Make a habit of checking that your drill press table is true every time you
start work on a knife, and at least twice during the process of making a folder.
A dial indicator is the tool of choice for doing this, and if you have
experience in using one, and if you have one, use it. But if you don’t have
one, a piece of stiff wire will work as well.
Make a bend at one end of the wire and place the bent end in the drill
chuck. The other end should not extend over the edge of the table. Bring the
table up until the tip of the wire touches it. Loosen the bolt or bolts
holding the table by no more than one quarter of a turn.
Turn the chuck and the wire will sweep in a circle over the face of the
table. And here comes the trick. Don’t look at the wire to see if it touches
the table, even with good lighting you won’t be able to see if there is a
small gap between the wire tip and the table. Listen and you will hear it
scratch across the surface. (Turning off the radio does help!) Adjust the
table until the wire tip touches the table equally on all sides.
A tap or two on the high side (where the scratching sound is the loudest)
with a leather faced mallet is usually enough. Tighten the bolt or bolts,
check again. If the process of tightening the bolt/s threw the table out of
line, give it a couple of taps on the high side.
If your drill press was made by the Fu-King Tool Company of Formosa, like
mine, then chances are that the table is either convex or concave, or higher
in front than at the back. This can only be corrected by taking the table to
an engineer with a milling machine who can re-cut the surface of the table, or
by grinding and filing it by hand, constantly checking with straight edge and
the wire until it is flat and true.
A
drill press with a table that is not perpendicular to the drill bit leads to
poor fit when making knives, and will cause folder blades to lie off centre when
opened or closed, or even worse, cause the blade to bind on the liners.