Looking for simple drill press recomendation

M

MarkinLondon

Joined
Aug 21, 2014
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6
Long-time reader, first-time poster...

I'm about to begin making my first knife. The Covid-summer project is to make a scandi or convex bushcrafter; a a little scandi necker; and perhaps two full-flat steak knives. I fully expect the first one (the little necker) to be awful, but hey, that's how it goes. I've picked up enough 3mm O1 steel to make half a dozen knives; know a reliable heat-treater; have cut scales from an Iroko kitchen counter offcut; and am ready to build a Gough bevel jig; but today is my birthday, and SWMBO is buying me a drill press. The problem is choosing one.

My sense is that all the presses under £120 are the same but for a few details, and sadly, the extrodinary BladeFourm search engine hasn't turned up a good recomendation. So: has anyone used a Clarke CDP102B? The drills that turn slower than 620rpm area all out of my price range, but my sense is that this press can handle the few dozen holes I need to drill, as well as run the sanding wheels and occasional buffing doo-dads. Does anyone have a reason to warn me off of this drill press? It's in budget, can be delivered by Amazon pretty quickly and is actually from Clarke's Metalworker line. It can't be that bad, right?

Right?

thanks in advance,
Mark who now lives in Ampthill
 
MarkinLondon said:
and sadly, the extrodinary BladeFourm search engine hasn't turned up a good recomendation.
Mark who now lives in Ampthill
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There have been many discussions about drill presses the last couple years , I just typed DRILL PRESS into the search box on the top right side of this page then clicked the box that said to search titles only and there were 11 pages of discussions about them .
If I were looking today I would check craigslist for a nice older one.
 
Screwfix list a cheapie at £50, the Energer ENB672DBT. It might be worth a look. Lowest speed is 500 RPM.

None of the cheap ones are particularly good, much as you'd expect. Quality control on all of them is hit-and-miss. I've never found the Clarke stuff to be noticeably better than anyone else's and there seems to be a sizeable premium paid for the branding, though having MachineMart stores means you can usually get them quick if you need something in a hurry and you can take it back if you get a bad one. That's all gone out of the window for a while with the Covid 19 lockdown.

Buy reasonably decent drill bits, but don't go overboard. A cheap drill press will probably have too much runout and not be rigid enough for hard-but-brittle Cobalt drills and certainly not for solid Carbide. I usually buy online from ukdrills. I tend to use their HSS stub drills a lot and their Carbide-tipped drills have got me out of the doodoo on several occasions (the hard TCT tip on a steel drill is quite forgiving of non-rigid setups and can even be used in a handheld drill if necessary). If you are not used to drilling steel, buy enough HSS drills to be able to practice until you have the hang of it: if you don't know what you are doing, the best drills in the world will not help. The double-ended stub drills are good for this. 5 packs of ten, 3.2mm/1/8" double ended drills are eleven quid plus carriage. That's effectively a hundred fresh drills to practice with.
 
I have a wen that I snagged for dirt cheap, and it drills straight holes after some tinkering. Not a bad buy, and I know people have talked endlessly about the ryobi that’s been in everyone’s shop at one point or another. 100 bucks, beat it, and replace it when it dies / you buy a good mill.
 
All these smaller belt driven presses are more or less chinese toys, and not made for metal working. You can get by, but the flex in the construction and the wobble and run out in the chuck is gonna bug you.
A geared head drill press is what you want. But even a used one in ok condition is going to be way more expensive.
 
timgunn1962 said:
Screwfix list a cheapie at £50, the Energer ENB672DBT. It might be worth a look. Lowest speed is 500 RPM.

None of the cheap ones are particularly good, much as you'd expect. Quality control on all of them is hit-and-miss. I've never found the Clarke stuff to be noticeably better than anyone else's and there seems to be a sizeable premium paid for the branding, though having MachineMart stores means you can usually get them quick if you need something in a hurry and you can take it back if you get a bad one. That's all gone out of the window for a while with the Covid 19 lockdown.

Buy reasonably decent drill bits, but don't go overboard. A cheap drill press will probably have too much runout and not be rigid enough for hard-but-brittle Cobalt drills and certainly not for solid Carbide. I usually buy online from ukdrills. I tend to use their HSS stub drills a lot and their Carbide-tipped drills have got me out of the doodoo on several occasions (the hard TCT tip on a steel drill is quite forgiving of non-rigid setups and can even be used in a handheld drill if necessary). If you are not used to drilling steel, buy enough HSS drills to be able to practice until you have the hang of it: if you don't know what you are doing, the best drills in the world will not help. The double-ended stub drills are good for this. 5 packs of ten, 3.2mm/1/8" double ended drills are eleven quid plus carriage. That's effectively a hundred fresh drills to practice with.
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Thanks, those are my concerns. I suppose at my price point, they really are all the same.

But the drill bit comment isn't one I'd thought of. I'm standardizing my project on 1/4 inch pins, and have picked up two cobalt drill bits. I suppose that I'll drill a pilot with an HSS, which might stabilize the actual 1/4" final hole drilling. I'd rather not develop bad habits this early in my building quest.

Tim, you and I are in England, so many of the recomendations and advice don't apply to us. Those brands simply aren't available here. I've got to think that this Clarke will be ok unless several people jump up and scream "no!", which is the point of this post. :) Frankly, the Birthday gift could just as easily be a little 1x30, and I'm sure I'll give that more thought. Hand drill / 1x30 or drill press / file jig. Both have their other uses too. It is, however, a nice dilema to have. It's likely that I'll stick with the press/file approach to see if I like doing this. Then I can look at a proper grinder.
 
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Scaniaman said:
All these smaller belt driven presses are more or less chinese toys, and not made for metal working. You can get by, but the flex in the construction and the wobble and run out in the chuck is gonna bug you.
A geared head drill press is what you want. But even a used one in ok condition is going to be way more expensive.
Click to expand...

The run-out is what concerns me, frankly. Without using one, though, it's unlikely I'll understand the extent of the problem.
 
If you are just buying a drill press to start your first build, buy a cheap one. The run out won't be so big to bug you and you actually want a slightly oversized hole for epoxy to have some place in order to grip. Go slowly and and use some oil while drilling. Your holes in scales will be round enough.
Sure I would like a nicer and sturdier drill but I can't justify the price for now and my 50 Euro Aldi drill press got me going. Ways better then a drill stand and hand held Bosch I used before it.
 
FredyCro said:
If you are just buying a drill press to start your first build, buy a cheap one. The run out won't be so big to bug you and you actually want a slightly oversized hole for epoxy to have some place in order to grip. Go slowly and and use some oil while drilling. Your holes in scales will be round enough.
Sure I would like a nicer and sturdier drill but I can't justify the price for now and my 50 Euro Aldi drill press got me going. Ways better then a drill stand and hand held Bosch I used before it.
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I suspected that this was the case. Thanks for confirming it. This drill press will be fine.
 
Pick up some stub or screw machine length bits if you don’t need the length of a jobber bit. Shorter is more rigid and will have less tip run out
 
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