European Drill Press Advice Sought

[member=44099]Cheese[/member]
They show up on Ebay occasionally or on auction sites. Mine's a 16 inch but they also made a 20 inch version as well. The four head units on the large production table are pretty cool.

when I got mine, I called the office in Milwaukee and they scanned and emailed me the manual, a brochure and the expanded parts diagram.
 
[member=2205]teocaf[/member]
I measured mine and the Woodpeckers table overhangs my table by only 2 1/2" on each side.

Do you think the power feed is worth the extra $? And do you use it alot?

 
The grass isn't always greener on the other side. The reason I think you want Powermatic and Jet is because you've heard so much good about them and a lot of people are using them. The thing is, the woodworking community is large in the US in comparison to Europe. You hear so much good about the stuff they have over there that you blindfold yourself for the stuff that we have over here - that they might envy us for. One example that I hear a lot is Festool - we have a wider selection than the americans. There's a saying in Norway that says, roughly translated, you shouldn't cross the river to get water.

As for your question, I recommend to just look locally at used industrial machines. I'd think importing a heavy machine from another country would be a costly endeavour. Buying a new industrial tool is already expensive - but buying used industrial tools is a cost-effective way of securing you a quality machine. Also, by buying locally - you don't need to worry about the electrial issue.

I could advise you to get a Solberga drillpress. It's a swedish manufactor, and they're known for making very high quality drillpresses, and the people that know that can easily sell the 20+ year old drillpress for 800-2000USD, but some do sell them for a lot less, and you can grab a bargain. However, I think they're only easily available in Northern Europe.

On the other hand - you might have something even better that I don't know about, and even if you don't: paying freight for a Solberga drillpress would be very expensive. I know little about greek machine industry and while Solberga is a very good brand, it would be silly for me to recommend you to buy one when you might have something better for cheaper and less hassle-free.
Either way, sometimes good is good enough, and while the Solberga (or PM) drillpress might be better machines than what you can find locally, is it really worth it? The drillpress is meant to drill holes, and do you really need to import a machine from across the world to do that?

The solberga machines has gears (and not pulleys) so you can easily switch the RPMs. I'd imagine other brands has this function too. I bought an industrial lathe that had gears as well as a VFD that the owner had installed. What a VFD does in simple terms is to adjust the RPM of the spindle. For a 1HP motor, a VFD costs about 150USD. If you absolutely want electronic speed adjustment (torque become less and less the lower RPM you go), then the 150USD for a VFD would easily cover shipping cost of a PM drill press and then some. Lasers in my mind is a gimmick.

Hope I didn't come off as rude, that wasn't the intention.
 
Cheese said:
[member=2205]teocaf[/member]
I measured mine and the Woodpeckers table overhangs my table by only 2 1/2" on each side.
Do you think the power feed is worth the extra $? And do you use it alot?

[member=44099]Cheese[/member]  Yeah, I'm going to stick with the backer board for mine even though I have to go get longer bolts tomorrow.  I just don't trust that mdf, especially since I'm always pushing limits on things.  I'm measuring my overhang from the raised part of the table that's well inside the tray edge.
I used the power feed for one project so far but I can see some additional uses down the road.  That feature was not in my decision list.  I wanted a very stout quill and spindle, good power, etc.  I was initially looking for quite a while for a used Clausing in good shape, but I lost out on the only one I found near me.  I ended up at a dealer in Madison looking at some Ellis bandsaws and I saw they had the drill press in stock and on sale;  I was ready to buy by this time and I liked all the other features so I told them to load it up.  With a forklift they got it into my minivan with no problem.  Getting it out by myself and then putting it upright without heavy machinery was a different story--what's life without a few challenges?
 
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