Homemade Vertical Drill Press Clamp

Perfect for drilling pen blanks or any small pieces vertically in your drill press, easy to build and a must have drill press jig.

I always suggest watching the build video so that you have a better understanding of the project.

https://youtu.be/WEAv8imeBAQ

For this project I needed one 3/4 of an inch board, 3 inches wide by 3 feet long. Going through my scraps I found a board I could use for this project, and starting with my table saw by ripped the board down to the width I needed.

With my now 3 inch wide board, I needed to cut it to the right length. For this project I needed two pieces that measure 16 inches long, to achieve this I used my miter saw.

Next I needed to create a v-groove in both piece, this groove will run across the with of both pieces on one side only. I created this groove 7 inches from one end using a v-groove bit in my router table. With the groove completed and both pieces held together they should create channel as shown.

With my v-groove created I clamped my two boards together in the vise making sure the v-groove was lined up in both pieces, and then I attached a butt hinge at one end.

I now have a vertical clamping jig, perfect for things like pen blanks, dowels, small knobs, anything I need to safely hold in a vertical situation at my drill press. For example with a pen blank, I just insert the blank into the grove then with my hand apply squeezing pressure to the end of the jig with out the hinge.

Here is an example of me drilling out a pen blank, it works great.

This is a really easy clamp to build, and if you use your drill press as much as I do this is a must have in your accessories for it.