Drill Press Recommendation?

[RCW]

Looking for a bench-top drill press. I don't have a place for a floor one.

Variety of work, metal and wood, sanding, etc.

So far, this one has some of the features I think I want. Some of the low-end bench-tops have only 2" chuck travel, which isn't much.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-12-in-Variable-Speed-Drill-Press-4214/204994931


Amazon has the same price, no shipping $$$, etc.

You guys helped me pick Lincoln MP 210 welder and IR Air Compressor...

Thanks.

 

[SidecarFlip]

That would work for hobby type stuff but the lowest spindle speed isn't slow enough to spin anything bigger than a 1/2" drill


Too bad you don't live a bit closer. I have a very nice 16 speed Craftsman Floor drill I'm going to sell. Foot print is about 16x16 and it's just over 6 feet tall. All cast iron, ball bearing spindle with 8" of travel and cast iron table with a vice included.

I rarely use it. I use my Bridgport to drill with because it's back geared and will turn slowly.

For a benchtop drill, looks pretty good. Did you look at Harbor Freight and Grizzly,com per chance.

It will be Chinese like all the small ones are today.

 

[Daren Todd]

I have a central machinery floor model that around 6ft tall as well. Tag says the spindle speed goes from 240 to 3800 rpm. But looking at the tag by the belts and pulleys it shows the slowest speed at 200 rpm and the fastest speed of 3630 rpm.

On mine since I use it mainly for metal, I set it at the slowest speed and forget about it. With metal I've found the slower the speed, the better.

Haven't had any experience with a drill press and wood.

 

[hodge]

You are so limited in benchtop offerings. Do you not prefer a floor model, or not have any room?
When I started building stabilizers, I bought a benchtop- realizing real quick that it wouldn't remotely do what I need. I then bought a Porter-Cable from Lowe's. I've drilled over 40,000 holes through a mixture of 3/8" hot rolled and 1/2" cold rolled steel, and it still works great. I've replaced a couple of return springs for the spindle, and the belts a couple of times.
I now use a drill/mill, and have the Porter-Cable as a back up. For the money, it well exceeded my expectations, and I would call it a serious value.

 

[Chucktin]

Stand in front of the drill press and grab the chuck and try to rattle the chuck versus the collamn. If no movement look to see if leveling the base or platform (collumn at 90* to base) is possible/adjustable. If you find any play in any way run!

 

[BXHoosier]

If you plan on drilling steel with a bit larger than 1/2 inch, you will want a drill press capable of running slower than the 580rpm of the model you posted.

 

[RCW]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Do more metal work than wood lately. Definitely want RPM right to do that. Thanks for the education there.

Don't think I have a spot for a floor one. Would probably have to be in my wet cellar. Will have to explore further...tough when I need to store 5 ton of wood pellets for a while in garage, and the tractor is not going outside. Neither is the Mrs. vehicle!

Rules that one out.... will keep looking....

 

[William1]

Look at Jet as well.

I have limited space in my garage. My drill press is right up against the wall between two cars. Those times I am working with something large, I move the cars out, and drag the press out from the wall. A small price to pay for having a large drill press.
Drill presses are like tractors, get the largest you can reasonably fit to do the work you want. Weight and size adds stability.

 

[SidecarFlip]

My Craftsman is a Kalamazoo machine. I don't believe you can buy a homeowner drill press today that isn't Chinese. To get a non Chinese unit you need to step up to a Clausing or a Fosdick and those aren't home shop machines. 3 phase 220 or 440, not wall plug units.

 

[RCW]

Look at Jet as well.

I have limited space in my garage. My drill press is right up against the wall between two cars.

I have looked at Jet some. I've already found space for the 12" miter saw, etc....space was a problem with the air compressor. Ended up with a 20 gal I-R, which I've been more than pleased with. Just can't keep up with grinder...

3 phase 220 or 440, not wall plug units.

3-phase isn't an option here. I do have 220 in the garage for the welder, and have another outlet for what I thought was going to be an air compressor....just not room for a 60 gallon....so it's unused.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I have your problem, no 3 phase 220 and all my machines are 3/220 and they have to have very clean 3 phase power so static conversion don't work (a 3 phase Wye wound motor only needs the 3rd leg excited on startup. After that the motor will produce it's on T3 current but the effiicency is only about 85% rated power.

Because 2 of my machine tools are CNC and one is a servo drive LeBlond Toolroom lathe, I had to go to rotary conversion. I run a Gerhardt-Werner rotary converter to get a clean T3 leg. If I get lazy which I sometimes do, I'll stack my motors and turn off the converter. So long as my idle motors equal the horsepower rating of the working load, all is good.

I run up some pretty stout electric bills when the shop is busy.

 

[Yooper]

My Dad gave me this drill press (Taiwanese) over 30 years ago because it had too much play in the spindle like Chucktin is alluding to. I fixed it by drilling and tapping two 3/8-16 holes and then used some nylon cement anchors that the bolts would press against to remove the play. I like this DP so much that a few years ago I added a 3 phase motor and a vfd to so I could make it variable speed and reversible for tapping. Like most Chinese machine tools today, they can be made into a decent machine for the hobby people if you want to spend a little time refining the rough edges.

 

[WFM]

I have a floor model Rigid from Home Dump I bought like 10-12 yrs ago. I use it here in my welding shop that I run. It gets alot more use then the typical homeowner. It still has the original belt. Its hard to find anything not china made. I did travel to South Dakota and bought my press break from a company there that makes them right there in Iroquois SD. Anyway lots of drill presses to choose from.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

I bought a Taiwanese table top drillpress 30 years ago. Paid $270 for it. The premier tools come from Taiwan with their ISO 9001 standards. Delta was made in Taiwan for awhile and may still be. They had three tiers of quality and features. The best Chinese tools were inferior to the lowest Taiwanese grade. That is no longer true. But, given the choice, I would buy Taiwanese over Chinese just because of the manufacturing quality. I have loads of Taiwanese hand tools that nearly match some of my Snap On tools for a tiny fraction of the cost.

Good advice here but I'll add one more biggee no one has mentioned: WEIGHT.

I wanted a floor standing model but the dealer wanted $50 more for four feet of pole and a slightly bigger base. That was not in my budget back then. I caught bloody hell from the wife for the bench model. A few years later, when I built my first shop, I made cabinetry for that shop and one item was a "bench" very much like an industrial chest of drawers. Its seven feet long with three big roller slide drawers on each side. These hold a ton of tools and cutting/sanding disks. Its most important job though is supporting the drill press.

My press weighs 225 lbs. A flimsy bench won't cut it. My cabinet was double reinforced and topped with leftover oak flooring. It has held up the press and other tools for three decades. When I moved, getting the press down and back up nearly killed me. Figure out where to put it and make sure its right because moving the drill press is no fun.

Here is what I came up with. Notice it sits over the center of the cabinet which is reinforced. Glad I went bench mount. I have run out of floor.

Ray

 

[RCW]

Thanks for the tips. Taiwanese will be something to look for.

I was down in my cellar just now, and MAY have a spot for a floor-model drill press near power (new 20A-120v outlet circuit just for tools) that only gets a little wet occasionally.

It needs light in the area anyway, an LED fixture (or two) would be a snap.

Of course, it's a back corner....a 200-300lb machine....down the stairs....76" to cellar joists...by myself... could be interesting.....

A new "Some assembly required" unit might be a good thing!

The joist height might/could be a problem for raising the top lid...

I'll keep researching and get back.

 

[Lil Foot]

I have two.
One is small Delta benchtop that I bought at a moving sale, still in the box. The guy wanted $125 for it in the morning, but I got it for $35 at the end of the day. (he didn't want to take it on his move) It's fine for small stuff, but the RPM range is too high for the big stuff. For that I use the vertical mill.

The other one is a floor model early Taiwanese, $199, 5/8" cap, 16 speed, with a round table that rotates in 2 axis. I have it at my place in the mountains. I had a lot of trouble with the chuck falling off until I reground the chuck/spindle taper. It's nicest feature is the built-in light. Now compared to some of the $5000-$10,000 pro quality drill presses I've used in machine shops, it's a piece of crap. Compared to no drill press, it is fabulous.
I guess that's my point- a quality machine is better than a cheapy, but a cheapy is better than none. So buy the best you can find/afford and enjoy.

 

[Lil Foot]

I don't have a pic of the floor model, (yet) but here is the little Delta.

 

[Lil Foot]

I found a pic of a drill press that appears to be identical to my floor model. Mine might be a Duracraft.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Bill,

My bench model looks like it came from the same assembly line. Yeah, it makes funny noises at times but at least my chuck works flawlessly and stays on. It was my second big machine purchase after getting married and I don't regret all the hell I caught for buying it.

Speaking of it, I prolly oughta do some PM on it, like greasing the bearings everywhere. Mine came with two helical lifty-doodly pieces for the bed though mine still appears to work perfectly and appears un-worn, thanks to regular lube.

Funny, my drill press is the indicator for moisture in my shop. When I moved here, the first summer saw some monsoon rains. The next two days after, my drill press flashed over with a film of surface rust. After cleaning the whole thing down, I got busy on the moisture control and water run off issues on my barn and now my shop stays nice and dry, as indicated by the drill press.

Life is good, for the time being at least. Finishing up a silicone roof coating job and I am tired...

 

[Daren Todd]

I found a pic of a drill press that appears to be identical to my floor model. Mine might be a Duracraft.

I have the same issue with mine. Haven't used it since I got it to the house,. But I did use it over at my father in laws house when I was building the sub frame for my loader. Darn chuck would randomly fall out when it got warm.

Can you run me though how you fixed yours?

Mine is also made in Taiwan. Not sure of the age. Pops got it from a friend of his who found it in an estate sale for $50. Figure the old lady who was getting rid of it didn't know what it was worth.