How To Build A DIY Mobile Drill Press Stand
- Workshop DIY Projects
- April Wilkerson
- Updated: March 4, 2023
Thinking about building your own DIY mobile drill press stand? Check out this easy DIY project where I built a drill press stand on wheels!
In this video I’m going to show you how I made this drill press stand that is on casters so it’s mobile, has drawers with some simple storage organizing built ins, annnd has two adjustable side supports that can be raised to be level with the deck of the drill press table. Lets get into how I built it.
This build took one sheet of 3/4” plywood which made up the entire body and the shelves, then one sheet of 1/2” ply which I used for the back and all the drawers. I started off by cutting down my sheets over at my workbench with my track saw then took them to my table saw when they were a manageable size.
If you’d like to build the same, I do have a full set of plans with a cut list and material list. Click here for those.
Once I had all my body pieces cut I grabbed what will be my two side pieces and started marking off where the shelves would be placed. After marking them on one, I butted the second board up to it and transferred the markings.
Next I set up my Armor Tool pocket hole jig and started drilling pocket holes in the shelves. Ha, I’m still not over how cool it is that this jig is self adjusting.
Since drawer slides are expensive, I hardly ever install them in shop furniture. Instead I make a shelf then a drawer rests on top of the shelf and slides in and out. This has always worked great for me, but of course note another option is to scrap the shelves and use slides.
After getting all the pocket holes drilled on both sides of all four shelves, I started attaching them. I started at the top and worked my way down to the bottom because I placed the location of those pocket holes on the bottom side of the shelves and this makes it’s easier to get a drill in there. However, I also spaced these drawers out so that a drill could fit in between each shelf so I wouldn’t find myself stuck on how to attach the other pocket holes once I flipped it over.
When I was done with the one side and I was ready to flip it over, I set the other side piece into place and laid down my beads of Titebond glue before actually flipping. I skip the glue on some shop projects incase I want to leave myself room for making adjustments in the future, but on this one I don’t see myself wanting to change it up and the glue on all of these joints will really help with stiffening it up. And now you can see that I worked my drill in-between each shelf in order to secure this side of things. Making sure I was keeping those shelves lined up to my pencil mark, keeping them squared up.
Those are in, next I grabbed the bottom piece and started attaching it. To make this easier I flipped the unit on it’s side and started at the corners. To make sure I don’t end up splitting the edge of the plywood, I’m using a predrill on all of these holes. Also after I secured one side I used a clamp to help pull in the ply and get things nice and flush.
Before moving to the top I attached four casters to the bottom. Even though this stand doesn’t move hardly ever, it’s still very nice to have it on casters for the few times it does. I went with four swiveling casters.
Ok next I turned it around and repeated the same steps for attaching a top. On my old stand, I only had a single sheet of ply as my top and it’s really too thin to bolt down the drill press to. So on this stand I decided to double up the thickness of the top to give myself more meat for the bolts. I slid the unit to the floor, applied glue, then used a few brad nails to attach the second top. Annnnd that’s the body done!
Moving on to making the drawers. As I said in the beginning, these are made from a sheet of 1/2” plywood and after breaking it down using my track saw I used my miter saw and table saw to get everything to their final needed dimensions.
Before assembling though I grabbed what will be the four drawer faces and taped them together. This is so I could cut in all the handles at the same time, if you do this of course just make sure all the edges are nice and flush so they all turn out the same.
Next I used my Woodpeckers speed square to mark off the handle shape then used my bandsaw to cut it out. Note that this is an easy way of doing a handle but it does create an opening for dust to get into the drawer. This is not an issue for me but note another option is to skip this step and attach a drawer pull to the outside.
Ok now to start assembling….I went with simple butt joint drawer construction for these drawers. I’ve made all my shop drawers this way and regardless of what I’ve put in them, they haven’t failed.
I use my SuperJaws to help hold pieces in place while I apply glue and brad nails. I start by attaching both of the side pieces then flip things around to attach the front and the back. Then that’s it, I always make sure to either let the glue squeeze out dry or wipe it off before sliding the drawers into the body. It wouldn’t be funny to find the drawers accidentally glued to the shelves.
Moving on to the wings, or side supports. It will be extremely handy to have adjustable supports that can go up and down to be level with the deck of the drill press. I started off by measuring and marking where to punch a through hole….making sure to move the drawer out of the way so it would be in the clear.
This hole is so I can place a bolt through the inside and stick out to fit into a slot cut into the wing. And I have to apologize because my camera battery died as I was making this cut and I didn’t realize it, but I use a fence on my plunge router to make this slot. If you don’t have a router another option would be to drill a hole and use a jigsaw.
But you can see that the wing’s slot fits right over this bolt so now I can add a washer and nut then slide it up and down….tightening down on the nut when it’s at the height I need. While this works great, it does have issues staying square so to fix that issue, I cut a few additional pieces to secure to either side and block it in. I used a square to first make sure the wing was square then glue and used brad nails to attach these pieces. And there we go….that works just as it should!
While I’m sure the 3/4” thickness would have been fine, I still went ahead and attached another piece of plywood to the top side of this wing’s edge to widen out the footprint some. Then I also attached a support piece underneath it. Now when I have something long at the drill press I can raise the wings up to the height needed to support it, but then when I’m done I can lower them back down. These top flanges I added also double as a convenient handle.
I was using hardware I had on hand, which is why the bolts are super long. To cut them down I used this awesome new electric cut off wheel by Milwaukee. I left just enough room for the washer and also a larger knob. This knob will be way easier to grab and turn over a regular nut, but another option would be to use a wing nut.
Alright, you could actually stop there, however before calling mine quits I decided to add in a few drawer organizers to help make these drawers a tad bit more functional. I first cut down some masonite board I had, and the only reason I chose this material is because it was the thinnest stuff I had in my shop at the time. Next I cut two strips of 1/2” ply then glue and nailed them into the inside of the drawers. I just got this new Makita Cordless Finish Nailer and Battery and Charger Pack and I’m loving having it as an addition to my shop. The cordless capability allows me to grab it on the go without having to mess with an air compressor and hose. And it works for a great amount of time on a single charge.
You can see this creates a shelf that I can rest the masonite on. To stiffen up the board I ripped a few more pieces of 1/2” ply and trimmed around the perimeter then filled in in-between with the same cut offs. This creates small pockets where I’ll be able to place spare drill bits that don’t have a place in an index. After owning an index for a while bits get broken or lost and I purchase a new one. This will give me a place to store the bits left over but allow me to toss the bulky box.
By creating this sliding tray I can place my full indexes on the bottom of the drawer and just move this trey back and forth to get to the front or back of it. After making this first one I loved it so much I also made one for my brad nails, which for some reason I always keep in my drill press stand. One cubby fits one full box of nails perfectly so for my most popular sizes like 1 1/4” and 3/4” I dedicated two cubbies to them, writing in pencil at the top of each one to label the size.
And there we are, a pretty darn functional drill press stand. Keep in mind that while the sliding drawer tray and adjustable side supports are great for this tool, you can also implement these ideas for a variety of other tools in the shop.
I have a set of plans for this DIY Mobile Drill Press Stand project if you’re interested.
That’s it for this one! I’ll see you on whatever I’m building next.
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