Jet Drill Press

[softop41]

Hello everyone,
I'm considering the Jet 17" drill press that Woodcraft will have on sale(slightly) on April 14. I now HF has them cheaper, but I don'tlike the shade of their green paint, among other reasons. For instance, I currently have a ProTech benchtop model from Menards and recently found that ProTech is out of business.
and psrts will become non-existant soon probably.
So i decided to move up. Oh, hunny I need to buy a new tool......
Does anyone have any experience with it, good or bad? Is it smooth, quiet, accurate, etc.

I am also considering the Jet mortising attachment for that model. Any input would be appreciated. Specifically, if a dedicated mortiser does any better job that an attachment on a good drill press.
The Mgr. at Woodcraft sells the Delta, for more money naturally, and says it will fit the Jet just fine. However, the table slots appear to be oriented differently on the Jet than the Delta. So, yes it can be made to fit but why if the Jet is less money to start with. Woodcraft price for the Delta is $75 while the Jet can be gotten off Amazon for $32 and free shipping the last time I looked.
Thanks,
Jerry

[LCHIEN]

Mortising attachments: delta used to have two, one was around 65 and the other around 32 (was several years back) the difference being no chisels int he cheaper one.
Does the cheap Jet have chisels or not?

here's a suggestion: BUy a nice bechtop Mortiser and wait for the Protech to break before buying a new DP. I know you'll find the mortiser much more pleasant to use than the attachments.

[Tom Miller]

Re: the Jet 17" DP -- I've been very happy with mine. The 4 3/8" quill travel alone is worth half the price. It operates very smoothly, has immeasurable runout, and now that I've taken to "walking" the belts, changing speed is quick and easy. Table height adjustment is equally smooth and easy, and the 1HP motor has never bogged down, even with big circle cutters, etc. (Jeez, that sounds like it came right outta the brochure! )

Re: mortising attachment -- I got my DP in a package deal, with a Rockler table, and the Jet mortising attachment with a 3 chisel set. So, it was a no-brainer to give it a try. Short version: I've been satisfied with it to the point that I don't see a dedicated mortiser anywhere in my near future, partly due to shop space reasons, and better things to spend my $$ on. Since I got the Rockler table with the deal, though, I have never used the supplied mortising fence and hold-down. I recently made my own hold-down that you can read about here. One of the more "mortise-intense" projects that I've done can be viewed here.

While the negative comments that mortising attachments receive are not without merit, many times they come from people who tried to use them with a woefully undersized DP (i.e. table-top models). There are no warning labels on these attachments, after all. Others can't seem to figure out how to line up the chisel with the fence. But, I've never used a dedicated mortiser, either, so I admittedly have no idea what I'm missing.

Regards,
Tom

[siliconbauhaus]

ray in the uk has one....I'm pretty sure he was very happy with it

[RayintheUK]

I'm considering the Jet 17" drill press that Woodcraft will have on sale(slightly) on April 14. Does anyone have any experience with it, good or bad? Is it smooth, quiet, accurate, etc.

The only fault I could find was in the supplied table. Mine wasn't circular, but the curved edges made clamping anything across it impossible, so I made an accessory table for it:



As Tom says, it's a great drill press. Can't comment about the morticing attachment, though - I've got a dedicated machine for that.

Ray.