Delta or Shop Fox?

[Stew Hagerty]

Hey everyone. I'm going to be buying a new drill press and I have pretty much decided on either the Delta 17-950L or the Shop Fox W1680. Both have gotten good reviews and are about the same price. However, there is one seemingly significant difference. The Shop Fox is 1hp while the Delta is 1/2hp. Most machines of this size are 1/2hp, and a few are 3/4hp so the the Delta is right there with the rest of the industry which makes the Shop Fox the unusual one.
There lies my quandry. I'd appreciate any input any of you might have about either or both of these machines. For that matter if there is a different machine that you think is a better choice, I would like to hear about thet too.

Thanks in advance for all your advice and opinions.

[Cary Falk]

Get the one with the longer quill stroke. I don't know hand any personal experience with either.

[glenn bradley]

I have the 17-950. The HP has always been adequate and I spin circle cutters often enough to know. The depth/quill lock is of a poor design used on their "ShopMaster" series. The laser is as valuable as your current laser items, I find little use for them so there is no value add there for me. The Delta table is vastly superior in tilt design. If they had made the left/right tilt as easy as the front tilt it would be near perfect. Still it is a very good design; I added an auxiliary table and fence as well.

The table crank is offset which avoids many a busted knuckle complained about on other machines. I had to have the quill bearings replaced immediately due to excessive runout, has been fine since. I had to have the table height mechanism replaced due to it "eating" itself; no problems since.

If I did it again I would get the 17-959 or the 18-900. I don't know why makers cannot build a decent DP for less dough. Several can't make a decent one for close to $1000 as history has shown us ;-)

[Stew Hagerty]

I just checked and the Shop Fox is 3 1/4" while the Delta is 3 7/8"

[Ray Chalenski]

Stew I too have the delta. Never gave any thought to hp being an issue.I also had a problem with the table height mechanism eating itself.Easily replaced.

[hank dekeyser]

I have a close friend w/ the Delta and uses it for metal work mainly and has never complained about the power- Keep in mind that HP ratings dont tell the whole story- when I was shopping for a BS I noticed that no-body had HP ratings that coincided w/ the actual current draw of the motor, so I used the amperage a s a better figure. Drill presses need better torque more so than HP so ????

[Van Huskey]

My opinion is there is not a great DP built under $1K. There are 3-4 good ones. Three of them are Deltas and the other isn't the SF.

IMHO DPs are one of Grizzly/Shop Fox's weakest lines of equipment.

[Kevin Gregoire]

go with the delta, its what im getting after i sell my craftsman. its the table i want the most. the multi tilting angles is awesome!

[Mike Wellner]

Go old school powermatic 1150

[Van Huskey]

Go old school powermatic 1150

That is always a good answer. The 1150 is an excellent press, maybe the best light duty made. For woodworking I would actually look for a tilting table and not a production table. The tilting table equipped 1150s go for less money also.

[James Phillips]

I just bought a PC DP from Lowes for $299. 15in floor standing DP with a 8 amp motor (between 3/4 and 1 HP depending on motor efficiency). Seems very solid, but I did have to build a table for it, since it does not have a good way to attach a fence or hold downs