Power tools for mostly hand tool shops--a drill press table

I recently posted about the three power tools I would want even if my shop were small.  One of those is a drill press and the post got me to thinking about an improved drill press table.  I made one years ago that was serviceable but it had numerous deficiencies.

Here is what I have come up with:

Yes it is underwhelming but a lot of design effort went into it to get the dimensions just right.  There are so many points of adjustment on a drill press table that I learned the hard way it's important to make them easily and conveniently accessible.  In addition, you need to be able to lift the table off at times.  I also found that I wanted the table to be quite wide.  These considerations are what drove these dimensions.

The shelves and the brace across the front enhance rigidity and provide a convenient place for accessories that I want to keep at hand like hold downs and bits.

Another thing I did was extend the t-track beyond the rear of the table.  This allows the fence stops to sit behind the table.  You need access to the crank that raises and lowers the table but you also want as much distance between the chuck and the fence for wide work pieces as you can get.

  

 Finally, I made a long fence with an embedded t-track.  This is convenient for side stops.  The fence is not attached to the back stops so they can be angled and the fence can be moved to one side or the other.  In the past, I found that the torque generated by some operations moved the fence.  My way around this is to have the two back stops and to clamp the fence to the table as well if I am doing something that will generate substantial torque.

This is a very simple design but I am extremely happy with it.