[sdiy] Drill Press Recommendations?

[Tom Arnold]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 11:56:24PM -0500, Sam Ecoff wrote:
> I'm in the market for a drill press, but admittedly don't know what I  
> should be looking for feature-wise. I'm interested in a drill press  
> for making front panels, but also for woodworking projects (and  
> possibly the occasional rack rail). Given the modest amount of time  
> I'll spend using it, I probably don't want to spend over $400 for it,  
> but would certainly consider a cheaper benchtop model if anyone has a  
> recommendation.

I have a cheap chinese made drill press. It cost $39 and works fine except
for one minor quirk that its hard to get the chuck to stay swedged on the
shaft so sometimes it'll fall off esp when you use a very large drillbit
that causes the chuck to extend upward internally.

That being said, it was -$39- so I cannot complain too much.

You will find most of the less expensive power tools come from china anyway.
All the various companies just import them badged appropriatly.

Sears is a good choice. They run specials quite often and they are probably
nearby anywhere you are located and parts are readily available.  Lets call
them tier 1 chinese importers.  Quite a lot of additional quality
inspections and tighter specs on the imported tools.  Note that this doesnt
make them a Better Tool, it only means what is pictured on the box is pretty
close to whats inside.

Harbor Freight has cheap tools.  I'll call them Tier 3. They buy pretty much
what the company overseas makes and they ignore it right up until you
complain, they make up for this with goo support.

Grizzly Industrial has been extremely good to me.  I'll call them Tier 2.  
They go so far as to spec the paint colour of their tools, and they seem to 
have higher QC standards compared to Harbor Freight, but the tool is
substantially the same.  Where they are much better is in stocking parts and
that 3cm thick colour catalog they send out.  I've been very impressed with
their router bits I have to say.

Lowes/Home Depot both have House Brand tools of the same nature.  Usually a
little more expensive then Harbor Freight or Grizzley, but they are closer
and exchanging one that is unusably bad is easier.  They arn't exactly what
I'd call Tier 1 as they have almost no parts in stock and support is
lacking, and its been hit or miss calling the "manufacturer" for parts, but
convenience is a gain.

There are tons of other Harbor Freight class companies online.  Northern
Tool comes to mind.  Many many others.  Also there are traveling tool shows
you can look for where you can be extremely cheap like I was with my
drillpress.

If you think you'll be doing Lots of panels, Harbor Freight has a handheld
punch that is nice for perfect holes in thin or soft metal ( item 91510-0VGA
) which runs about $25  and Grizzly has the bench mount G7151 with a 7"
throat that will make mince-meat of about any aluminum you can fit in it.
That grizzly unit is $500+ so not exactly cheap, but if I didnt already have
a turret punch I'd seriously consider it as the tooling is quite reasonably
priced...

-- 
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 - Tom Arnold       -  Free Synth DIY webspace http://www.sdiy.org 
 - SynthGeek        -
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