What kind of drill press to get?

[Les Kuesel]

I'm looking at getting a new drill press. It will mainly used for drilling game call blanks. I would like to send $300 or under. I have looked at a few. So far I liked both the Craftsman and Delta 12" benchtop both have lazer and other options. Any one have any opions on them or others or would I be better off with a floor model.

[Cary Falk]

I had a 12" Craftsman. I sold it for a Steel City 17" floor model. Get the longest quil travel you can.

[mickey cassiba]

I've got a Delta 12" upgraded with a laser and truth told, I rarely use the laser.
+1 on a floor model with a long quill(and fat).
Mickey

[Robert Parrish]

Well I would recommend my Delta 17" 950 but today I was drilling some pen blanks and it would not shut off! I had to unplug it to get the thing to stop. I disassembled the switch and cleaned all the contacts and it is working again. It is only a year old!

[Maurice Ungaro]

Get the longest quil travel you can.

Yup. Good advice. I've got a Delta 17-968, and at the time, it had about the best quill travel. I'd look at the Steel City models as well.

[Casey Mabry]

I went through this same dilema this summer. I wanted to try not to exceed 400$, so this limits you to the delta 950, or ridgid 1550 if you want a floor model (+1 for that). Craiglist does me no good as I live in WV so I pretty much had to buy new, their is definitely a diffierence once you cross the 500$ mark on the quality of the machines. I wanted to get the Jet 17dx, but the almighty dollar and two kids prevail. Home Depot ran the ultimate power deal two weeks ago, and my decision was made. I bought the drill press and a small box of dewalt bits to put me over the 300$ mark, got 75$ off and bingo! Assembly was easy and quick (<1hr). I love the press, and I don't regret my decision a bit. In a year or two of serious use I can give a legitamit review, but my initial use, and observation of quality is very good. :)

[Ben Martin]

I got a Powermatic 1150 for $350 off of eBay. These are supposedly one of the drill presses ever made. Check the BOYD (For Sale) Forum on the OWWM forums, there are a couple floor models on there now for under $200.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Les,

What ever you get....get at least a 4" quill travel.

[glenn bradley]

I was after the SCTW for the long quill and other features like the split head. I ended up with a killer deal on a Delta and the loss of 2" of stroke has been completely non-impactive to me in practice. I really thought I needed it. Turns out I don't; YMMV.

As Ken says; much under 4" would really hurt. Needing more than 4" just didn't turn out to be important to me. I just don't drill holes that deep I guess. Now, if I had a poor table positioning mechanism AND a shorter stroke; that would impact me.

[Mike Henderson]

In addition to quill travel, I'd recommend variable speed. It's a pain to change the belts that you tend to drill everything at the same speed.

But maybe that's asking too much on your budget.

Mike

[Bob Aquino]

Find something older than the current crop of "Lazer" equipped presses. The longer the quill travel (total up and down stroke) the better. Last several machines I sold had 6" of travel, so they can be had. Get a floor model machine then you won't have to trade up down the road. Brands to look at would be Powermatic, Delta/Rockwell, Clausing, Walker Turner, Buffalo to name a few. If its a 3 phase motor, that is actually a plus, they can be converted to run single phase pretty cheaply and you will get variable speed to boot. BOYD on the OWWM site is a good source: http://owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=2155e0304062e3b05ee01ccb5fcac308 or keep looking at craigslist and eventually one will pop up.

[Russ Boyd]

I hate to throw this out there, as we know the feeling about most harbor freight "stuff", but I bought their floor model quite awhile ago and it has served me well. Since you are not doing very much with it, it might be worth considering. I would definitely go with the other suggestions if it's possible, but I personally would go with even the HF version of a floor model rather than a table top. My Delta table top was pretty much useless for my needs.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

My quill travel is only about 3" or so. It's fine. To get a larger travel, you must pay a premium that I'm not sure is worth it. The work around is to lift the table up after the initial bore, and continue with the bore at the new table height. However, this operation is performed rarely for me.

Most 'standard' multi-purpose floor drill presses can be bought at a great value. I would consider any of the generic 16" or 17" floor model clones. Also, find one that has a slow speed (<250 rpm) to spin fly cutters and large metal bits. The only option I would recommend is to add is a nice home-built table/fence set up.

-Jeff :)

[Rick Huelsbeck]

I have one and love it. Longest quill travel in that size at 3.25", it's variable speed via a reeves drive, has laser sights and a lamp, all at $169 when I bought mine.