Drill Press Reccomendations

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Wow David, that almost sounds like a gloat!![:D]
That is a very impressive drill press. A 6inch travel is awesome.

If you have the bucks, cool. ALL my tools are the budget variety, but then I don't feel bad modifying them to do what I want. [:D]
 
David I think you can do better if you have the time to shop.
A bunch of us bought Drill presses last year from Amazon.com--- we ran into a heck of a sale----I bought a 17 inch floor model for $140.00 delivered.
 
Boy that 6" quill travel is impressive. That would do most long blanks and single tube pens in one stroke.
I don't know how many new DP's have that feature, but that would be handy.
 
As far as Grizzly is concerned. You don't get passed 3 inches of travel untill you are up into the $400 range, I can get the 6" in the $400 price range. If I wanted the the 3" travel I could easily find some in the $100-$200 range, which I have debated, to save the money. I would be ok in the 4" travel range, but it seams those are all in the $400+ range, and I would be better off getting the Steel City. The biggest thing I am looking for is to be able to drill the pen blanks without having to shift them which can be done with 3" of travel. I have the PH vice, and I prefer to beable to set it and not have to keep recentering it after adjusting the table height to accomidate differnent drill bits, which I could get with another inch or so of travel. Is this too much of a luxury, maybe I definity could use the money else where, but I don't want to be so frustrated with it as I am now, and I don't want to have to buy a new one later. I also do a bit of flat work, but its rare to drill that deep of a hole in flat work.
 
My DP only has 2 1/4 inch of travel and it's a constant hassle. I finally got my Drilling jig strait. When I need the extra inch or so, I can loosen the nuts and raise the blank in the holder. This allows me to finish without altering the set up.
I am not in the market right now,,,,,,,,but if I was,,,,,,,,,you bet it would be as much throw and as many bells and whistles as I could.
You kmow what they say, Cry once or cry every time you use it.
 
I settled my DP frustration with the Delta 17-950L. It has 3 7/8" of quill travel at Lowes. It was on sale at the time for $330. Amazon has it now for $355 with free shipping right now. It has a large table as opposed to a regular drill press. I do a little other woodworking besides pen making and I fugured if I could drill through 4" lumber that would be enough. Worth taking a look at.
 
David
I bought the Steel City about 2 month’s ago and believe me if you want a GREAT drill press buy that one you will be glad you did.
I have had a cheap DP a Powermatic, and a Delta (real crap for the money) and this is by far the best bang for the buck.
I see it as the last DP I will have to buy and I do drill a lot of very accurate holes for my street organ tracker bars.[^][^][:)]
Jay
 
I think for the money, the one you are looking at is a great value. The 6" stroke is cool, although realistically I dont know that you would use much over 4". Some but not much. Better to have it than want it though. Would be interesting to see how much end play there is at 6". Looks like a winner.
 
Jay- That is impressive. I think I may end up getting one these myself. I'm trying to find a local place that may have one. With my luck David will have bought the last one in the US. Have fun David!
 
I laid my hands ont he steel city DP this last weekend at a show in New Orleans. It is a very nice machine. I like the 6" travel, but I can't think of a time that I would need that much. The table is small, but that could be fixed with a good homemade drill press table. I wish it had externally adjustable speeds, and a 1hp motor, but that is just extra stuff. You can't get those until you hit the $800 range.

I also like the front tilting ability of the new Delta, but other than making windsor chairs I can't imagine when I would need the double bevel capacity on the DP.

I have looked at the Delta that is in the $300-$400 range and it is definately better than that machine. I am saving for a new Table Saw fight now so the DP will have to wait.

BTW I do have a 1970's rockwell lathe that I am rebuilding that will be for sale later this year.........

I have been using a benchtop Shop Fox DP for the last few years and it only has a 2" travel. I do not have a pen blank vise and you can only imagine how much fun it is to drill out those long blanks with juse a handscrew to hold it in place.
 
I took the plunge an purchased the 17" steel city drill press last week. My first real tool gloat :)

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Due to a current Flat work project I haven't had much of a chance to play with it. Although I was able to use the Mortising attachment and it worked great, nice sharp chisels.

You can see my unpacking and setup at my website at http://www.briskibusiness.com/woodworking/inprogress.aspx

I provide a review once I spend some time with it.
 
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