Tee Slot Drill Press Clamps, Easy and Quick

If you have a pillar/pedistal drilling machine I am willing to bet that at some time you have held something to drill a hole and the thing has been whipped out of your grasp leaving you thinking "I need to be able to clamp it down before I get hurt".

I had that very experience as I was part way through a number of sheet metal pieces that needed a large hole drilled through.

G clamps are not the answer as they rarely reach near enough the middle of the table and I usually find that the threaded handle gets in the way whichever way up you try to use them.

I had a thought that maybe I could modify some toggle clamps for quick use clamps.

Step 1: Quick Release and Quick Action

I wanted the clamps to be easy to fit and remove from the drill table and the obvious way to do it is to use the tee slots.

The gap in the clamp frame is 4mm wide, I had some 3mm x 35mm steel to make the tee slot pieces

The slots are 11mm wide and the table is 14mm thick so that gave me the size of the cutouts, an acurate drawing was produced :)

I decided on roll pins to hold them together.

Step 2: The Tee Slot Pieces

The first cuts were done with a cutting wheel in my angle grinder. A couple of holes were drilled to make it easier to chisel out the remaining metal. The slots were finished on my milling machine but could just as easily be done with a hand file.

Step 3: Assembly

Once the tee pieces had been checked for fit the hole for the roll pin needed to be drilled.

As the plate is a loose fit in the clamp frame I used a bit of expanded metal jammed into the gap to keep the tee piece in place for drilling.

A roll pin was them driven in to hold it together

Job done!

Step 4: Do They Work?

Yup, drop into a slot twist to grip the table, press lever to lock the toggle onto the work piece.

Easy to adjust easy to use, danger of injury avoided.