Headlines Soon - Perfect Woodworkers Drill Press Hits The Market..

[Darrell Bade]

I have no data to base that statement on, but since I have given up waiting for the perfect drill press to be introduced to the market by some manufacturer and bought one, I am guessing we will all see those headlines soon.

I settled for a Delta 18-900L. It seemed to be the one on the market currently that somewhat meets my needs.

[Joe Adams]

I'm still waiting. Until then I will continue to make do with a 15-yr old Delta benchtop.

[Peter Hawser]

Can you please add, "Perfect European 16" Bandsaw for Under $1000 Hits the Market."

That's a pretty intense DP. Congrats and I hope it does everything you ask.

[Ryan Mooney]

Congrats, I know you'll love it. I added the Bies fence and feel that it was worth it as an add on (hey if you're in for a pinch...). I really like the depth stop and gauge and the belt changing system is about as good as it gets with belts (the magical tension adjust is an awesome side effect).

Having said that I've been hanging on to my ancient (serial # ~280) 17" jet (heh "just keeping it for a little while until I don't use it for a while...) and was using it today because I have it "permanently" outfitted with a cross slide vise - love that crappy HF vise really worth every $45 right there.

If you find that 16" bandsaw.. please do let us all know... although I'm sure it will be right after I pull the trigger on something else :D

[Joe Vincent 63]

Wow, I just did the same thing this past weekend, for the same reason, with the same DP. Amazon had them on sale for $50 off and I finally jumped! Replacing an old Craftsman benchtop DP. It is an awesome looking machine!

Joe

[John Coloccia]

I've played around with the 18-900L. It's actually not an awful drill press, especially compared to the other garbage out there. It's very smooth, the quill is nice and tight, etc. Still no real quill lock but it's a reasonable drill press.

[Darrell Bade]

Drill presses are kind of interesting. I realize they are really simple devices, but they could use some improvements.

Like the speed thing. It is just not that hard or expensive to put a reeves drive on them so you can change the speed by turning a knob. Of course you do get into a thing with not getting a low enough speed and I guess Delta came up with a system to more easily adjust the belts and get the lower speed. I looked at one press, a Wilton I think that had a reeves drive with two belt positions to allow a lower speed.

The other thing that makes me laugh is the depth stop. Almost all still have the two knurled nuts that you run up and down the threaded rod. The two exceptions I know of are the Delta and Steel City that have it where you press a button and move it up and down the rod and then turn it to fine adjust. How hard could it be to make this change to make a drill press more user freindly. I looked at some Jet metal working presses with reeves drives that were $1,600 and they still had the two knurled knobs to screw up and down the rod.

I have not bought a Delta machine for years since they have kind of been in a downhill slide but thought I would take the chance on this since it seems well made, had good reviews and Rockler had 10% off on Delta tools. The Steel City is still a little cheaper if you can find one in stock somewhere. Most dealers I talked to did not even want to try and deal with Steel City.

[Brad Patch]

Started out with a Rockwell radial press., Pluses-Lots of versatility, Quill lock. Minus - Poor chuck, not rigid enough for accurate work. Knurled nuts depth stop.

Stepped up to a Jet 17". Pluses- Table raising crank, 12 speeds, table tilt. Minus - Poor fit and finish, supplied chuck is a POS, no quill lock, table tilt locking bolt hard to access. Could never get the Jet to drill a deep accurate hole, suspect the manufacturing tolerances preclude acceptable precision. Knurled nuts depth stop.

Stepped down to a 15" (1940 model) Walker Turner bench top. Pluses- Great fit and finish. Run-out on quill is less than 001. Quill Lock. Minus - No table raising mechanism, Limited to four speeds. Has the original 1/3 HP Driver Line motor. Has the knurled nuts depth stop.

My experience and the type of work I do has lead me to the following conclusions:

Four speeds are ample for 99% of woodworking.
Lots of horse power is not necessary.
Any good quality after market chuck is far superior
Quill lock is a must.
More quill travel is better, but not a deal breaker.
Check for excessive quill run-out on any new machine, if its more than a few thousands, its not capable of precision work


The Rockwell Drill press is long gone, the Jet has been sitting Idle for a year since I acquired the Walker Turner. What my new (old) machine my lack in versatility is more than made up for in fit and finish and precision.

Your type of work my differ than mine. I find I drill holes less than 3/4 inch 99% of the time and in over a years have never had the desire to change spindle speeds.

[Gregory King]

Used my 18-900L this past week-end. A real thrill everytime I turn on the lite and hit the start switch. A beast, she is. I'm sure if we keep bringing up this DP in our posts, we will have all the members on here harnessed with one.

[Matt Radtke]

The other thing that makes me laugh is the depth stop. Almost all still have the two knurled nuts that you run up and down the threaded rod. The two exceptions I know of are the Delta and Steel City that have it where you press a button and move it up and down the rod and then turn it to fine adjust. How hard could it be to make this change to make a drill press more user freindly. I looked at some Jet metal working presses with reeves drives that were $1,600 and they still had the two knurled knobs to screw up and down the rod.

I am my father's son on this one. He and I both prefer the double nuts. They are a positive stop and will not move once set. Everything else seems so chincy to me.

[John Nesmith]

I thought the 18-900L was as close as the industry has come to a real woodworking drill press. Is there something better out there for woodworking? I have been happy enough with my Craftsman 15" floor model, so I have not spent any time looking into, or thinking much about, any of the alternatives.

[Cody Colston]

I have a 17" Delta Shopmaster (yeah, the cheap Delta version) and it's worked fine for my needs. I did build an auxiliary table and fence for it. It's about a 30 second operation to reposition the belts...not as convenient as it could be but not exactly tasking, either.

I also don't see a whole lot of use for a drill press in a woodshop, either. I know a couple of professional furniture makers who don't even have a drill press...that's how important they are to them.

Perhaps that's the reason why the perfect woodworking drill press hasn't been designed...not enough demand for it.

[Joey Chavez]

I too have looked seriously at the Delta 18-900L, to me it was the best drill press driven towards woodworking on the market right now. Unfortunately the current budget had me back off. In my research I read a few old threads in the Creek that discussed Grizzly designing a dream drill press for woodworkers. I e-mailed Grizzly a month ago about the status and the response was the project was still many months away. I have a couple projects waiting on a drill press need so rather than wait I decided to do what I said I would not do again. Buy an inexpensive model to get through my current needs and upgrade later.

This weekend I went to Lowe's and bought their 15" Porter Cable (PCB660DP) and I have to say I'm impressed with the features you get for a $300 drill press. 1HP motor, 4" spindle travel, and the lasers aren't a gimick like on some of my other machines. I started to build a drill press table right after I set it up and have been really happy with my first impressions. Counter bored some holes with a forstner bit, a 2" hole with a circle cutter, nice and clean. Only time will tell but my first thoughts were after the drill press table is done I may just have all that I need in a drill press.