Pay attention

I always use a sacrificial piece of wood on top of the metal base.

Ouch! The other day, I threw together a “table” for my drill press. I’ll take the camera out to the shop later, and shoot a pic.

Snapped a few shots today. Whipped this up, yesterday. Going to put a Masonite sacrificial insert in the middle, but haven’t gotten to it yet.

I made this years ago the back stop moves along the slots, the center square pops out for easy replacement, the slots in the center are for a vice “clamp” to hold small hard to hold parts

As you can see I missed the mark myself a few times.LOL

Very nice!

Nice.

Great ideas.

Man im sorry. Ive been there many years back. Yeah i put a rockler table on mine and have not had that issue in a long time. Darn i just cursed myself. Lol

Sorry about your misfortune. Your experience has happened to most woodworkers. The problem with having a bigger hole in the metal table would come into play when drilling small pieces that couldn’t comfortably span the gap. Some kind of auxiliary table top that can be replaced when needed is perfect.