Clamps for a drill press .

 If you don't have any slots in your drill table. you are going
to have problems holding youir work down. 

G’day; I have had one of those El Cheepo Taiwanese drill
presses for a long time, and it has slots in the table. So what
did I do? Shaped a piece of fibreboard to fit exactly underneath
and actually glued it in place so’s I could use common (or
workshop) “G” clamps - or cramps, as the Americans say. You see,
the drill table of these machines has a money-saving (to the
manufacturer, of course) web cast as part of the table underside,
and the G clamps can’t find a place to fit properly because of
that web; hence the MDF glued insert. Why not use the slots and
bolts? Because they are damn fiddly, you most often need a clear
table, and the G clamps are much easier and quicker to use. And
by the way, I have no problem with my El Cheepo drilling 13mm
holes and even 0.3mm holes in steel; sterling and gold are easy.
I often drill 0.6mm holes in sterling - without breaking drills
too! Use the highest drill speed, wet the drill with a little
spit on the finger (careful where you’ve had that finger) and
take it easy; let the drill feel it’s way through. You’ll see
the little curls of metal grow rapidly, but lift the drill to
break them off; you don’t want to catch them in another part. I
use that same El Cheepo to drill two inch flat-bottomed shallow
holes in hardwood to fit my expansion-mode chuck on my
wood-lathe. The El Cheepo isn’t a bit keen on that, but gentle
persuasion always works better than brute force and ignorance.
Don’t it? Told you I’d soon carry on with the pontification, eh?
John Burgess,
@John_Burgess2

John, You can get specially shaped clamps for drill tables. They
just bolt through the holes in the drill table and can be
tightened down with a spanner. Incidentally, most drill tables
have a cast web underneath. It does save money and metal. It also
makes the table stonger and more ridgid. Richard W UK