Drill press question.

[Mark H Anderson]

I'm going to be in the market for a drill press fairly soon (I hope). I'm pretty much of a hobbyist with just a bit of experience. I see a lot of 1/3 HP models on CL and kijiji. The price is awful attractive, but are they worth having. I would be mainly drilling holes for mortices with a brad point and using it as a drum sander. Any thoughts or experience?
I know "ya get what ya Pay for", but....

[Rich Engelhardt]

I would be mainly drilling holes for mortices with a brad point and using it as a drum sander
I have one of those type drill presses.
I bought a Ridgid OSS and returned the drum sander I'd bought for the drill press.
IMH -experience w/the cheapies like that, they do ok for up and down drilling, but, they don't do any sideways force stuff well at all.

The other thing to watch out for is over complicated speed changes. Mine is a 12 speed and uses three sets of belts and pullys to change speeds. It's such a miserable task, I just set it on the middle speed and make do.
Quill travel is also limited. IIRC, mine is 3", maybe 3.5". That's seldom a factor for what I use it for though.

[John Coloccia]

I'm going to be in the market for a drill press fairly soon (I hope). I'm pretty much of a hobbyist with just a bit of experience. I see a lot of 1/3 HP models on CL and kijiji. The price is awful attractive, but are they worth having. I would be mainly drilling holes for mortices with a brad point and using it as a drum sander. Any thoughts or experience?
I know "ya get what ya Pay for", but....

What's your budget? With drill presses, the problem these days is that you don't get what you pay for.

[glenn bradley]

What's your budget? With drill presses, the problem these days is that you don't get what you pay for.

Too true. The good news is that you can spend between $150 and $800 and get a similar quality machine; poor. This is a case where I would look for a decent used 14" machine. Seems like there are many out there but, that can depend on where you are. Most drill presses aren't mills and don't take kindly to side pressure over the long haul. Again, your budget will help you get better answers ;-)

[Myk Rian]

I see a lot of them on CL, and probably for a good reason.
Wouldn't buy any of them unless it was 40+ years old.

[John Coloccia]

If you don't need a large swing, I run into so many older, split head designs that are either tight, or can easily be made tight with a little twist of a screw. Unfortunately, because of what I do i really do need every inch of my 18" swing, or I would have dumped mine years ago. Kicking around here somewhere, though, is a thread on what I did to tighten mine up, on recommendation of a few folks here. If the quill bearings are good, and it's just the quill that is a little loose, that can be fixed in 30 minutes for about $1.00 worth of set screws and a little drilling/tapping.