OH? if only Festool made a drill press.

[wcelliott]

I've got a garage full of Festools but no floor model drill press. I've looked at the offerings that Delta, Powermatic & Jet have to offer but frankly, none of the new Chinese made products seem to be worth taking home.  Does anybody have experience with these?  At this point price isn't a big deal.  I simply don't want to plop down good money only to find out I've got a piece of junk. BTW, variable speed is not a big deal however; I would like it to be able to run as low as the 200-250 rpm range.

Thanks for your help,
Bill Elliott

 

[Ned]

I would like it to be able to run as low as the 200-250 rpm range.

Good requirement, even if you only occasionally drill metal.

A requirement I'd add is a simple threaded-rod-with-nuts depth stop.  That design is easier to set and easier to check, and offers the possibility of limiting upward travel as well.

My 10-year-old Sears Craftsman 17-inch (430mm) drill press has a rotary stop mounted on the handle's shaft.  I hate it.  It's the only design feature I hate.  The rest of my unhappiness with it comes from its generally crappy build quality.

When I replace it, one of the requirements will be a 6-inch (150mm) stroke.  This may seem excessive, but the longer stroke allows you to change tooling without disturbing your setup--say, swapping from drill to counterbore, and staying concentric. 

I admit, my requirements are skewed heavily toward metalworking, but 75% of the time the drill press is used for wood.

If your inclination is toward metal, have you considered a mill/drill? The one shown has a speed range from 100-1750 rpm.

[attachimg=#]

Grizzly G0619 Mill/Drill.  Just an example, not a recommendation.

Ned

 

[sw1211]

You might check out the Steel City drill press. It has a 6" stroke and some other nice features.  I don't have any hands on experience with this, but when I upgrade my bench top, this is the way I'm leaning. You'd be challenged to find a DP that isn't variable speed.  You'll want it, even if you don't currently think you do.  As you use larger bits, i.e. Forstner bits, you'll need slower speeds.

 

[Scott W.]

Bill,

I'm not sure how much spindle travel or swing your looking for or what your willing to invest.

I recently went through a pretty extensive search for the perfect drill press "for me".
I wanted a 6" spindle travel, a large swing, continual variable speed (not step pulley's) and a heavy stable machine with a strong arbor and column.

I must have looked at a hundred different models & brands.

In the end I bought a 20 inch variable speed Turn-Pro from Enco.

I haven't used it a lot yet but it is smooth the fit & finish is very good and it has virtually no runout. it also has a #3 Morse taper (you need an adaptor to use a Jacob taper chuck) and a draw bolt It should last me a lifetime.

You can see a photo here (still in the crate).

Scott W.

 

[Ned]

Scott--

Couldn't find a smiley for "I'm envious". 

Ned

 

[dltflt]

Nice shop Scott, I'm sure that shop will make most of us envious.  Is this a hobby or a living for you?

 

[Steveo48]

I bought a Grizzley bench drill press about 20 years ago to use at home.  I have no complaints, but some of the plastic knobs  on the end of various steel levers are rather cheezey and would have broken long ago if I hadn't been careful with them.  An easy fix when they eventually fail.

I use it for everything, drilling steel, brass, aluminum, PVC, plexiglass, hardwoods and have used 4 " holesaws on it.  I also make rosettes with it.

When I was searching for a drill press then (@1987?) I was told by a sales guy only the Delta universal drill press was still made in the USA in Mississippi.

Steve

 

[Scott W.]

Thanks Ned

Don T, It's a hobby for me & I don't get near enough time for it

I don't want to hijack Bill's drill press thread.

There is a thread on my shop here

Scott W.

 

[Corwin]

... When I replace it, one of the requirements will be a 6-inch (150mm) stroke.  This may seem excessive, but the longer stroke allows you to change tooling without disturbing your setup--say, swapping from drill to counterbore, and staying concentric. 

That mill/drill (or one like it) is what I would like for the same reason.  Maybe one day...

Back in the late 70's I was working at a machine shop and one of the guys brought in the slickest drill press I've ever seen -- it was a turret spindle drill press.  This little sweetie had 6 (or so, cannot recall) spindles configured like the spokes of a wagon wheel, each with its own stop.  The handle to control spindle travel is 'banged' back (up) to rotate the turret to the next spindle.  This little gem was supper for drill and tap operations, and so much more.  Sorry I don't have a picture to show.

 

[johnny t]

I have a variable speed 16.5" delta,  and I cannot recommend it.  vibrates alot and just is rough all around.

A good friend of mine however got a nice own (the 15") for his factory...model 80152.
http://www.palmgren.com/p-sm-variablespeeddrillpresses.html

his his under a dayton brand (grainger) I also have seen them branded craftsman professional.  made in tiawan.  variable speed w/ digital readout.  very heavy duty castings (twice the weight of my delta).  and such features like a cast iron crank for table raising, unlike the typical plastic.    And dead smooth,  I mean like a whisper.  My friends employees don't treat the drill press kindly, considered kind of disposable and after a couple years,  although everytime I go there for some metal work (nice to have friends with Bridgeports)  that little dayton/palmgren  still works great.  It is the drill press I will replace my stinker of drill press when it pisses me off one day. 

 

[dltflt]

Has anyone had the opertunity to see the new Delta 17" woodworkers drill press?

 

[wcelliott]

Steve, Thanks for the Steel City suggestion.  I really like the 6" quill travel feature. Woodcraft sells them here so I'll check it out today.

Scott, The Turn-Pro from Enco looks really like a nice machine.  Have you noticed any issues with large bits since it only goes down to 300 rpm? Or, is the difference between 200 & 300 a non-issue anyway.  BTY, where's this machine made?

Don, I saw the new Delta 17" drill press at a local Rockler store.  The sales guys all said they'd not recommend it since the local Delta service center wasn't able to get any parts for them yet and couldn't say when.  They said ever since Black & Decker took over control of design and manufacturing, Delta had been experiencing problems with quality.  In fact, they said that the 20" drill press with the laser and digital readout was scrapped due to design & manufacturing problems.  Could this be the end of the road for the Delta we've known for years?  I think I'll look elsewhere.

Bill

 

[Scott W.]

.......  Scott, The Turn-Pro from Enco looks really like a nice machine.  Have you noticed any issues with large bits since it only goes down to 300 rpm? Or, is the difference between 200 & 300 a non-issue anyway.  BTY, where's this machine made? .......

Bill

Bill,
The biggest thing I've tried so far is a Rosette cutter I think it's 2 9/16 in diameter. Cut some in Oak and Jatoba over the weekend just messing around with the DP. No problem.

I believe the machine is an Enco private label made by Rung-Fu in Taiwan (same as some of the larger ones from Wilton, Grizzly & others)

Scott W.

 

[dltflt]

Thanks Bill that is good info.  I never have liked B&D's crap.  They will probably bring down PC and Dewalt also.

 

[semenza]

Thanks Bill that is good info.  I never have liked B&D's crap.  They will probably bring down PC and Dewalt also.

Hi,

  Probably. B&D has owned DW for at least ten years though.  Then again we have Festool so no worries

Seth

 

[Steve Jones]

Thanks Bill that is good info.  I never have liked B&D's crap.  They will probably bring down PC and Dewalt also.

Don,

I used to think B&D was crap too, but I saw an interview on TV years ago with someone high up in B&D explaining that they weren't in the business of building tools for professionals, they designed to a price point that someone who could not afford a professional rechargeable drill could still at least have one.

That struck me as a good point, so much so that I went from viewing all their products with disdain to having a certain amount of respect for what they are doing.

I am aware (and have experienced) the decline in quality of the alleged "professional" tool brands, particularly Dewalt (in my own experience) That, I believe is directly attributable to the fact that so many consumers of these products don't know the difference, and wouldn't recognise quality if it hit them in the face.

As long as consumers push for cheaper, "I'll buy the cheapest one, never mind researching actual quality, gimme the cheapest one" - can you blame manufacturers for providing what the majority are clamoring for - to the extent of ignoring any attempts at providing quality?

The only means we have to attempt to improve the situation is to continue to do exactly what all of have in common on this forum....

BUYING QUALITY - Even is it's more expensive, even if we sometimes give ourselves sticker shock over the next neat little gadget, to continue to not only recognise, and insist on that quality level, but to be prepared to vote with our wallets.

Every dollar we spend on something we can rely on, something that just works better, is better designed and built - every dollar that is NOT spent on "crap" is one tiny step back from the brink of selling ourselves into mediocrity.

 

[graphex]

I feel a bit sheepish after Steve's post when I say I bought a new delta drill press last week. I actually looked at just about everything else I could find in the $400-$600 range but there just seemed to be better engineering going in to the Delta. I think that is one thing they have going for them... while the build craftsmanship of their actual product showed some examples of chinese cheapness, the features and overall thinking that went in to the product showed the maturity their product line has.

One of the main things that drew me to the 17-959L was its table, which is twice as large as the others, and the fact that it has two t-slots in it for clamping and mounting (although I am having a harder time finding anything to actually use those slots than I would like. I also liked the fact that it had a good manual, and included hardware for mounting it to a plywood base (and it had a larger metal base to begin with than all the others).

I didn't see any compelling reason to spend more on the Powermatic. Frankly, they basically have feature parity with the Delta I got, but costs $300 or so more. I looked pretty hard at the Steel City, which cost quite a bit less, and seemed to be built with better craftsmanship, but I just seemed to see things which said to me that their product engineering wasn't as mature. Little things like the way the top opens up to do the pulley change (I couldn't really justify the next price range up with the infinitely variable speeds because I really don't do that much drilling) just made me a bit insecure about what I would get. I've only drilled a couple of holes, so I can't really speak to my overall satisfaction, but it seems to do what I want it do, just not much more.

I do agree that Delta seems to have completely shot themselves in the foot with the 20-959LX product. They demoed it in mid 2006, and Amazon was already taking pre-release orders, but it seems to have been postponed until 2008 or 2009, which in my mind points more to internal strife than engineering problems.

I think the thing with uber-companies like this is that once they realize that their products overlap so much, they start shuffling things around for "brand consistency". My guess is that B&D is the "lowest cost" line, while DW takes up the mid-range-to-cheap-pro lines, with PC getting the Norm Abram fans. Delta probably gets the least overlap and is more "machinery" oriented than "tool" oriented, if that makes any sense. The problem here is, lets say that DeWalt makes a good tool, which is too similar to the PC one, the engineers will be pressured by the management to make more decisions in favor of lower cost for the DW item. The problem is, the converse is rarely true, so the equivalent PC tool doesn't get 'better' just maybe it doesn't get cheaper.

I really love it when I can get a product from a company like Festool, which doesn't have that sort of conflict. I'm sure they're always considering production cost, but they don't really seem to make anything like the compromises we see in the products at the big boxes. While I certainly consider where and how a product is produced, of equal importance to me is where and how a product is engineered, as well as the overall experience of the product line in general.

Maybe I had more choices that I thought, and maybe I got the wrong drill press, but I really wanted a drill press engineered for woodworking. I got the impression that just about every drill press out there was made for metalwork, and there was certainly a component of my purchasing decision which was a reward to Delta's engineers for putting in features specifically for woodworking. I really wanted something with a zero-able imperial/metric digital depth gauge, but I didn't see anything out there (anywhere near my budget at least) which had that at all. The only one with that feature was Delta's vaportool 20-959LX - kind of surprising.

 

[Steveo48]

.....

I used to think B&D was crap too, but I saw an interview on TV years ago with someone high up in B&D explaining that they weren't in the business of building tools for professionals, they designed to a price point that someone who could not afford a professional rechargeable drill could still at least have one.

That struck me as a good point, so much so that I went from viewing all their products with disdain to having a certain amount of respect for what they are doing. .....

They are making different levels of perceived quality, chevys, olds, buicks and caddys.

I want to make a quick point about imports. They typically build the level of quality the importer wants, not what the the manufacturer is capable of.  Importer wants a cheap, $39.00 3 x 18 belts sander, the say "yea we can do that!"

 

[EdL]

Well Bill, if you want a top quality drill press and price isn't a issue........ Clausing  It doesn't get any better than these.

SOMEDAY, I'll have one.

Ed

 

[graphex]

Yikes, they may be good drills, but their web developer needs to learn when to use JPEG an when to use GIF!