Drill Press Upgrade

Two issues with my drill press have annoyed me since I bought it: there is no quill lock and the depth stop is a nuisance to use. In this Instructable I will remedy both issues using machinery at the Techshop, http://techshop.ws, in San Jose,CA. 

I removed the depth stop adjustment bar and nuts along with the guide frame from the drill press. I'll use a length of 1 inch dia. aluminum rod stock for the new parts I'm making and I'll use a 1 Inch collet to hold the rod stock in the lathe for machining.
Using 1 inch stock in a 1 inch collet calls for some gentle persuasion, emphasis on gentle. Collets are precision pieces of equipment and need to be treated accordingly. 

The first step is to face the rod stock and then provide a exact start point for drilling using a center drill.

The final inside diameter is 5/8 inch and it's easier to achieve by drilling it in a couple of steps. Like Mom said; "take small bites".

I'm making a couple of collars and I decided to make them 1/2 inch tall ( or thick or long, whichever you prefer). This dimension is based on the fact that the collars will be tapped 1/4-20 and 1/2 inch leaves enough meat on either side of the tapped hole.
I used a parting tool to part off the collars and then returned the collars to the collet chuck for facing.
Once the 5/8 hole was drilled I could have cut the collars to length using the bandsaw or cold saw, but I had enough stock and I had a parting tool, so that's the way I did it.

At the milling machine I held each collar, elevated on a set of parallels, in the machine vice . Again, I used a center drill to establish the hole location followed by the appropriate tap drill. While the collar was still in position I hand tapped it 1/4-20.

I next drilled and tapped the face of the guide frame for a 1/4-20 thread. 

Reassembled on my drill press I now have a  convenient depth stop and  user friendly quill lock.
Note the classy "Finger Nuts".