Drill press ideas wanted

[jgrobler]

As I saw Richard's thread about the slippery slope, I'm there myself. With my lathe I had to get several other necessary accessories, but I've been holding out on a drill press. My current one is a $35 Big Lots one, and with less than 2" quill travel, drilling holes for pen blanks is a PITA.

I don't have room, nor money for a large floor DP, but what other suggestions do you have for good DPs? I'm thinking about the $180 Ryobi, or the $199 HF. Are there others I'm missing? Anything else besides quill travel I need to consider?

Thanks

Johan

[dbhost]

The Ryobi 12 incher gets excellent reviews from what I have read... I was ready to pull the trigger (getting dressed to go to Home Depot) when I stumbled across the Craigslist ad for my Northern Tool DP... In some ways, the Ryobi would have been a better choice...

If money and room become available, the 17" Steel City is an excellent machine with tremendous quill travel...

[Bill Stock]

As I saw Richard's thread about the slippery slope, I'm there myself. With my lathe I had to get several other necessary accessories, but I've been holding out on a drill press. My current one is a $35 Big Lots one, and with less than 2" quill travel, drilling holes for pen blanks is a PITA.

I don't have room, nor money for a large floor DP, but what other suggestions do you have for good DPs? I'm thinking about the $180 Ryobi, or the $199 HF. Are there others I'm missing? Anything else besides quill travel I need to consider?

Thanks

Johan

I'm happy with my Ryobi. The laser needed adjustment OOB and one beam is a little fat. A bulb would have been nice too. I really like the speed adjustment and accuracy seems good. Depth adjustment will slip if you apply too much pressure.

[Jim Frye]

Drill Pressed...

I have had a Delta 10" bench top DP for nearly 20 years now and after all that time, there are a few things I wish it had.
1. A little more quill travel than 2 1/2".
2. A lot slower speed, like down around 250 rpm for large cutters. 500 rpm is too fast for some operations.
3. Variable speed would be nice.
4. Nut and threaded rod depth stop as opposed to the spinning hub stop.
5. I do like the square table for mounting accessory tables more securely and accurately.
6. A slightly longer column by an inch or two would make mortising more usable.
Good luck with your ultimate choice.

[LinuxRandal]

As I saw Richard's thread about the slippery slope, I'm there myself. With my lathe I had to get several other necessary accessories, but I've been holding out on a drill press. My current one is a $35 Big Lots one, and with less than 2" quill travel, drilling holes for pen blanks is a PITA.

I don't have room, nor money for a large floor DP, but what other suggestions do you have for good DPs? I'm thinking about the $180 Ryobi, or the $199 HF. Are there others I'm missing? Anything else besides quill travel I need to consider?

Thanks

Johan

In your price range, I would hit up the old woodworking machines site, and watch CL. I have picked up both 4" travel Atlases, due to it, and a friend (told him I was looking). One was $50 (benchtop) the other $100. I have also seen old Southbend, and several other Atlases, as well as Atlas made, old Craftsman ones, in your price range. (or less)
With this "bad" economy, it is a good time to buy for those who have money. All the ones in debt and fearful about their next payment/paycheck, etc. are selling stuff (both way to high, and for bargains).

[drumpriest]

Given a lack of room, I'd certainly consider a good bench drill press. Many people feel that it's a super important tool, but in my shop, it's one of the least used (and I do have a big floor model). I would suggest the ryobi as a good option, they get great reviews, also you can build one of those awesome cabinets that will house it and a planer, and flip between the two, making more room for more toys in the shop.

[LCHIEN]

One of the most used tools in my shop. I have 2 I currently use.
Important items
quill travel,
Swing
enough speed selections to get from 3000 down to 250-300 RPM

Nice items
Good depth stop, unlike Jim Frye I really, really like the spinning hub stop on my Delta and dislike the threaded rod/nut stops on my Hitachi and Craftsman(made by Ryobi).
Lamp,
laser
I almost always use a WW-type table attached to mine so the table type round or square is of little consequence once you get the WW table attached to the top.

[drumpriest]

Loring, any tricks to using your depth stop then? I find my Delta's to be annoying at best, mostly I don't use it, instead I move the table to the end of quill travel, which works, but can be a pain in the neck.

Also, what all do you use yours for? Not to hijack the thread, but I really don't find many compelling reasons to use mine. Mostly it gets used for door cup mortising and I set it up to drill my marquetry entry holes.

[poolhound]

I have the 12" ryobi (DP121L IIRC) and it works great for my needs. In a perfect world and with a dedicated shop I would have a 17" floor model but alas no room right now. The only real downside to this model is it wont goo really slow but that hasnt caused me any issues so far.

[LCHIEN]

Loring, any tricks to using your depth stop then? I find my Delta's to be annoying at best, mostly I don't use it, instead I move the table to the end of quill travel, which works, but can be a pain in the neck.

Also, what all do you use yours for? Not to hijack the thread, but I really don't find many compelling reasons to use mine. Mostly it gets used for door cup mortising and I set it up to drill my marquetry entry holes.

How it works:
the hub ones by Delta have a rotating scale and stop and a little thumb lock (seen in the second and fourth pics). Note the black ring and silver ring withthe thumb lock are one piece and can rotate separately from the hub handle until the thumb lock is tightened.

Holding the quill at some point between top and bottom of travel, I can turn the hub stop from anywhere on the scale until the hub stop stops turning at zero and won't go further. I lock it at this point with the little thumb lock, and the release the quill handle, the quill goes back to the top position. If I lower the quill now it will stop precisely at the zero on the hub stop where i set it earlier.

So I use it one of two ways.
One: I want to drill to a known position I can lower the quill to this position by sight (first photo), or by placing an sheet of material of known thickness (or even a brass setup bar) on the table, or by putting the bit into a hole whose depth I want to copy. While holding the bit at this depth, I can easily use my free hand (and sometimes the fingers of my quill holding hand) to rotate and lock the hub stop at zero (second photo).

Now placing an item on the table I can confidently drill to zero and the predetermined stop point. Using a 1/8" inch thick piece of wood as the stop point I can very confidently stop the drill bit precisely 1/8" from breaking through the back side of a piece of any thickness. I have used this technique to drill within 50 thou of breaking through thin pieces.

Two, drill a hole a certain depth in a piece. To do this, I set the actual workpiece under the bit. I lower the bit to just kiss the top of the piece (third photo). I then rotate the hub stop to the scale depth I want - say 1/4" (on the fourth photo). Now, when I drill, the hub scale will indicate 1/4" at the surface of the workpiece, and as I drill, it will go to zero, where the hub stop prevents the quill from going further. I have just dialed in a precise 1/4" hole referenced off the top.

Advantages over the threaded nut stop:
I find some of the threaded stop rods to be flimsily attached to the drill press and very spongy in their stop action, i can over travel by pushing hard whereas the hub stop is very positive and locks with very little force.

Both nuts need to be run up or down on the nut stop, this can take along time if the travel is large and if i only use one nut, the vibration makes them move. The hub stop can be unlocked and flipped the entire travel in one smooth motion. To use the DP at full depth with no stop I have to move both the nuts all the way back to the top (time consuming) and lock them (or they ride down and eventually stop my quill travel unexpectedly. The hub stop, I just unlock the thumb lock which allow the hub stop to rotate freely and the quill travel to be unimpeded.

Precision - the nuts, when I use the scale I have to difference the values in my head. There's no pointer, the nuts are not precise against the scale. In contrast the hub stop has a pointer and an expanded scale and is very easy to set and all is referenced to zero - relative indexing either to the top of the wood or the exact depth point.

Overall I just really find the nuts annoying, slow and imprecise and the hub stop very quick and accurate to use.

[Jim Frye]

Dial Type Depth Stops...

Loring, any tricks to using your depth stop then? I find my Delta's to be annoying at best, mostly I don't use it, instead I move the table to the end of quill travel, which works, but can be a pain in the neck.

Also, what all do you use yours for? Not to hijack the thread, but I really don't find many compelling reasons to use mine. Mostly it gets used for door cup mortising and I set it up to drill my marquetry entry holes.

My complaint with the dial type depth stop on my Delta is that with mortising and large, repeated forstner bit usage, the depth adjustment will often creep and you don't notice it because you are concentrating on the work piece. My work around, besides really torquing the lock screw, is to mark the setting and then check it each time I return the quill to the top. Once I have the depth set, I put a piece of masking tape across the entire depth stop hub. I then draw a fine line across the tape with a fine Sharpie marking pen. Next, I use a knife to cut the tape between the two parts of the hub, leaving both pieces of tape firmly attached to both parts of the hub. Now, I have a very distinctive indicator, and I will know if the setting moves during operation. Also, I can reset it quickly and easily if it does.

[vaking]

I have a 14" floor-standing "Shopline by Jet" drill press. Shopline By Jet is a line of bargain-priced tools made by Jet specifically for Costco targeting small non-professional workshops. To keep cost down Jet cut some corners on this line but overall it is not a bad idea. My drill press has depth adjustment system like at delta, except I never had any problems with it, does not slip, etc. It has 3-1/4" quill travel, speed adjustable from 3000 to 250 rpm. I think 1/3hp motor is less than most 14" floor-standing units have. But it is enough for things I do and given that it was less than $200 new at Costco - I am happy. I always have woodworking-style table attached to it.

[LCHIEN]

My complaint with the dial type depth stop on my Delta is that with mortising and large, repeated forstner bit usage, the depth adjustment will often creep and you don't notice it because you are concentrating on the work piece. My work around, besides really torquing the lock screw, is to mark the setting and then check it each time I return the quill to the top. Once I have the depth set, I put a piece of masking tape across the entire depth stop hub. I then draw a fine line across the tape with a fine Sharpie marking pen. Next, I use a knife to cut the tape between the two parts of the hub, leaving both pieces of tape firmly attached to both parts of the hub. Now, I have a very distinctive indicator, and I will know if the setting moves during operation. Also, I can reset it quickly and easily if it does.

I don't find it moves, but i don't generally do mortising and stopped forstners with the depth stop. Mortising I have a dedicated machine and I just haven't had occassion for stopped forstners. Both of those would require bearing down with considerable force and maybe that's why the stop moves, but I have never felt like the stop was in any danger of creeping.

on Mortises I just mark a line/piece of tape on the side of the chisel where i want to stop. Mortises don't exactly give you a flat bottom, between the auger point and the chisels points it's very rough and with a tenon covering it no one will ever know.

[BerniePA]

As I saw Richard's thread about the slippery slope, I'm there myself. With my lathe I had to get several other necessary accessories, but I've been holding out on a drill press. My current one is a $35 Big Lots one, and with less than 2" quill travel, drilling holes for pen blanks is a PITA.

Johan

Johan,
I don't know if drilling holes in pen blanks is your major problem right now, but it was one for me when I started. I was using the drill press and even bought one of those jigs to center the blanks for accurate drilling. Then I got the better idea of putting a four jaw chuck in the head stock of the lathe, and a drill bit chuck in the tail stock, throw in the pen blank and the drill bit and bingo --- hole done faster than I can write about it and centered all by itself!!!! I know this won't do all your DP jobs, but it is the easiest and fastest way to make accurate holes in pen blanks that I have seen.

[drumpriest]

See guys, that's what I don't use my DP much. I've never mortised with it. I do large mortises with a plunge router and smaller mortises with my Domino, though I used to also do those with a plunge router. Mostly I use it to drill pen blanks and cup holes for door hinges, and that's about it.

Bernie, a 4 jaw is top of my lathe list at the moment, and with a Jacob's chuck maybe I won't even use the DP for that!