drill press questions.

[ashman]

I'm thinking about buying a drill press soon, but honestly I don't know what to look for. What horsepower should I be looking for, what features are important, etc.

Right now I'm just drilling a few holes in 1/4" and smaller stuff, but I don't want to cut myself off from being able to do bigger things. Of course this is only a hobby for me and I don't want to break the bank either.

Suggestions?

 

[imiceman44]

I'm thinking about buying a drill press soon, but honestly I don't know what to look for. What horsepower should I be looking for, what features are important, etc.

Right now I'm just drilling a few holes in 1/4" and smaller stuff, but I don't want to cut myself off from being able to do bigger things. Of course this is only a hobby for me and I don't want to break the bank either.

Suggestions?

I love my harbour freight tall drill press. Can't remember what I paid but it didn't break the bank.

 

[bp71k5]

If you drill steel, buy the largest one you can afford. The small ones tend to not have enough power for more than 3/8" holes in steel. If you ever want to notch tube, the extra power would be nice.

 

[owenst7]

The hardest thing in my experience is finding one with low enough rpm. Figure out what your minimum rpm is for what you want to do and shop from there. That will probably narrow your search down a lot unfortunately.

 

[rdn2blazer]

If you're going to be drilling steel as stated you want slow RPM. Like in the range of what a mill will turn, around 60 rpm for large drills.

 

[BadDog]

Agreed. It must go below 100 for me to even consider as a primary general purpose fabrication drill press. As stated, preferably down to 60 or so like my big 20" Gear Head.

That said, to just go out and buy one, my 2 20" drill presses (older US made Wilton 20 VSG for slow speed (tops out at ~1000) and 20" Powermatic for general use) will cost more than most of us would feel it is worth. I bought these over time and cherry picked great deals (less than $500 each). If I did just need to go get one, I would do again what I did in the beginning. Go to HF and buy the largest HD 5/8" (their rating) drill press they make. The one with the slowest speeds, and the bigger square table. Frankly, it's not a bad drill press at all for the money. It's main problem is in the chuck, which is absolutely what you would expect from HF, maybe even less. So if it were me I would get the big drill press, and immediately hit either the Enco "Hot Deals" sale catalog for a big keyless Rohm (great deals, but hasn't been in there the last few I've noticed), or Ebay for a good NOS Jacobs (new Jacobs is garbage import for the super premium price) 3B plain bearing (my favorite) or maybe a 16N Super Chuck. I prefer keyed for general use, particularly since I use it for power in/out with plug-reverse (3 phase) when tapping.

 

[jt512]

Craigslist is your friend for stuff like a drill press. Also watch gov liquidation and sites like that to find some killer deals on some big stuff just make sure about the voltage requirements on big/older machines.

 

[ashman]

thanks for the advice guys. I do plan on buying used if I can find one, but I really didn't know what to look for. Now at least I have some idea what I'm supposed to be looking at.

 

[ryoken]

I run an older Rockwell.. with the belt up top and 4 spd's..

heavy = good

 

[Stomis]

From what Ive researched the best bang for your buck new will be a porter cable from lowes. They are $300 but can be had for something like $240ish if you have a home depot 20% coupon and do a store pickup for the online price.

 

[cybrfire]

I run an older Rockwell.. with the belt up top and 4 spd's..

heavy = good

I have the same rockwell but vairable speed. Pretty good drill press.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I run an older Rockwell.. with the belt up top and 4 spd's..

heavy = good

I have this same drill press also, I found it on e-bay and it was local so I just drove over and picked it up. Oh, it was a "buy it now" price of $60.

 

[British Slave]

I bought a drill press from Tractor Supply a few years ago for $99. It does fine for most jobs, even though the low speed is a little fast. For the heavy duty work, I have an old Black & Decker 1/2" drill that mounts in a wall mounted stand. This thing only turns about 70 RPM, and has more torque than one man can hold if using out of the stand. Takes three people to drill a large hole. Two on the drill and one on the extension cord ready to un plug it if it hangs!

One item to add to any drill press is a machinists vise.

 

[sokoloka]

From what Ive researched the best bang for your buck new will be a porter cable from lowes. They are $300 but can be had for something like $240ish if you have a home depot 20% coupon and do a store pickup for the online price.

Have a link?

 

[rdn2blazer]

From what Ive researched the best bang for your buck new will be a porter cable from lowes. They are $300 but can be had for something like $240ish if you have a home depot 20% coupon and do a store pickup for the online price.

Have a link?

Come on, it ain't that hard to look up Lowes. . This drill press low speed RPM is 300. Thats too hight for my need.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_78742-46069...er+cable+drill+press&productId=3162489&rpp=32

 

[cybrfire]

What are you guys drilling at such low rpm's?

 

[imiceman44]

What are you guys drilling at such low rpm's?

They are talking about future uses for machining not just drilling.
Rob posted something a few posts back.

 

[ashman]

For me, the most I can imagine doing is notching some tubing for a roll cage and cutting holes in up to 1/4" plate. Just how slow should I be looking for to do that?

 

[rdn2blazer]

Real slow is for drilling say 3/4 or bigger holes in steel or stainless. My needs are probably different then most would need. Being a machinist I tend to do more metal work then the average type garage mechanic may do. And especially in materials like stainless and Titaniums.

 

[BadDog]

What are you guys drilling at such low rpm's?

As said, larger holes and/or harder materials. I've got drills up to 1.5" or so. But that's not something I expect most folks to encounter. Where I see the importance of slow speed for a typical home shop fab guy is stuff like the hole saws. You make tools perform well by keeping them at the right surface speed with enough feed to keep from "rubbing" and dulling the edge. The first requires low rpms at larger diameters, and the second requires power with significant torque multiplication (gearing as opposed to speed control). A common application for off-road fab would be running a 1.75" hole saw. And the max speed I would want for that saw in steel would be around 200 rpm (or less), maybe about 100 or so for stainless depending on alloy. I've also run trepanning tools in steel plate with larger radius where I was running my big gear head at it's rock bottom speed and still would have liked slower. You don't need below 300 for the vast majority of stuff, but when that stuff comes along, it's very nice to have options.