Which Small Drill Press to Buy

[bretk]

Hello,

The wife is looking for a father's day present for me and I was thinking of one of those small 45-85 dollar drill presses at the local harbor freight, or grizzly store. I am looking at something to set up my indexing table for drilling bolt hole circles and maybe to mount one of those cheap 79 dollar x-y tables to for drilling only, I have my mini mill for milling, it's just the table isn't big enough for multiple setups and I get tired of tramming :wall: over and over. Any opinions on them?

-Bret

 

[BobWarfield]

I have a floor-standing DP from Central Machinery, which is pretty equivalent to Harbor Freight.

The biggest issue with it is the lousy chuck. I would plan to replace the chuck ASAP. Other than that, it works fine.

Cheers,

BW

 

[Stan]

My experience with the Asian import drill presses of both small and large sizes is poor fit of the quill. It appears that they bore the castings oversize so that even oversize quills can still be assembled.

It is a matter of hand selecting the best fit. You have to extend the quill full travel and grab the chuck to see how much slack is in the system. If you take home a box from Harbor Freight and set up the unit and find excess slack, take it back and try another one. The time wasted is the cost of buying a $45 drill press versus one for several hundred dollars. You may be lucky and get a good one on the first try.

The other issue is the lack of starting torque on the Chinese motors. Used appliance motors are usually available for free and made a big improvement.

 

[rake60]

The day I went shopping for a drill press started at Harbor Freight but it
ended at a Lowes Home Center. I ended up bringing this one home.

It was the last one of a discontinued item, on sale for $79.99
Yes it IS a China import, but it has served me very well for many years now.
Before I had the mini mill it was even used to spin a few end mills after tightening the
spindle bearings up to the danger zone. That would be called abusing a machine!

Rick

 

[kvom]

I have one of those "central machinery" bench DPs. The chuck will hardly stay in under in sort of torque. It's qu ietly rusting unused on the floor of my garage.

 

[rangerssteamtoys]

I have a 100 year old drill press. My dad used it when he was my age, and it was used by his grandpa before that. I dont really know anything about the drill presses that your talking about, but its a present get the bigger one. ;D

 

[rake60]

I see a lot of posts condemning the the import machines on other forums.

To be totally open that was one of the main reasons I created this forum.

A home hobby machinist can't afford to pay the American union wages
to buy their products. It's a flawed system that has priced our own people
out of the market.

OK, that's turning political and we don't allow that here, so.......

The parts and design of the China made tools are vigilant copies of the high
end tools. The final assembly of those tools are not so good.
When you buy a Pacific Rim manufactured tool you are buying a kit.
If you are capable of adjusting a spindle bearing preload in a drill press
you have a quality machine at 1/3 the cost.
If you are not capable of doing the adjustment all you need to do is ask for
advice here!

Back to the political thing for a second.
People will say American jobs were lost by these products being imported.
The factories that made these tools were minimum wage production shops.
The dock workers unloading the the ships these products come in on are
earning as much as a veteran machinist.
It's a loss for a gain.

Rick

 

[Stan]

rake 60: Of course, you are correct in that Asian tools made home shops possible. You are also correct that they come as a kit that requires a lot of fitting and fine tuning. However, it is just not practical to fix some flaws, and one of those, is a loose quill in a drill press. Asian drill presses have no bushings in the quill. The cast iron head is bored and a steel quill dropped in the hole. Regardless of how good the spindle bearings fit, if the quill wiggles around in the head, it is hopeless.

It is possible to set up the head casting in a mill (if your mill is large enough) bore it out (if there is enough meat) fit bushings, broach the keyway and reassemble. Replacing the motor is quite simple (except for fitting a metric pulley to an inch shaft) and making a metal depth stop to replace the springy plastic one is also easy.

I have had four of them (a 1/2" floor model, a 1/2" bench model and two of the small bench models). One of the small ones was so bad that I just scrapped it, the others were fixable and get a lot of use.

 

[sparky961]

Bret:

I wouldn't discourage the purchase of a "cheap" import. I have a small bench model that's served me well for a number of years, despite some of it's drawbacks. Some excellent points are raised here on the viability of a home shop resting on the shoulders of China (and other future super-power countries).

Also, next time you're looking at a name brand tool, look closer - many of these are imports, or contain many imported parts.

Stan:

Thanks for the idea on replacing that "springy plastic" depth stop with a metal one. I'm sure to forget about this soon after I write this, but I'm certain to remember it the next time I'm using it!

-Brian

 

[shred]

I use a little tabletop DP (import, HF) all the time-- drilling odd holes in wood 2x4's, non-critical holes in metal or random home projects and even critical holes wherein I have the CNC drill the first 3/4 of the hole and finish on the DP so as to avoid setting up a sacrificial plate or punching holes in the mill table. Mine works pretty well for that, though the keyless chuck has a habit of departing the taper occasionally and also tightens 'backwards' from all the others I've used. OK deal for $40, I'd say.