Pillar drill riser handle

[Stephen H]

Hi all, new to the site. Here is my latest project as an introduction

Pillar drill riser handle.

I decided to put a table onto my pillar drill as the one that came with it was quite small and designed for engineers. I use mine mainly for woodworking so needed a bigger area and a fence. I looked on YouTube for ideas and came across some but there were quite a lot of American ones who seem to have money to burn especially when it came to how the bed winds up and down and one looked like a recycled back axel from a quad bike (where would you get stuff like that in the UK

So I came up an English version using bits out of my garage!

I removed the handle and replaced it with a large nut (18mm) which I filed out the thread part until it fit the shaft on the drill where the handle had been, I then drilled and tapped ones of the flats, tapped the hole and fitted a grub screw. I got an 18mm socket, knuckle joint + extension bar. I had a piece that I think came out of an old wrench which was a 1/2” square at both ends and fitted the sockets of the extension bar, I created a round bit on one end to fit the handle . I then made some simple brackets to hold everything together and in the place I wanted it - Job done and it works great

 

[ChaiLatte]

I like it. Brains over money every time. And you can put the drill back to original if required.

In your design, it looks like the universal joint is just acting as a spacer and making the extension a little longer.

If others took up your design, using the flexibility of the UJ would allow the handle not to be aligned with the shaft on the drill (i.e. at an angle both in a horizontal and a vertical plane) if so desired.

If you put a wooden washer around the top of the UJ (to stop it flopping downwards), you could remove the handle and extension piece when not in use (maybe to create more space or so not to hit yourself on them).