New Drill Press Gloat!

[Rod Dilyard]

It's here! Arrived this morning and now I have to wait until my son comes home from college this afternoon to help me get it to the basement and put it together. I was worried that since I ordered it 1 day before a $500 price jump the vendor would balk, but they came through and I couldn't be happier with their responsiveness throughout the process. My first experience with Elite Metal Tools and I have no affiliation other than this purchase, but they were great and responded to all my inquiries within a few hours.

The old Delta is already sold to a young friend who is just getting started in woodworking so I made him a good deal and he'll be picking it up on Saturday.

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[Bruce Mack]

Terrific! I got my Delta after seeing it remaindered at Lowes years ago. Though I use it only occasionally it has been invaluable. I hope you'll post photos of the assembly and the topping off ceremony.

[Mike Heidrick]

Congrats! Hope you like it.

[Mike Kees]

Your old delta kind of resembles mine , wait a minute it is exactly like mine.:D

[Randall J Cox]

Wow, a new Powermatic. Your old Delta looked brand new! Congrats.

[Rod Dilyard]

Sorry I didn't get any pictures during assembly - it only took maybe 20 minutes once we had everything moved. I was able to carry the base and my son carried the column, but the table and head were too heavy for one person. The head alone is over 150 lbs. It's a major improvement over the Delta for sure, but it should be for $2200. It has a 2-speed transmission and after playing around with it last night I'm pretty sure it will be spending most of it's life in low range. I was able to push it pretty hard with a large Forstner bit in oak and it didn't seem to lack power. One thing I was anxious to try was a carbide rosette cutter that the old Delta just couldn't handle. It wasn't so much a power issue, but there was so much chatter regardless of feed rate or RPM that it was impossible to get a satisfactory result. I was very pleasantly surprised at just how much more solid the Powermatic is. With way less slop and no chatter at all I was able to cleanly cut a rosette in oak without any fuss.

Like:
Quick and easy variable speed
Clever and easy to set depth stop
Smooth and easy to adjust table height adjustment despite the weight of the table
Built in crosshair lasers which are also very fine as you can see in the picture below with a 1/8" drill bit
Large table designed for woodworking
Built-in easy to access levelers for both the cast iron insert table and the sacrificial insert

Less than like:
The castings are a little rough in some places, but the machining seems pretty good
The included (keyed) chuck is terrible. I purchased a new keyless, but the MT2 arbor won't arrive until Saturday
The built in LED light is too bright and reflects like crazy off the table and also washes out the lasers. Maybe I'll like it more when I'm actually drilling some holes, but a dimmer would be nice
The included plastic sacrificial insert is less than worthless. I would think it would be cheaper, easier and more useful to just include a piece of MDF sized to fit
My sons commented that it looks like Squidward from Spongebob

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[John Lifer]

Looks good, Just like the one I bought in 1982... Except it came in a carboard box. And mine is a bit rust compared to yours.