Precise benchtop drill press?

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
Does such a thing exist? Had a 12in delta but the runout was too bad and was ruining my folders. Bought an 8in harbor freight, needles to say I'm taking that guy back. I'm gonna eventually save and get a shopfox micro mill strictly for drill holes but until then?
 
Following!

I am about to make the same purchase. I have been eyeing the Harbor Freight mid size one with the big motor, but am now having second thoughts. The other bang/buck one in terms of motor strength is Porter Cable at Lowes, but is floor standing, but don't know about accuracy.
 
I like old drill presses, I have an old Buffalo Forge with a Jacobs chuck, Older drill presses are very heavy with cast frames.
I use it to make slipjoints which has plenty of hole drilling opportunities.

What specific precision problems are you having?
If it's roundness of the hole, are using a carbide reamer to finish the hole?
If it's perpendicularity, is your material flat and straight?
If it's positioning and matching different components, there are methods to use on a drill press table.
you mentioned runout, have you considered upgrading the chuck? you can get a keyless Albrecht on ebay for a reasonable price.
However I think at best you might still have a few thousands TIR (total indicated runout), perhaps .003 (or more)

If you want real precision, you have to go with a a rigid mill setup...

You might want to research carefully on that ShopFox, it may disappoint you in drilling into metal.
 
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You will need a mill.Even if you put a high end chuck on one of the drill presses you are talking about you will still end with run out. A mill with collates are the way to go .You drill under size holes and ream the to size.It is not cheep to do it right but you need a mill to start with. WB
 
I have a 1942 Craftsman bench top drill press with a Jacob's chuck....Zero (0) runout. It does have some short comings but quality construction is not one. I had the Dunlap motor rewired about 30 years ago and the repair guy was in awe of the construction of the motor and said it would last another 50 years. The drill spent more than forty years at a house on the bay in Miami...barely any rust after all that time in the salt air environment. Old machines rock.
 
Sorry should have mentioned I removed the chuck from the delta and the HF and both have visible runout on the spindle. A new spindle for the delta doesnt exist. Yes I'm using a smaller drill bit then reaming to size.

ashwinearl ashwinearl from what I've seen on other forums the standing porter cable is well made and highly reccomend.

I'd love nothing more than a real mill but I just cant financially afford one at this time
 
ashwinearl said:
Following!

I am about to make the same purchase. I have been eyeing the Harbor Freight mid size one with the big motor, but am now having second thoughts. The other bang/buck one in terms of motor strength is Porter Cable at Lowes, but is floor standing, but don't know about accuracy.
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I have two little benchtop 12’ Drill presses,in my shop for drilling & counter sink for Loveless bolts which I think are the strongest of the Mechanical connectors one is Harbor Fright I use for the counter sink and a Grizzly 12” for drilling handles & if need Be the harden tangs with a Carbide bit.... when I first got into knife making I went to the shop of Robert Loveless... he had three little Harbor Freight Drill presses and told me once they were tuned in to your job for each one, they worked fine! I agree now that I have used them for many years. I tryed two older Drill presses along they way! They both turned out to be way more hassle! :rolleyes:——I wanted to make knives. Not rebuild old presses! YMMV..——-PS, both little presses were well under a $100 delivered to my shop!
 
Wow- I build mostly automatics and I drill 95% of my holes by hand, with a flexible shaft machine.
I hardly ever use my drill press.
 
Valknut, what problems are you experiencing? Oversized or non square hole?

Center punching, using a sharp, short shank HSS bit with a sharp angle, using cutting lube and the right spindle speed, and not letting the steel ride up when the bit breaks through the other side, all that goes a long way. I am sort of quick to retire a drill bit, I keep the shank to use as temp pins. Using pin stock as temp pins is bad, as they always are a bit undersized and it affects things when you are fitting the blade and spring.
 
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Rhinoknives1 said:
I have two little benchtop 12’ Drill presses,in my shop for drilling & counter sink for Loveless bolts which I think are the strongest of the Mechanical connectors one is Harbor Fright I use for the counter sink and a Grizzly 12” for drilling handles & if need Be the harden tangs with a Carbide bit.... when I first got into knife making I went to the shop of Robert Loveless... he had three little Harbor Freight Drill presses and told me once they were tuned in to your job for each one, they worked fine! I agree now that I have used them for many years. I tryed two older Drill presses along they way! They both turned out to be way more hassle! :rolleyes:——I wanted to make knives. Not rebuild old presses! YMMV..——-PS, both little presses were well under a $100 delivered to my shop!
Click to expand...

I can say that my experience mirrors Laurence's comments. I love my old Buffalo Drill press, and my Old Walker Turner is great when leveled, and bolted down to the concrete. However there is a whole other bag of lessons involved in rebuilding old machines that are entirely distracting from knifemaking. A new spindle on a #18 buffalo will run in excess of $700 (not many people run tapered drill shanks anymore), from the last source for them in the U.S. unless you want to get into specifying, and ordering custom machined parts and specifying your own bearings.

I love old iron tools. So to me it wasn't a loss, just a growing pain. Hope I can move them forward with me, which is another huge concern I have.
 
Yeah at 1600 bucks that'd buy a nice lms 3990
Gonna save up for this and use it just for drilling
b52qTf4.jpg


Until I can get a precision Mathews mini mill
 
valknut said:
Yeah at 1600 bucks that'd buy a nice lms 3990
Gonna save up for this and use it just for drilling
b52qTf4.jpg


Until I can get a precision Mathews mini mill
Click to expand...

My desktop Grizzly drill press cost more than that. With a SouthBend chuck I have a run out of less than .003. I'm happy with it. But if I'd seen this first, I might just have a mill by now.
 
It's too tiny to use for actual milling I think I'd just use it for drilling pi or holes in folders and the z-axis DRO will help counterboring bearing pockets
 
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