Delta 20 959LX 20 variable speed press?

[Daniel Shnitka]

I am about to make a deceion to order the Delta 20 959LX variable speed drill press.
Does anyone have experience with this recently availble to the market product?
It has many of the features desired in a drill press for wood working. I suppose the question is how well they have been executed? From what I have seen of the other Delta Drill presses they seem to receive over all postive reviews. This particular drill press seems to have evolved from current Delta drill presses.

The price is not the main consideration. With that said a Clausing 20" variable speed drill press at $4620 in Canadian dollars plus taxes & shipping is not practical (cost/benifit) for the home woodwork shop with incidental metal work.

From what is available in Canada this model has what I am looking for. Three issues seem to need to be answered:

The reliability of the variable speed system.
The degree of runout.
The reliability of the motor.A local retail woodworking shop will quote me a final price shortly on the Delta 20 959LX 20 drill press.

[Daniel Shnitka]

Available in late summer of 2007 in Canada.

[Jeff Wright]

I saw and operated the press at last year's Atlanta show and was impressed enough to put it on my buy list. But with the continued delays in introduction (last time I checked Delta's website it said intro was delayed until May 07), I decided to buy the Steel City 17-inch instead. So far I have been pleased with that unit. The Steel City is 17 inch versus 20, has a 3/4HP motor vs 1HP, its table does NOT tilt forward as does the Delta, is not variable (but I don't find the manual speed change a hassle), has a smaller table (I added the Woodpecker table for $120), it allows adjustments to the quill mechanism to compensate for machine wear over time whereas the Delta does not (this could be important over the years), costs $394 (after $75 rebate) versus over $900 for the Delta. I added the optional Steel City laser lights for $39.50 . . . these work great, especially if you take the time to align them accurately; lasers are standard on the Delta. Both presses feature the gooseneck light. I used the savings in cost to buy Lee Valley's HSS set of brad point bits and their set of forstner bits, plus a few odds-n-ends.

[David Kreuzberg]

Daniel--

Did you ever buy the Delta 20-959-LX? If so, can you tell me a little about it? I've been researching variable speed drill presses before upgrading, and ran across your almost two-year-old post. Thanks!

(What part of Canada do you call home?)

Dave Kreuzberg

[Frederick Wilt]

I tried to get one and was told that it had been withdrawn from the market. I went with the 20-950 instead. Which, as I understand it, is basically the same without the laser and digital stuff.

Nice beast.