I'm looking for a precise drill press

[Brian Sommers]

I want something with a X and Y vise with small adjustments.

I want something with at least a 4" quill travel.

I also want a table that can be turned with a crank on a ratchet system. not free sliding is what I have now and its a pain in the rear!

I thought maybe a milling machine, but I'm wanting to keep things under $1200 if I can, under a grand would even be better.

Recommendations please?

[Ben Rivel]

Dont think such a machine exists in your price range. Might have to save up and buy a mill.

[Peter Quinn]

Small used Bridgeport. I've see them go for $1200 without DRO and such. Takes a lot of effort to move and place, but it's really a pleasure to use one versus almost anything else.

[Peter Kelly]

I'd probably steer clear of a $1,200 Bridgeport J-Head. The condition of these is very hard to evaluate unless you are very experienced with one and you take the one you are looking at for a test drive. Decent, not totally clapped out ones are typically $2k and up w/o DRO.

That said, a Bridgeport is a great thing to have in the shop and would certainly meet with the OP's requirements listed above.

[Brian Sommers]

I could do more, money wise, its just going to take me longer to save up my money.

I'll look into a bridgeport J head.

[Brian Sommers]

That looks overkill to me.

anything for around $2500?

[John K Jordan]

A friend of mine bought two used Rong Fu mill-drills for $600 and they are heavy duty but don't take up space like a Bridgeport. I used his and it was great. A quick check shows even a new one is close to your budget.

I bought a small new mill from the Little Machine Shop for way less than your budget and it is quite accurate and with a precision xy table. I added a motor drive for the x direction which saves a lot of cranking. I forget what the vertical movement is but it is significant - it has a rack and pinion drive with dovetail ways.

I use mine to mill steel and softer metals, plastic, and wood. Made a nice branding iron yesterday.

The thing you need to decide is how much movement you need in the x and y directions. The larger mills and mill-drills usually have bigger tables.

JKJ

[Keith Weber]

What are you planning on using it for? My Bridgeport is the last machine in my shop that I would part with, but it would certainly be overkill if you were just using it for light drilling in wood.

You could buy an import (I can't believe I just said that) X-Y table for about $250-300 and mount it to your floor-mount drill press. That would leave you a huge budget to figure out a way to power the table lift. Just search around on YouTube. There's guys that have used everything from servo motors, to old drills, to bumper jacks to lift the table.

Just be aware that if you did venture down the route of a milling machine with the intent to mill steel and aluminum, that the machine will end up just being the initial investment. The accessories and tooling can easily add up to more than you pay for the machine.

[David Malicky]

+1 on a used Rong-Fu mill-drill. A new RF31 (round column) has 5" quill travel, $1400 new. Prior model (RF30) was similar. Quality is good (Taiwanese). Of course, a knee mill is great if you have the space and $.

For light duty, there is the Sieg X1 or X2 (sold by HF, Grizzly, many others): no quill but entire head moves similarly. Quality is fair, but probably ok just as a drill press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIEG

[Ole Anderson]

Unless you are doing heavy steel milling, a small mill-drill should do the trick. I bought one years ago for milling aluminum and it works great. I was doing light production so I added a power screw feed and a heavy 5" vice. It also works good for holding my power pencil sharpener and my cabinet door templates! Privately branded for KBC Machinery here in MI, Taiwanese, 4.5" post, 5" quill travel. If you get something as HD as a Bridgeport or other knee mill, you will be talking to equipment riggers to move the beast.

Are you also asking for a rotating vice? Those can get pricey.

http://www.kbctools.com/products/MAC...INES/2417.aspx
http://www.kbctools.com/default.aspx...00&parent=1957

Here is a similar offering from Grizzly: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill...owerfeed/G0760

[Brian Hood]

I was in your exact situation, wanted a much better 'drill press'.
There was a giant thread about this recently over at Yahoo Felder Owners group. Based on that, and after way too much agonizing over it I came to the conclusion that the stand-out value would be a used Rong Fu 30 or 31 clone from Craigs List. A used one without extras can be found for $1,000 in many areas. I was looking for a Jet JMD-18 because they might be better than other Chinese clones, the Rong Fu is made in Taiwon and said to be a better made machine, but who knows? I also believe that the best value in used is when you buy the best example with the most tooling because as has been stated above, expect to buy some tooling so why not buy it used with the machine in a package deal? The rule of thumb is you will pay as much for the tooling as you will for the mill/drill if you want to do precise work in metal, for example if you expect to work to a couple thou or better using a drill chuck that chuck will have to hold tolerance to about .0002 or better and that is a $500 Albrecht. A vise accurate to .0001 (Kurt) weighing about 70lbs is also a good idea, and another $500. And if you cruise over to DROPROS you may realize just how much you want an integrated 3 axis DRO.
I ended up paying $2,750 for an actual Rong Fu 31 and a pile of top line tooling and cutters, most of it US made. The chuck and vise mentioned above, the 3 axis DRO, a quick-change collet system (that originally cost more than the mill) and on and on. Could not be happier. Big surprise, the mill is 100% standard and not metric, clearly made for the NA market.
If you feel you'll be 80% wood then much less expensive tooling will work great. An excellent idea is to modify a Woodpecker drill press table with a wood bar on the bottom that you clamp in the vise and use that for wood, pull it off for metal.
You WILL find dozens of things your mill/drill will do on wood better than other tools, for work you can fit on the table. Mortice and tenon, dead easy. Little slots, small dados and rebates, perfect.
Best of luck

[glenn bradley]

I always eagerly follow these threads hoping for a new possibility. I wish you luck. I would never have let go of my 1940's Delta Milwaukee DP-200 if I had imagined that we would stop manufacturing decent drill presses. As others have said (and done), for decent bit control it seems you have to move to a mill. When you move to a mill you lose capacity.

I've got to assume there is just no money in making a decent drill press with a smooth, well controlled quill and a decent amount of swing. I would like to get my hands on a Grizzly G0748. Even at only a 15" swing, if it had controlled vertical quill slop (something that escapes Delta and Powermatic's high end offerings) I would sacrifice the reach and learn to work around it. Still . . . patiently . . . waiting ;-)

[Brian Hood]

Here is my setup showing the Woodpeckers table in the Kurt vise. The Albrecht chucks are on the table, the big one to the left and the 'sensative' small one on the right. The mill is so heavy and powerful you have no idea how much pressure it's putting on the drill, so for small drills you let the mill spin the chuck, the provide the down pressure by hand by sliding the chuck on a spring loaded shaft.
To the left of the big chuck are a couple tool holders with mills in them, they and the chuck snap into the quill- it's about a 10 second operation. The DRO is just showing position but has a lot of fancy features. For example, if you want to drill the exact center of something you nudge one side, then nudge the other side, then push a button, it will guide you to the CL.



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[Brian Hood]

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[David Malicky]

On pricing for a used RF30/31, new RF31s are $1200 - $1400:
https://www.southern-tool.com/store/...mill-drill.php
http://www.penntoolco.com/rf-31/
http://www.use-enco.com/1/1/3566-rf-...binations.html
Note RF now has factories in both Taiwan and China -- the base RF31 is probably from China, but quality should be decent from RF.
If a used one has tooling, the package deal would likely be worth it.

If you are in the ~$2k range, the RF45 clones (square column) are a usual option, but overkill for wood unless you need the ~20" swing:
http://www.hossmachine.info/RF-45_Clone.html
http://www.penntoolco.com/dm-45/
Or floor size: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Heav...ll-Press/G0751
The lower end 45s will likely have pretty noisy gears and need considerable tuning, though.