Drill Press Upgrade - Part 2 the drill press mobile base

This is a very simple platform constructed from birch plywood and some softwood I had lying on the shop shelves.

The distance between the side panels is made to suit your particular drill press base.

The side panels are glued and conventionally screwed to the plywood base. It is important to also use screws when gluing anything that is taking weight to plywood. The plywood face veneers are only held on with glue and are thin. So the glue between the plywood layers itself probably won't fail but the thin wood veneer may shear away.

The axles I used were simply M8 (3/8") coachbolts. Their square ends are on the inner faces of the side boards.

There is also a large penny washer and nut holding the bolt securely. The washer and nut are set into a counter bored hole on the outside of the side boards.

There is a further washer, the wheel itself, another washer and a Nyloc locking nut holding each wheel onto the axle. When adjusting the Nyloc nut it is easy to give sufficient end float clearance to allow the wheels to freely rotate without slop.

The next part is the wheel blocking which also carries the jacking screws. This again is made from softwood. I put metal screw inserts into the underside to carry the jacking screws. The blocking is cut to suit the radius of the wheels and each one is glued and screwed to the mobile base fabrication.

The jack screws themselves have knobs fixed to them to allow you to jack easily from above. I fixed the knobs to the screws with locknuts. The blocking needs clearance to allow the knobs to screw down and operate. This picture shows my solution.

Then all edges are rounded off with a router roundover bit. This last part is not essential but makes for a neat appearance. The whole fabrication is sanded and finished with General Finishes Exterior 450.

I disassembled the drill press and placed the base onto the mobile base. I then drilled for metal screw inserts and used suitable bolts/washers to secure it to the mobile base. 

At the time of taking this photograph I didn't have the knobs fitted to the jacking screws

The result is a very firm linear mobile base with a low centre of gravity.