Drill press advice

Robert Amato

Robert Amato

Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Messages
72
What suggestions do you guys have for drill presses?? Obviously speed is a main concern, most that I’m finding in a decent price range don’t have low enough speeds for metal. Grizzly G7943 12 speed has a decent priced model with low speed but I’ve read mixed reviews and lots with wobble. Also a Rikon 12” that goes pretty slow for the money. Then lastly I’ve been hunting some vintage Rockwell Delta and Craftsman but the shipping is killing me due to weight and not finding any close in Texas. So any thoughts hopefully in the $450 range.
 
Years ago I purchased my first mill. It was a Chinese gear head mill weighing at around 800 lbs. Light for a mill, so I have since upgraded a couple times. I still have this mill as it serves extremely well as a drill press. Much better than any other drill press I have used.
I still see used mills on Craigslist at close to yourbudget range. Something to consider.
 
Jonathans said:
Years ago I purchased my first mill. It was a Chinese gear head mill weighing at around 800 lbs. Light for a mill, so I have since upgraded a couple times. I still have this mill as it serves extremely well as a drill press. Much better than any other drill press I have used.
I still see used mills on Craigslist at close to yourbudget range. Something to consider.
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I have definitely been considering a mill, if the right one pops up. What are your opinions on some of the mini mills? I’ve heard some like and some say don’t waste your money and save for a bigger one.
 
i guess if you are drilling holes over a 1/2" the slower speed might be required, but for stuff smaller than 3/8" i use the home depot/lowes $79 drill presses. the cheap ones do not have much spindle travel, usually around 3 inches. so they are not ideal for drilling out hidden tang blocks. they seem to work fine for most purposes.
 
john april said:
i guess if you are drilling holes over a 1/2" the slower speed might be required, but for stuff smaller than 3/8" i use the home depot/lowes $79 drill presses. the cheap ones do not have much spindle travel, usually around 3 inches. so they are not ideal for drilling out hidden tang blocks. they seem to work fine for most purposes.
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Most of the stuff is less than 3/8”
 
john april said:
i guess if you are drilling holes over a 1/2" the slower speed might be required, but for stuff smaller than 3/8" i use the home depot/lowes $79 drill presses. the cheap ones do not have much spindle travel, usually around 3 inches. so they are not ideal for drilling out hidden tang blocks. they seem to work fine for most purposes.
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FYI the porter cable benchtop press at lowes has 1.5" travel even though the ruler on the side indicates a 2" travel. It just barely goes through a 2x4. I didnt even think to check for travel when i bought the damn thing. Otherwise, it is a pretty decent drill for the money.
 
i have a Skil from Lowes($125). slowest speed with drill bits up to 3/8" is in or just over the recommendations for O1 and some other tool steels. if you go digging on the Bucorp site, you can find machining recommendations for their tool steels. use shortest possible bit to help counter run-out issues.
 
I have a floor model porter cable from lowes. Had it for a year now and its been great. makes nice straight holes, no wobble and the table is very sturdy.
 
I have had the home Depot Ridgid floor drill press for years. Great for everything. It was only $299 way back when. Think it is $399 now. Still well worth it
 
I got a cheap wen drill press on amazon and it was alot better than I thought. It has 2 inches of travel wich has been good enough. No noticable wobble and adjustable speeds. I think they cost about $70. If your just doing fixed blades I think thats good enough. If you need extreme precision than I would look into a mill. I have really abused mine and its going strong. For my uses i see no need to upgrade untill i require a milling machine.
 
I believe this is the one I got a handful of years ago:

https://www.menards.com/main/tools-...bench-drill-press/mc90418/p-1491459722910.htm

I don't live close to a Menards, so I had it shipped. I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of different drill presses, but this one does what I need. It certainly is handy to have the arm on the left side of it to vary the speed, should I need to. That being said, I have found I don't vary the speed very often. I was able to tram the table and it seems to drill straight enough for my recent liner lock project to line up appropriately.

When I went over to John Doyle's this summer, I envied his bench full of drill presses :). They were varying makes and models. I have an old floor drill press that is harder to get the table trammed on. It's for rough work and chamfering/countersinking and I leave it on really low speed. I've been trolling craigslist for other bench top models to put next to the one from Menards. So long as I can get the table squared up and locked down, I can drill all kinds of small holes just fine. John had one of his set up for his tapmatic and it stays on there all the time, I believe.


Jeremy
 
OP, I have the Grizzly you mentioned and absolutely love it. It was a big step up from the small Harbor Freight drill press I had prior. I haven't noticed any of the wobble you mention. However I took a considerably amount of time making sure everything was dead even, plumb and straight I also have it bolted it down to a very heavy bench.
 
seanj said:
OP, I have the Grizzly you mentioned and absolutely love it. It was a big step up from the small Harbor Freight drill press I had prior. I haven't noticed any of the wobble you mention. However I took a considerably amount of time making sure everything was dead even, plumb and straight I also have it bolted it down to a very heavy bench.
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Awesome glad to hear you like it. I’m leaning towards getting that one. Especially with the 12 speed!!
 
Robert Amato said:
I have definitely been considering a mill, if the right one pops up. What are your opinions on some of the mini mills? I’ve heard some like and some say don’t waste your money and save for a bigger one.
Click to expand...
Some of the mini mills are so small that I doubt their abilities. My benchtop “mini” mill was still 800 lbs and was great for small projects. I needed to grade up for larger non knife size projects. It had three speeds so handles small diameter bits real well. If you ever have to “drill out” a broken corby or similar thats in a wood handle, doing so in a controled manner on a mill with an end mill is a cakewalk.
 
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