h f drill press

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sparhawk

sparhawk

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I am going to buy a drill press and wonder if anyone has a harbor freight floor model. Is it any good? Any problems? Just not sure about thier General Machinery brand eqiupment. If it is questionable I'll just spend the extra $100 and get a name brand. Maybe sears or ridgid. Also want it to be floor model since i dont have enough bench space already.(At least it doesnt seem like enough)
 
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Well, I find that even the "better brands" are poor when it comes to quaility so enter in harbor freight and you may be better off with a hand drill! Seriously though, when I was looking for a new one, I bought and returned the 10" Sears one because I could draw a 1/4" circle with the tip of a brad point bit in the slop that was in the quill (after I tightened it as much as it could without binding) The 12" is mildly better and I still have it but it's mostly abused and kept around it's "peers" in my shop to take task duties as a buffing station. My 60+ year old floor press is rock solid, slopless in the quill and has less runout than the brand new Sears one. The others ones were pretty sloppy too when inspected in stores (Delta, Rigid, Ryobie.. ect) You may get lucky, but look at the quill and make sure it's tight when it's all the way down, if it wobbles around your holes will stink.
 
I have the HF bench model and while not what I would consider industrial-grade, is not at all a bad drill press at all. Got it for under $150, and it has a 3-1/4" quill travel, which is far better than most dp's in this price range. I've been pretty happy with it for a little more than a year, now.
 
I have the 16 speed HF model 43378 in the States and I was well pleased with it. I was able to use it while I was in the States for the better part of a year '05-'06. It is solid, and had 3 1/8 spindle travel, which I liked. I had negligible runout from what I can remember and the table was squared to the bit.

Over here I have the HF bench top RDP (Radial Drill Press similar) to this one from Grizzly. I really like the versatility of the HF RDP, which I think is not offered any more, but I have to be careful to keep checking it for square setup.
 
I have the Central 43389 model I purchased from HF. It lists for $299, but you can usually find it on sale for $159 at least twice a year. It works great for me! I mount my pen drilling jig on the base and leave it there until I need to make more furniture.
 
I have the 38142 16 speed 3/4 HP bench top model mentioned by several earlier posters. (with a 5/8" chuck) With one minor exception, I have been well served by this unit. I had a problem with the depth stop mechanism; but it was easily repaired. Just because this unit is called a bench top unit, don't be fooled. It weighs 125 lbs which is 7 pounds more than the 43378 which is a nearly identical floor model. When I got mine, the list price was about $160 and you could occasionally get one on sale for about $125. I see they are almost $200 in the current Internet catalog.

One nice thing about these two models is that the quill has a #2 Morse taper so you can remove the chuck from your drill and use in many lathe tailstocks to drill stock or in the headstock to hold a bottle stopper mandrel or whatever
 
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