Making a drill press table

I’m building a large auxiliary table for my drill press. I glued a piece of 3/4" birch plywood on top of a piece of 3/4" MDF using Titebond II to glue the two pieces together. I’m going to put screws up from the bottom, through the MDF and into the plywood.
From what I understand, both plywood and MDF are stable and don’t expand and contract with the weather. It will be in a dry space so I’m not worried about the MDF getting wet and falling apart. Mostly did it like this to keep cost down a bit since MDF is so much less expensive than plywood.
I used a dado set to put four dados in the plywood, front to back, to put T-track in for a fence and for hold-down clamps.
My question is, does this sound like a reasonable approach?
Does anyone have any thoughts about making a table like this?

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MDF is even more dimensionally stable than ply, but sags more than a quality plywood. This usually isn’t an issue for something as small as a drill press table.
T track is great for so many different woodworking jigs and fixtures, definitely headed the right direction there.
I might suggest making both a high and low fence for added versatility. The one thing you didn’t mention is a sacrificial insert. With even occasional use this fixture will get chewed up pretty quickly and being able to swap out blocks and have s fresh surface is great both for work holding and protecting work from blowout.
One additional thought is making sure there’s plenty of room to get clamps on ghere for opperations that need more than just a fence. That means a good ammount of space around the stock table for clamp purchase and, if your table is huge, maybe even some interior cutouts to slip clamps into (huge tables might want for more than just doubled up MDF too).
Happy making!

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I was originally going to use two layers of plywood but decided to try the MDF on the bottom layer. I’m hoping the ply will help keep the MDF from sagging but I put the dados in the plywood before gluing the two layers together and it ended up bowing a bit.
That’s a good idea having a high and a low fence. The one I had planned to make is 3" tall aluminum extrusion from Rockler.
And thanks, I’ll definitely put a sacrificial insert in the top. Would MDF be a good choice for the insert or is there another material that would work better? Since the top layer of plywood is 3/4" thick, do you think an insert that’s 1/2" MDF would work?
I think there’ll be plenty of room on the table in front of the fence. The table I’m making is 2’ front to back and 3’ side to side. It has the four T-tracks, approximately equally spaced from left to right and running from front to back of the table. I plan to use the outer ones closest to the edges for the fence lock-downs and there’ll be room in front of the fence for using all four tracks for hold down clamps.
Any other ideas from anyone would be much appreciated since this is the first time I’ve tried to build something like this.

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For the insert I use 1/4" Masonite / Hardboard.

I included a dust port from underneath that works well if you are using the drill press as a spindle sander. Now that I have a dedicated spindle sander I find the dust port works as a light duty vacuum table.

Bill

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@wjt Thank you for the ideas Bill. I appreciate that.
I do have some 1/4" hardboard on hand so I could use that for the insert. I’m making the pocket for the insert offset from center going front to back. It will be 3" wide and 4.5" front to back. I was planning on being able to flip the insert end to end when one end gets chewed up too bad. The only reason I was thinking about using 1/2" MDF is so I could flip the insert end to end as well as turn it over to use the other side too. But I do like the idea of a more shallow pocket and using the hardboard as you suggested. If that didn’t work well I could always go back and make the pocket deeper and go the MDF route.
I like the idea of a dust port too. I already have a small oscillating spindle sander, so I don’t need it for that, but it would maybe work well for wood chips when drilling. I’ve seen drill press tables where the fence has a dust port incorporated into the back side. I like that idea.
Thanks a lot for your input.

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