Harbor Freight has their 8'' 5 speed drill press on sale for 64.99. Is it complete crap or "OK once you get it running (like the mini lathes)"?. I dont mind if I have to disassemble it, I just want to know what others think
The first thin I thought was that the drill press is small. The second thing I thought about was a project I saw someplace (maybe one of the forums) where such a drill press was used as the frame for a die filer. The third thing I thought was that these can be had dirt cheap used if you look around.
I have read that the quills (or the chucks) arent fitted correctly, but according to HF, the taper is B16
Not very helpful is that. You might want to check for international standards for that taper, I've not heard of ?16 before. It could also be a threaded arbor. Basically I don't know.
Im just about done moving everything into my new home so Im ready to start rebuilding my work shop.
Oh, I also have a 1200W Treadmill Motor if it lacks power.
It will lack power. On the other hand you can't expect much at all out of such a frame. 1/3 HP (real HP, not Chinese stall torque) is probably the frames limit. If you need power or think you need power this is the wrong machine for you. In any event some comments about drill presses below:
I purchased a HF quasi benchtop drill press years ago. It isn't t a bad design but the spindle run out is terrible. I've actually have considered making a new spindle for it it is so bad. Years is probably close to 40 years ago and frankly it is a better machine than they are selling now.
A couple of years ago I went down to Muncy to purchase a drill press from Grizzly. I had the intention of buying a low end floor standing model but that idea was trashed when looking at the units they had on display in the showroom. Everyone of those lower end benchtop and free standing machines had terrible wobble in the quill assembly and general looseness to the assembly work. Considering that I wanted a machine that could drill with precision especially in the smaller diameters most of those low end machines where basically useless. If the quill wobbles all over the place it really doesn't matter if the spindle runs true. Mind you I checking this by grabbing the chuck and was not delighted at all with what I felt. In general I have high expectations for machinery but often a deflated wallet, so I try to choose wisely.
So I compromised by buying a larger machine, a floor standing model. It is a passable machine with plenty of power. I don't have the model number handy but it has speed ranges that can cover much of what I do. In my case this is my second drill press. I don't really think having two is excessive as I use them a lot for both metal and wood working. Even though I went with a slightly larger drill press, in the hopes of getting better quality, it is still a "cheap" drill press in my mind. Big is useful though as I can drill holes, drum sand and do a host of other activities on the machine.
In any event my opinion is that none of these machines is ideal for modeling or small precision work. So if you are expecting to chuck a #40 drill or something similarly small in the chuck and get good results you should put that idea out of your mind. Maybe you will get lucky and walk out of the store with a unicorn. That is a mythical HF machine that produces results beyond anybodies expectation.
As such I'm going to suggest, as many other have already, to get a floor standing drill press and to look for the better quality machines. You want enough Horse Power to handle a variety of jobs on a machine strong enough to handle that HP. What that means to you specifically I don't know. However I'm going to suggest a machine with at least 1/2 HP and a wide range of spindle speeds.
If you find yourself doing a lot of work with wire gage drills and similar precision work consider a drill press meant for such work. That can be a DIY machine like offered up for a pillar tool, a used industrial machine or something like a Servo drill press. Yes that means two machines. Let's face it a floor standing drill press leaves a lot to be desired, feel wise, when it comes to small drills.
Someplace in the middle is the various mill/drill machines. Generally there. Is considerably more precision in the build of these machines so that is a big plus right there. For many they are a far better benchtop drill press than can be had these days at a reasonable price. I haven't gone this route simply because I'm still building up the metal working portion of the shop. However you can still run into the same sorts of issues you run into with 3in1 machines and multipurpose tools.
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