

very nice setup

Very nice fabricating Colin, works very well.

Brilliant idea Colin ! going to have to make one of those . Many thanks and a happy Christmas to you mate. Bram

I have a depth gauge setup similar to this but I used wood to mount the gauge. Wood was much easier to work with and it is very solid. I think it looks better too. I have it setup to slightly rotate so I can open the cover and change belt speeds.

Good video, and good tips

I'm supposed to finish Christmas shopping today, but now I have to go to the shop and modify my drill instead. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Well done mate, nice work and good idea.

Great job on the drill press upgrade Colin! Thanks For sharing the video with us and Merry Christmas!🎄🎁💖👌👍😎JP

Merry Christmas Colin to you and your family.

Yet another very good idea :-)

great thanks!

That looks like a great idea! Might be very useful too :D

That was great Colin, I have just bought myself a drill press for Christmas. I have a metal calliper. Guess I’m going to be out in the shed fairly soon. Thanks for a great video. Merry Christmas Graham 🇬🇧🇬🇧🌲

You are clever I like it thanks 👍

Cool use for the low-cost calipers from Princess Auto (Canada) or Harbor Freight (USA). Their sensors and electronics are definitely "good enough" for the precision needed in woodworking. I'm going to implement this on my 1930's vintage radial drill press.

Pretty cool idea colin happy holidays to you and yours

Very clever! How about trying one of those handles that comes with a hammer drill for the chuck collar and incorporating the digital slide on to the handle? It might look a little cleaner

Clever.

Many digital callipers have a soft off switch design, meaning the battery is always in use, awaiting the user to operate the unit. This draws current and flats the battery and can give false readings at a later date when the device is running low on power. Therefore many engineers have found a few hacks to add a battery hard off switch function, (videos are on youtube) so they do not need to remove the battery regularly to either save the battery or replace it. It is a good idea to test a digital calliper with a test block gauge regularly if the unit has a soft off design.

فكرة رائعة جدا 👍👍

Hi Colin! Ebay runs the same caliper if you're patient from China for about 5 bucks. It takes about 3 weeks to arrive and they do a GREAT job of packing it! I just got two last month.

Wow.. 👍

i like that

i dont know anything on wood working and dont plan to do wood working but this channel looks interesting so i subscribed

Hi, love your program. I always see in woodworking channel's making jig's that are great solving problems and making woodworking easier but there's a problem that I haven't seen many people solve, like noise reduction solutions for making homemade machines or jig's that lowers the noise you maybe have neighbors that don't like the noise of your tools especially router's and hand saws. Can you please if you have ideas please let me know how to solve this. Ty

Have a new Harbor Freight drill press I’d used to drill holes in a wood strips to cover rows of bolt heads. On or about the 30th drill, the depth gauge/stop snapped off (bridged gauge mount on head & chuck) Made of plastic-could not believe it. I am a 65 yr old female, weight 100 lbs, & to think I could put “undo” pressure on the handles to snap that piece off is telling how weak/flimsy the part is.. Still under warranty, could get a replacement part, but why bother? Think I’ll go with your build. Thank You! 👍🇺🇸🇨🇱

Very nice indeed. Well done and explained as well. Be careful when you want to change speeds. It appears like the cover will hit the caliper body.

I have been watching the KZfaq machinists, they sometimes use digital calipers to measure carriage and tail stock movement. That being said they use magnets to attach the calipers so they can be removed and installed easier.

Very nice idea Colin. One thing I don't like about the cheap digital calipers is they eat through batteries so quick. I don't know why. Expensive ones at work go years on one battery. My cheap one at home kills them so quickly, I quit using it. So I use dial indicator at home.

Hey Colin, I don't even own a drill press (yet). But I enjoyed your video. Straight talk, to the point, good work flow, great camera angles ... and you edit all of the useless stuff out of your video. Very nice job! From a very rookie DIY-er, THANKS! 😉👌🏻

That's a awesome idea. And also what is that watch you are wearing? That looks pretty cool.

Interesting. What would be a good set of "Forstner" Bits to purchase bud? Cheers for the video :-)

Will the top cover over the drive pulleys still open up to change speeds?

Can you give us an update how well it's been working and how well it has held up? What would you charge if anything. Thanks for all Good advice over the years

Collin what is the brand name of your drill press and do you like it or would you buy a different type

Princess Auto. You're in Canada, eh! 🇨🇦

Excellent but I have the drill press with the sliders on the left side as you mentioned. Would be nice to see you make a video on the other type as well. Otherwise yours looks very well made.

👍👍👍

How do you change speeds?

Hi Colin 👍

Ollari’s just made the exact same setup a couple days ago on their channel

Nice. I'd consider getting a non-electronic fractionsl caliper. No batteries, the reading doesn't jump around like digital, and you can use fractions instead of decimal

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that you are going to have a problem when you need to change the belts for a different speed. Your caliper is sticking up where the cover swings to. Bang! Clang! Broken caliper! I have a metal mill-drill and have added a digital caliper to it for precise depth control. But on my drill presses the thousandth of an inch accuracy is a bit more than what is called for. Instead of adding a caliper to them, I have simply added a better depth stop. I added a threaded rod with what is called a speed nut. The speed nut has a button on it that allows it to be moved up and down the threaded rod without turning it. Then, when the adjustment is close, it can be rotated for a fine adjustment. And it can be returned to the top/full depth setting in an instant. The speed nut makes this kind of depth stop actually usable because, unlike a regular nut that must be rotated through many turns to adjust it and then many more turns to restore the full depth movement, it works instantly. The up side is that it actually gets used, instead of just being left to the top setting, gathering dust and rust. And it allows fine adjustments, unlike the collar and clamping screw depth stops on so many DPs. In addition, an actual depth stop can be set once and used for many holes or counter sinks or counter bores without even looking at it again. Much faster than using a digital caliper and accurate enough for wood work and even for most metal work. I use mine all the time.

I go to Princess Auto all the time. If I feel like stepping it up a notch I'll hit a place called KMS tools. Little bit higher end stuff.

What is the Casto this machinwhen Delivered

How long did the plastic vernier gauge last Colin? Or, are you still using it please? Tony.

Very well thought off. But I already have a digital diplay on my drill. Thanks for sharing. Willy from Belgium. 👍👍👍

A nice arrangement. However, when one looks at the fully erected depth gauge (as shown at 9:51/10:56) one wonders what would happen if whilst one is drilling one needs to change the speed of the drill-press. The current arrangement necessitates stopping everything and dismantling the calliper which, as is, prevents the pulley-cover from opening. Maybe one solution would be to cut the calliper where the calibrated scale ends. Then the calliper would not interfere with the opening of the pulley-cover,but one would need to also relocate the bracket(s) the hold the calliper rails together, at the front end of the instrument.

Use the caliper to measure the nut thickness.

Nice way .. But to measure the thickness of the screw, put it on the surface of the wood and put the drill on it without running, then lift the screw and lower the drill to the surface of the wood. You will get the thickness of the screw

how does that work out when you change speed

I like the idea but the way you have it mounted you now have to remove it if you are needing to open the sheave cover to change speeds or any other maintenance.