Thread: Drilling vertical stock that is too long for a a drill press

Good videos. Have pondered the same issues so bought a vertical and horizontal mill.

When building book case like structures I moved away from the idea of dowels, biscuits and nails. Bought a router, guide and appropriate bit to dove tail the corners. The shelves rested in rebates cut into the sides. Dovetails are really nice, just can't see them when the case is 2.4 metres high.

Hello All,

Well, a less flash - however, functional version of the Japanese solution to the problem of drilling long stock has been constructed. Instead of using my big bench mounted press drill I dug out my older and smaller drill press. I retired the old drill press because I needed a larger capacity for when I was drilling holes in square hollow section and steel plate for reinforcing my trailer when I fitted a ute crane to it. The old, although faithful old drill press was just not up to the task.

However, the decision to use the smaller drill press did turn around and bite me a bit. The smaller size meant the beam had a smaller horizontal reach. I followed Japanese instructions and glued and screwed an extra board to the frame to hold the long stock in place. The smaller drill press did not have enough reach. Even with this board removed and the drill press stand right up against the side of the timber jig did not have enough reach. It did clear the outside edge of the jig - however, not enough to reach the centre of the board to be drilled. So, I measured the height of the drill press base and then cut an access slot through the wall of the timber jig. This allowed the drill press base to slide in enough for the drill to be reach the centre thickness of the timber stock. A speed square measurement and two small 'G' clamps to secure the stock and it worked great. Two dowel holes drilled.

By using the old - smaller drill press on the vertical 'stakes' lengths I can use the bigger drill press to drill the top and bottom pieces of the shelf frame. The vertical stakes are drilled outside the shed and with a couple of paces I am the big drill press. All very convenient and much more accurate than relying on my buggered eyes to pin the tail on the donkey and hope the drill holes are aligned.

Some improvements will be made to the long stock drilling jig. Two or four cuphead bolts fixed to the bottom plate - the part that rests on top of the bench - that go through the drill press base slots and some steel plates and four nuts to secure the drill press to the base plate. At the moment the drill press can move around a bit. This of course can effect accuracy - which it the whole reason I went down this road today. Overall results - despite the suggested improvement - is something that I am happy with. A bit of a sand and some black paint will make things pretty. My progress on the remainder of the couple of domestic duty jobs handed down from upon high by SWMBO will find greater progress and feature an accuracy that I am much happier with - well fingers crossed about the increased speed and accuracy.

A couple of end stops could be added to the jig for large batch jobs. These end stops could eliminate the need to use a speed square to 'square' the long stock. If there were two series of ends stops it would also remove the need to measure where each of the dowels are position in the end of the stock.

The best thing about the project was that it was one of those rare events where I had off cuts on, glue and screws on hand. So no need to jump in the car to drive to the hardware store to buy stuff.

Oh, bugger - could some technological guru please re-arrange the three photographs so they are positioned correctly? Thank you.

Yes, I make things pretty after I know they work. I will sand down the jig and paint it now that the concept has been proven.

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello All,

......

So, as I tend to do after visiting eBay for ideas - without much success, I went to YouTube. I found the following clip from a very clever Japanese woodworker. I just need some ply, a saw bench that can cut 45 degrees, some glue, screws and some clamps. I should be cooking with gas. While making this bit of kit will slow the progress down for clip Accessed precise axial drilling jig for long wood [woodworking] - YouTube (Accessed 10th March 2024).


Kind regards

Interesting stuff. FYI, the guy in the videos is South Korean, not Japanese, but evidently a fan of traditional Japanese carpentry.

You could use a doweling jig and a cordless drill.
H6500 Dowelling Jig for Concealed Joints - Haron
H4500 Economy Dowelling Jig - Haron

I used something similar, but much older, than the economy one above when making a storage box for my woodworking planes.
Hand cut dovetails for the main carcass and doweled joints for the drawers.


Colin

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Interesting stuff. FYI, the guy in the videos is South Korean, not Japanese, but evidently a fan of traditional Japanese carpentry.

Hello Arapiles,

Thank you for letting me know about my misidentifying the bloke's nationality. He is a good carpenter and has some clever ideas - regardless of their nationality. I subscribed to the channel. I look forward to checking out the channel more to see what else is in store.

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello Colin,

Thank you for the reminder about the dowelling jig and posting up some photographs. The box looks very well constructed, Colin. Did you finish the rocking horse you were working on a while ago? I think it was your second one that you made.

Your posting about dowelling jigs just reminded me that I used to have one a decade or two ago. It was one of the Stanley Dowelling jigs. This was before I had my new shed and proper shelves to store things away. Either all or most of the metal sleeves that fit different sized drill bits got separated from the main tool. I noticed in order to find a picture of my old dowelling jig on eBay the comparison someone has the sheer audacity to include the word 'vintage' in their description. I am sure I bought the tool new. The steady much of the years trooping by again! 'Vintage' indeed!

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello Colin,

Thank you for the reminder about the dowelling jig and posting up some photographs. The box looks very well constructed, Colin. Did you finish the rocking horse you were working on a while ago? I think it was your second one that you made.

Two rocking horses finished, a bow rocker and a rocking zebra that need finishing and an old Roebuck (Australian made in the '70's ?) that needs restoring. Land Rovers & work are taking up too much time at present and both the horse & zebra are too big to get easily into my daily driver to get to the Woodwork Club on a Wednesday evening. The one evening a week is a break from work, household duties & Land Rovers but a lot of parts for working on Land Rovers have been made there.

One of my doweling jigs is from the UK so pre '97, others from Trash & Treasure markets
I was given two recently by a gentleman in his 80's as he no longer uses them, I re-gifted them.

The box for the planes isn't big enough already..... there's a plough plane that was my Dad's, a Compass plane and a few others plus I recently acquired a few more moulding planes !
There are a lot more in another box which I probably need to sell on at some point as I rarely use them.

Because the plane box looks like a nice piece of furniture it's allowed in the house so at least everything says warm & dry !



Colin

G'day Lionel, it's a bit hard to see for sure, but it looks like you could tilt your drill table 90degrees, which would save needing to make up an angle plate to hold the stock in line with your spindle axis.