Its certainly feasible but whether its really appropriate given the sizes of components normally held in a drill and the relatively high probability of inadvertently adding extra, un-tapped holes is a different matter. I used an aluminium optical breadboard from Thor Labs having 6 mm tapped holes on 25 mm centres as a work-table on my BCA jig borer. Quite satisfactory and a great improvement on trying to fix things to the built in rotary table. But this was primarily for milling relatively small components and very limited drilling for tapped holes and the like. My feeling is its not going to work that well as the normal table on a drill where the primary objective is to get the component with the hole centre under the drill chuck. When you don't have screw feeds wiggling around is usually easier with some sort of one hand operated clamping arm or device to lock the part down once its in the right place.

That said the smaller Thor Labs aluminium breadboards aren't stupidly expensive **LINK**. and one might well be worth the cost as another work mounting option if appropriate for what you do. The anodising is hard and durable. I'd probably not fix it to a machine, just fit when appropriate. Maybe clamp parts down on the bench then take the whole thing to the machine. Many smaller machines are a bit short on space when trying to set tricky parts up.

My pillar drill is an ex industrial Pollard 15 AY with square column and screw elevation so space and weight aren't great issue. My basic work-holder is a 6" cross vice with the horizontal and vertical Vee'd jaw set. For most jobs that won't go directly in the vice I use sacrificial tables made from ex-kitchen cabinet materials fitted with a wide tongue underneath for the vice to grab. Being sacrificial I'm unworried by extra holes, especially as there is a lifetime supply of material up in the shop attic.. A power screwdriver and wood screws rapidly takes care of tricky clamping things. If there is no other alternative I will reluctantly remove the cross vice but that takes a deal of persuasion as its 'kin heavy.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 12/01/2017 14:34:52

It would be a great project for someone to scale down something like this

**LINK**

for use on smaller machines. I have a shop built copy of this vise on a full size drill press and love it.

Clive,

Mine is a full sized vise. The shaft is about 1" x 16" and the jaws are about 6" long and about 1 1/2" high. There is a 1/4" step in the top of the jaws to hold work off the table and avoid the "arc of shame". I imagine a 1/2 to 2/3 scale version would fit hobby machines. I may make a drawing of my vise and make it available in case anyone wants to scale it.

John