Deal on New Drill Press

[Bob Slater]

Not sure if a deal is a tool you didn't intend to buy but the price seemed right. Bought a brand new General 3/4 HP drill press with a Baldor motor for $400 including a Jcobs Chuck. It is the made in Canada one. Very heavy for a bench top. The catch is, it is a benchtop and i was planning on buying a used Delta/Rockwell floor standing for $100 less. I am happy, but wondering if the extra capacity and convenience of a floorstanding one will be missed. Anyone know what the columns typically cost, maybe I can convert it. It is scary how much torque it has.

[Gene O. Carpenter]

Bob,
You would also need to get the floor base as the bench base is a little smaller..Otherwise it would be a little tippy!
I would have converted my old Walker T many years ago but for that problem..
Gene

[Bob Slater]

I was thinking maybe I should bolt it down to the ground, or build a wider base to go under the one it has.

[Rick Thom]

Bob, on the availablity/cost of conversion question, I have no idea but I would be surprise if the base and column didn't cost a few hundred $. What about the possibilty of building a base cabinet (w or w/o wheels) and mounting your dp on that? This would give you the added bonus of storage and who has enough of that? Some would say that the downside of free-standing d/p is wasted space between the table and base and no storage for the variety of bits and accessories for drilling that you will accumulate.

[Bob Slater]

Very good points. I think they make a stand for it too. Another alternative is to see if the cheaper/used ones use the same column dimension. But the drill cabinet idea is a good one.

[Jules Dominguez]

I recently replaced a 40-year old Craftsman benchtop, mainly because it wasn't set up with a crank mechanism to raise/lower the table and I'm getting too old to horse it.
I considered both floor and benctop models and couldn't really figure any benefits for a floor model. I bought a Jet JDP-15, based in part on a recent FWW review of benchtops, made a large auxiliary table for it, and a cabinet to use the full footprint of the table. I posted some pictures here recently. I'm happy as a pig with it.
You should probably look at the FWW review before you make a buying decision.

[Pete Janke]

I spent way too much time trying to decide whether to replace my old, but still working fine, bench top with another bench top or a floor model. I ended up with the Steel City 17" on a moveable base. The ability to safely move it around my small shop was a big plus. Very cool tool and I'm not looking back.