good quality drill press recommendation

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TonyL

TonyL

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Joined
Mar 9, 2014
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Hi Folks

I already drill on the lathe and really like drilling that way. However, I would like to buy a dedicated drill press. I want one that has a throw long enough to drill through a blank to make a long clicker pen. Any recommendations for a bench top model ? Thanks as always for your advice.
 
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Tony, I had a bench top drill press and gave it away. I now have a floor model. With the bench top, first off, it did not have enough travel on the quill to drill through longer blanks. Secondly, the adjustable table would not crank down far enough to drill longer blanks using a longer bit. I had to swing it away and make wooden stands for different blanks. I also back then had bought a blank drilling vise but it too would not fit without making a custom height table.
Since I have been drilling on the lathe, I do not use my drill press now for pens.

Also check a drill press to see if the drill bit /quill runs " tight" and does not dance around.

Good luck on your quest.
 
Tony -- Hard to find a "stock" drill press with a 4+ inch of throw - Vertical working space of 3 1/2 is about as large as I have seen -- and that is on the big Jet bench top. Most other are a bit less than that.

There are some hand crank post drills with that much vertical -- but suspect you are thinking of power driven rather than the antique tool market.
 
I had a benchtop model for regular woodworking and it worked fine. Then I started making pens and I was mad about the second day. 3" of travel will annoy you... trust me. After that I had a delta floor model that had a 4" travel and I wore it out. Now I have a Powermatic with 6 inches of travel. It costs quite a bit more, but I wish I would've just bit the bullet and started with the Powermatic. At the very least you should look at a floor model because of the clearance. Someone else mentioned that and I agree. I hope this helps. Good luck shopping.
 
bettyt44720 said:
look for a ShopSmith. cut the bottom tubes and put it in the vertcle postion.
Click to expand...

Shop smith lathe must sell!!!! $85 OBO
:biggrin:

I've got one like this, it was a train wreck when I bought it. $100 in new belts, bearings, and rehab supplies, and it's purring like a kitten. I've even got a spare set of brand new belts I'll give you :biggrin:

I'm only half kidding here. For $85, I've been seriously considering picking it up just for the drill chuck and table (mine has a plywood make-shift table). Since my lathe tailstock is a little out of alignment, I've been using the shopssmith as a horizontal boring machine.
 
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Thanks for all the great advice and experience. It looks like I will continue to drill using my lathe and feel better about it. :).
 
Hey Tony, hope your travels have been going well--this Delta is a great press and I am considering upgrading to one myself: JET-716300 | Acme Tools

This is actually a pretty good price fro Acme too. Here is a Powermatic from Acme, and this is what a lot of folks would consider a 'blue ribbon' press:
POWERMATIC-1792800B | Acme Tools
I can see a lot of reasons to drill on a press, and also with my having a system off the lathe is appealing to me, sometimes it's a PITA to set up the lathe for drilling instead of turning--if You have the space, a floor model press is nice to have for a lot of stuff!
 
Hey Don: Thank you. Just returned a few hours ago. I am going to stick with the lathe drilling...it's never let me down. Separately, I am looking forward to setting up my bench sander for sharpening! Good to hear from you!
 
Hi Tony. I used to use mu Jet floor drill press, but I had too much run out even after getting a good quality chuck with bearings and and switching to link belts. I've had much better results using the lathe.

Not sure if it was on this forum, but there was a thread about the tapers on the drill chucks being too long and limiting the drilling depth. Some guys cut some of the tang off. I did the same thing and picked up an inch. I think this will vary with the make of lathe and tail stock. I'm using a South Bend Drill Chuck with about an inch of the tang cut off. It's a keyless chuck but has very good accuracy.

Stan
 
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