Tradesman 12" DP - Comments ???

[movnup]

I have some projects that I need a DP coming up and I was planning on going up to the Grizzley sale in Bellingham WA for the 12" 3/4 horsepower DP on sale. I picked up a Tradesman 12" that was in perfect shape on CL for $80 tonight with a DP vise and the laser sighting system.

Does anyone have one of these or know if these are any good for the near term (a year or so) or should I just drill my holes for my project(s) and put it back up on Craigs List. Initial impressions are the laser is hokey and the rack and pinion isn't even attached to the column but it drills true and is very quiet !!! I don't have room for a floor DP so I need to squeeze in a bench top.

I think Tradesman was a Lowes brand for awhile but I'm not sure ....

[LCHIEN]

I have not seen a table lift rack and pinion that is any better - virtually all I've seen the rack is loosely attached to the column so it can swivel around the column and the table wobbles back and forth when raising or lowering.

At $80, I guess you could afford to live wth that guy for a while and see if you like it.

The important things my 12" benchtop lacked were
speeds, number and range only 5 from like 600 to 3000. really neede some slower ones to 250 or so

Quill travel, mine only went 2", not convenient when drilling concentric holes using short and long bits and trying to drill deeper holes.

[movnup]

What I tracked down was that it had twelve speeds down to 250, 2/3 HP, and quill travel of 2 3/8" which I thought would be a little bigger for a 12". This morning I'm having a little buyers remorse as I couldn't find a Trademan website ... I really don't like buying cheap tools but will probably take your advice Loring and live with it for a little while and then make the call on the Griz (like I had planned) or the Delta DP350.

[siliconbauhaus]

they still sell tradesman at lowes mate

[Thom2]

http://www.rexon.net/product/dp12lw.htm

Tradesman is owned by Rexon, their web presence is pretty pathetic as is trying to find much information on them.

[Thom2]

they've also made a few things for craftsman as well, may be able to investigate that route as well

[movnup]

Thanks for finding the site , that's exactly what I picked up for $80 !!!

I did find a review for their floor model with similar specs and he really liked it and thought it was a bargain.

Edit: I found this on their website as follows:

REXON, a Taiwan-based corporation has become the world largest bench top and stationary machinery manufacturer, supplying from drilling machines to various woodworking machines to more than 70 countries around the world.

If they are the worlds biggest as they say they must be making stationary tools for many different brand names. I wonder why if they are the biggest out there information about their products would be so hard to ferret out and who they rebrand for ???

[JSCOOK]

REXON, a Taiwan-based corporation has become the world largest bench top and stationary machinery manufacturer, supplying from drilling machines to various woodworking machines to more than 70 countries around the world.

If they are the worlds biggest as they say they must be making stationary tools for many different brand names. I wonder why if they are the biggest out there information about their products would be so hard to ferret out and who they rebrand for ???

Probably explains why some tools such as Bandsaws & Drill press from various Brand names often look so similar, if not identical ... when I was looking at Drill presses, I noticed that the head & base casting was the same on General, King Industrial, TradeMaster, Toolex, etc and it was small details and colour that was the only difference quite often ... all comming out of the same factory.
I suspect that they have "firsts" and "seconds" as as far as quality, and the companies get to pick what level of quality they want to sell ... nice part is the parts are porbably interchangable if you need to fix something