Helpful hold-downs

Keep your fingers safe and your workpiece steady with a few pieces of wood and the turn of a T-nut.

For drilling jobs, it's essential that you hold the workpiece securely to the table and against a fence before engaging the bit. With smaller workpieces you may not have clamps with the necessary jaw depth, and, as shown in the example left, you don't want to get your fingers close to knuckle-busting circle cutters. Hold-downs are the answer, and here's a version that will only set you back the cost of the knobs and all-thread rod. (Many woodworking catalogs carry such knobs.) Use the full-size pattern and drawing, below, to make a hold-down.

We drilled three holes into each side of our drill-press table for accommodating workpieces of various sizes. Each hole is outfitted with a T-nut for accepting the 1/4" all-thread rod.