radial arm drill press

[Bruce Mack]

Hi. I'm looking for a drill press for occasional use. Seven Corners Hardware, here in St. Paul has a Woodstock W1670 radial arm press for $259. Is this a mistake? i.e. wobbly unreliable? Thanks.

[Chuck Lenz]

I bought a Woodstock dovetail jig a few years ago. I took it back. I won't waste anymore of my time on their stuff after that.

[Mike Marcade]

A Shopfox W1670 appears to be the same as the Grizzly G7946 for 240 bucks + freight. The Shopfox has a better warranty. I have no experience with this model in particular, but in my opinion Grizzly makes good tools.

[Bruce Mack]

Thanks for the response. Seven Corners did not have a model on the floor, and I didn't want to buy something without shaking it for rattles. Rockler has a 10% off on Delta equipment Jan. 19 and 20, and I looked at the 12" variable speed benchtop drill press in store today. It's not capable of heavier tasks, I know, but I think it will suit me. I'll be back tomorrow to buy it.

[Chuck Lenz]

The Delta looks nice, aparently they had a pulley problem on those models. I would do some asking around to see if they ever resolved the problem first. If they did, make sure you don't get old stock. It's too bad Steel City doesn't have a benchtop model, their 17" floor model gets good reviews from what I've seen.

[Bruce Page]

Looks to me that the Woodstock & Grizz are the same, even the specs are identical.
I have heard people complain of the head moving on these no matter how tight they tried to tighten it.

[Ken Deckelman]

I personally would not own a radial drill press, ESPECIALLY a cheap one. They look like they would be a pain to keep aligned.