EVS drill press

[Rod Dilyard]

Seems like we kinda highjacked this thread, but I guess the simple answer to the original question is "no". So for those of us like Rick who want an EVS drill press it looks like the choices are Nova, Powermatic or build your own. Larry, thanks for putting together the comparison table. Based on that alone the choice is pretty clear, yet I find myself leaning toward the Powermatic. Maybe if Nova used something other than that membrane switch control panel. I really dislike those and have visions of them looking like the ones at the gas station pumps that are always cracked or torn open and you can't read the labels. I know that's not going to happen in a home shop setting, but like Charles said I just want to turn it on and drill a hole and easily change the speed when I need to. I'm usually a pretty rational person and use comparison charts for a lot of major purchases, so I don't know how to explain this. Maybe it's the included alignment lasers and LED lights?

[Edward Weber]

Regarding the reeves drive issue.
remove the belt and throw it away, clean the entire unit until there is nothing left to clean. Then install a link belt.
The main issue with the binding is the belt.
As the belt wears it spalls off rubber which sticks to the shaft and binds up or restricts the free movement of the pulley walls. Link belts do not degrade in the same manner, so there is no nore binding.

[Charles Coolidge]

Larry, thanks for putting together the comparison table. Based on that alone the choice is pretty clear

I think the table needs to be further expanded. Here's my list of top reasons I would choose the Powermatic over the Nova.

1. Powermatic has a 20 inch swing vs only 18 for the Nova. Swing is a top criteria and for close to the same price the Nova comes up short.

2. Powermatic rigidity and resistance to table deflection under load has the Nova beat. Look at the underside of the Nova table (I did) now look at the Powermatic it's not even a contest. The Nova also has limited areas for clamping on the underside vs the Powermatic has large full table depth flat wings for clamping, plus plenty of flats further in.

3. Powermatic has a patented innovative depth stop and spindle lock that's brilliant. The Nova's depth stop design is 80 years old. I have used those old style depth stops, most have laughable accuracy and repeatability. Also the chunk of cast iron clamped to the spindle to hold up the threaded rod has gotten in my way many times over the years, that's gone on the Powermatic. The Powermatic handles are also reversible to the left or right side. By the way the Powermatic pull handles are thick and BEEFY one of the first things I noticed.

4. Powermatic table is stationary vs the Nova table spins 360 degrees. The Nova design is just more opportunity for slop and inaccuracy imo.

5. Powermatic has a larger table and an innovative table design with a removeable cast iron insert you can replace with the Microjig table, downdraft table, or any jig table you can think up. The Nova's table looks dated, pretty much the same table design that's been around for 50+ years.

6. Powermatic table tilts 90 degrees left or right for drilling the end of longer stock. In conjunction with the removeable table insert all manner of end drilling jigs could be employed.

7. Powermatic has a low gear drive for HOGGING, the Nova does not. My choice was Powermatic's 1hp with a low gear drive vs Nova's 1.75hp in amps that 8amps vs 10amps. I'll take the gear drive and low gear GRUNT.

8. Powermatic has lasers for centering. I had (past tenths) no use for laser until recently when I combined the Powermatic's laser centering with my Skoal centering microscope. At 45x magnification trying to position the drill hole X within the scopes field of view was a bit time consuming. Now I use the Powermatic lasers to quickly center on my drill hole X then quickly ultra center it with the centering microscope, that's proven to be a brilliant productivity combination lately.

9. Powermatic has LED lighting. I have blinding lighting in my workshop. 36 four foot Daylight bulbs but of course with a drill press the head tends to block light. The Powermatic LED lighting has proven really helpful especially when using the 45x centering microscope.

10. Powermatic table surface finish is WAY nicer than the Nova. It's as good as higher end table saw cast iron surfaces. Its as nice as my SawStop ICS and Powermatic 15HH planer. Here's a photo of a Nova table, horrible. That's literally the surface finish of my budget Craftsman table saw from the early 1980's.

11. Table accuracy my Powermatic 2820EVS table is dead flat. I went over it with a 24 inch precision Starrett rule checking at several points front to back, side to side, diagonal and I could not get a .0015 feeler gauge under it anywhere. I really expected it to have some flat issues given the size and removable insert so was kind of stunned. But I think that speaks to the rigidity and ribbing under the table it's a brute.

12. The Powermatic has square center inserts which I can make easily. The Nova has round inserts. I don't have a lathe so that seems problematic. I chew these inserts up and replace them regularly.

13. The Powermatic passed a nickel test up through it's top RPM 3,600. With a hand on the table no vibration was felt until about 3,100 RPM and after it was kind of a buzz or tingling the nickel was rock steady. Can't speak for the Nova on this.

novatable.jpg

The Nova to me is lipstick on a pig. They put a cool motor, drive, software on a 60 year old drill press design. There's 1 or 2 youtube reviews that arrived at the same conclusion. Certainly its an improvement over a plain jane drill press that lacks the advanced electronic drive but beyond that it's your grand dads drill press. Powermatic took a step back and re-thought drill press design. I don't know if I will ever use all these capabilities above but it's nice to have them. And long term I'll take a RPM pot and a couple toggle switches over a membrane switch.

The Powermatic is NOT perfect.

1. It's table zero centering pin is utterly useless, Powermatic should be embarrassed.

2. The plastic center table insert is also a joke. Malformed and not even close to flat, that's another embarrassment for an otherwise brilliant drill press with such high quality attention to detail.

3. The soft start is a bit too soft e.g. slow to come up to speed but that may just be me.

4. When they were painting the head they accidently got some yellow paint up inside the head's bore. That almost went VERY WRONG it jammed about 2 inches onto the column and we had a heck of a time trying to get it back off. After I removed the paint it easily slid on with just the right amount of resistance, felt like a precision fit but not too tight. I guess why just some paint gummed that up.

[Tom M King]

I've been wanting one of these for years, but never bad enough to pay that much for a drill press. I get by with my two old 1150's.

https://www.ellissaw.com/drill-press-9400/

[Brian Holcombe]

Flott makes an EVS, I just priced one out. The additional costs involved in bringing into the us caused me to look elsewhere even though I have really wanted a flott for a while.

Bought a Kira that was modified to work with a vfd but I may have to make some changes to get it exactly as I want for cutting with forstners.

[Roger Feeley]

The low torque problem that Bill describes probably explains why Powermatic put a 2-speed gearbox on their EVS drill press.

My jet lathe is evs and has two pulley positions.

thanks guys. I’ll probably just put some of the pulley adjustments back.

[Larry Frank]

Mr. Coolidge's comments are interesting.

"Lipstick on a pig" comment ?????

It is clear from his comments that he is looking at this from a machinist point of view with comments about a Centering microscope and measuring flatness with his Starret straight edge.

I use mine for woodworking and built a table for those uses. I have had no issues with the strength or deflection of the table. The Nova also has a significantly higher speed range. The low speed torque is very good and works well with large hole saws and Forstner bits. I use the electronic depth gauge on mine and works very well.

The only purpose that I had for posting a comparison table was to present the information without putting down either of the drill presses. One needs to pick equipment based upon their needs.

[Derek Cohen]

Mr. Coolidge's comments are interesting.

"Lipstick on a pig" comment ?????

It is clear from his comments that he is looking at this from a machinist point of view with comments about a Centering microscope and measuring flatness with his Starret straight edge.

I use mine for woodworking and built a table for those uses. I have had no issues with the strength or deflection of the table. The Nova also has a significantly higher speed range. The low speed torque is very good and works well with large hole saws and Forstner bits. I use the electronic depth gauge on mine and works very well.

The only purpose that I had for posting a comparison table was to present the information without putting down either of the drill presses. One needs to pick equipment based upon their needs.

Larry, this is a good post. I agree with all your points. What I want to emphasize is that I have no doubt that either of these saws would do a fine job. As mentioned before, I have the Nova Voyager, but before this I had and used a cheapish Taiwanese floor standing drill press for some 20 years.

A drill press is, in my opinion, one of the most important and versatile machines for a woodshop. I got by fairly well with the simple Taiwanese machine, and then spoilt myself with the Nova a few years ago.

Knowing it reasonably well by now, there are things I would love to modify - such as a square pillar in place of the round pillar to retain the position of the bit, but this is a universal issue for all drill presses.

The other issues are easily rectified. These include Wixey laser cross hairs for siting the bit, which is very helpful and I cannot fathom why it was left off the Voyager but added to the bench top edition. I added a down light, but very rarely use it. The whole idea that a drill press will use a cast iron table amuses me as this seems to me to be a vestige of the machinist days. I built my own table, which is what everyone does anyway. The size of the cast iron table is, therefore, irrelevant. For a floor standing machine, the need to fold away the table (to 90 degrees) is something I have not done in 30 years as a serious woodworker.

What I most appreciate in the Voyager is the computerised selection of drill bit size and speed, which has extended the life of my bits as well as made many of the actions so much easier. The computerised depth stop is fabulous, and there is a mechanical one as well when feeling lazy. I did change out the chuck for a keyless, and checked runout. This is, to all intents and purposes, non-existent.

Frankly, many of the other features go over my head, and the Voyager is a bit of a luxury machine for my needs and how I use it. But what the hell, I enjoy it, and am not trying to sell nor justify it. At the end of the day, there are few machines which offer variable speed, which was my prime reason for buying one, and all the remainder is gravy.



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark e Kessler]

I have the voyager and find it good enough, i did change the chuck to Jacobs 9682D, I don’t think i have ever needed to turn the table to 90 and I have never found lasers in woodwork useful for anything but rough work so no loss there.

Who uses the stock table…i made one like most and it has a rectangular insert not that it matters, square and round work as well.

As far as a table finish goes, never noticed and i am picky and use/have higher end equipment i think the voyager is the only asian built piece i have, but again doesn’t matter who doesn’t build one to go on top…(probably someone, lol)

Although silly, the nickel test does indeed pass on the voyager

Your point #2 has me baffled, even if the pm table is more beefy the voyager isn’t sheet metal, where is your data on the deflection? We are drilling wood here (well, i am) not parts for battle ships…

Anyways, it’s not like i am a proponent of one over the other as a matter of fact I wanted to buy that PM DP but it was to new at the time and I just don’t like the new PM after growing up with the old PM (which really wasn’t that great either) and another machine came up that took my money at the time. Later in the year the Voyager presented itself and i bought it…

I actually do not use any of the settings on it and just manually adjust the speed, I tried a lot of them like the auto start, the turn off at depth, reversing ect but it’s silly and I prefer to turn it on/off and adjust speed on the fly…idk maybe i am turning into my parents….

[Brian Holcombe]

I have a Jacob’s ‘super Chuck’ that I use on the Bridgeport mill for drilling but outside of that I’ve switched entirely to Albrecht over the past few years with no regrets. I’ve picked up some on eBay and rebuilt them and the occasional new one here and there.

Albrecht will ruin you for any other Chuck, they’re fantastic. They are very easy to source replacement parts for and pretty easy to rebuild so long as the previous owner didn’t really destroy it.

I’ve been looking for a vise and leaning toward Heinrich 8SV or the Flott vise.

Heavy is good, I’ll take heavy over light on pretty much anything. Heavier equipment typically comes with heavier bearings, shafts, etc.

[Mark e Kessler]

I here ya on the chuck but I gotta draw the line somewhere, after seeing a 17mil Fastems automated manifold cell with robots and 3 million dollars in tooling as well as auto heat treating for the tool holders plus rfid on every tool to monitor spindle time and chip cut I am fully aware I am behind the times…lol

I have a Jacob’s ‘super Chuck’ that I use on the Bridgeport mill for drilling but outside of that I’ve switched entirely to Albrecht over the past few years with no regrets. I’ve picked up some on eBay and rebuilt them and the occasional new one here and there.

Albrecht will ruin you for any other Chuck, they’re fantastic. They are very easy to source replacement parts for and pretty easy to rebuild so long as the previous owner didn’t really destroy it.

I’ve been looking for a vise and leaning toward Heinrich 8SV or the Flott vise.

Heavy is good, I’ll take heavy over light on pretty much anything. Heavier equipment typically comes with heavier bearings, shafts, etc.

[Tai Fu]

You know the Reeves drive is used in some small vehicles like scooters. Are there people who repair them in your area, or perhaps motorcycle repair shop that fixes smaller motorcycles?

They might know more about how to fix your problem. Those Reeves drive is basically a "CVT" type transmission that are used in vehicles.

Maybe there's a spring somewhere in the system that's loose causing your problem. So you may have to replace some springs. As far as I know these CVT has spring loaded cone type pulleys that exert a certain pressure, and the speed selector on your drill press presses down on one of the pulleys to cause a change in speed. The spring would allow the pulley to react in unison, and if you are having problems, then either springs have problem, or the sliding bit on your reeves drive are binding.

Take them apart and you'll probably find out why it's failing.

Electronic speed control has its faults. For one you often get less torque at lower speed which can be problematic. Even CNC machines that often use electronic speed control have problems with this, and they have to program them accordingly in order to avoid low torque areas.

[Tai Fu]

I have a Jacob’s ‘super Chuck’ that I use on the Bridgeport mill for drilling but outside of that I’ve switched entirely to Albrecht over the past few years with no regrets. I’ve picked up some on eBay and rebuilt them and the occasional new one here and there.

Albrecht will ruin you for any other Chuck, they’re fantastic. They are very easy to source replacement parts for and pretty easy to rebuild so long as the previous owner didn’t really destroy it.

I’ve been looking for a vise and leaning toward Heinrich 8SV or the Flott vise.

Heavy is good, I’ll take heavy over light on pretty much anything. Heavier equipment typically comes with heavier bearings, shafts, etc.

I have a milling machine that uses NT40 spindles (seriously, R8 is so yesterday, ISO/NT/whatever spindle is much superior to R8 in EVERY way with positive drive keys and all that, furthermore if you wanted to get into CNC/VMC type machines they use the same spindle. You can simply use a cutoff disk to cut the end off of the NT40 spindle, screw a pull stud on it, and you have an instant BT40/CAT40 tool holder).

But it allows me to get this on the cheap:

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32962934939.html

They're really cheap, and they're keyless, not to mention it gets tighter as it spins and bits into materials. So I never had it loosen up on me before. Only downside is sometimes it can get too tight and then I have to use a crescent wrench to open it. Maybe they make them in R8 or even MT3/JT66 so you can use it in a drill press. Mine is literally one piece, I can chuck an end mill into it if I want to do low precision work (it has a runout of about 0.005") and because of its construction, I never have to worry about it coming loose.

[Brian Holcombe]

Most tapers are better than R8.

I’ll stick with Albrecht, no sense in beating up the machine bearings with a Chuck that produces .005” runout.

That isn’t an end mill chuck, I wouldn’t be doing that. I can’t imagine the time savings over using an end mill holder or collets is worth taking that kind of risk.

[Tai Fu]

Drill chuck all produces a lot of runout, they are obviously not the right tool for milling, but for drilling the runout doesn't matter.