1/4 hp Drill Press?

I have a cheap Ryobi drill press ($100 at one of those gypsy tool sales, about $25 less than at Home Depot). The only problem is that at higher speeds the belt vibrates. Having a drill press is so much better than trying to drill holes with a hand drill. For me getting a hole at a right angle to the part was a matter of luck. One for $40 may be cheap quality but unless it is total junk it will be an improvement over drilling by hand.

Scp

I have a drill press vise (lots of vices ; ), for parts too big to fit in the vise this clamp looks handy. Is the quality as good as or nearly as good as vise-grips? Is one enough or do you need one on each side of the drill bit to hold the part securely?

Thanks, Scp

No joking here, Out of necessity, I invented that basic drill press clamp on the job when I was about 22 years old, but was too young, dumb, and poor to have enough sense to pursue a patent for it. Factory produced units came out about 5 years later. I still have the prototype around the shop somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and post a pic. A modified Vise Grip was used for the basis. On mine, the upper clamping arm has an adjustable clamping screw, giving two adjustments, and slides into a T-slot drill press table. Trouble is, a lot of drill presses don't have T-slots.....There's a bolt-on type for these tables made.

Missed the boat, RJ

It's fine (made in China, nice finish and plating). I think I paid around $5 for it. For what I use it for it's more than okay. I use one for something that I'd be tempted to hold by hand and a second clamp if it has to hold position accurately. There's a big cast loop nut on the back side so it's easy to move it from one table to another or take it off to drill something big (and tighten it up tight with a screwdriver stuck through it). Most important, it's cheap to buy and fast to set up so it actually gets used. And no more inconvenient trips to the emergency room because that piece of sharp sheet metal started to spin when the drill broke through.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

When someone asks about generic drill presses, I relate my story as what you might end up with. I have other imports (stationary belt sander, scroll saw, bench grinder, and used to have a bandsaw) that never had quality problems like this (other than a bench grinder with a motor smaller than my desk fan) . What I got for this $40 wasn't half the quality you get for the same price from HF.

If it was just a $2 bearing and 10 minutes work I wouldn't be bitching like this. Once you add the original purchase price to six bearings, a belt, and assorted hardware, I could have gotten a refurb Delta. It wasn't worth my time to make a motor mount, get another motor, bore out and sleeve the head, and get a new chuck, so I gave it away.

Is it really that hard for you to comprehend that I ended up with a piece of garbage from a no-name ("Aerotek") importer with no quality standards? Every other import DP out there might be perfectly usable, but this sure as hell wasn't.

Now that I got a small Rockwell ($40), big Sprunger ($65), and a little Atlas/Sears (Free) I'm done with these cheapies.

GTO(John)

Usually have the fun of putting them right and selling them to someone that doesn't want to do it. The ones that I actually use, HF radial, Craftsman-King Seely, and an old Dunlap serve my purposes nicely. Doesn't include my Worcester or Barnes, they're just neat old machines to have around. Gotta love all that lovely casting they knew how to do.

Which has nothing to do with the unit in question, only an attempt to make it sound worse than it really is. Nobody expects to buy a $40 drill press today and have it equal in quality to a $40 drill press from thirty years ago. Time, I've got lots of, money, I like to hang on to it as long as I can. IF I'm paying the bottom dollar for something, I automatically assume that I'm going to have to do some work to make it run. There's no sense in me bitching about it, I knew what it was when I bought it. The ten dollar bench grinder, mine is only four years old, and the only one that I used until a week ago. Get rid of the out of balance wheels that come with it, make new collars if it needs it, and they work fine as long as you don't abuse them. Try to push them and the smoke comes out pretty easy. No big deal.

I have seen _other_ $40-70 drill presses from real companies like HF and they're not nearly as bad. _If_ someone buys a generic DP, it's a possibility that you'll get something that nothing short of a couple day's work will cure. This was virtually unusable, not just something that needed work to be precise. I've got a big B&D Industrial (early '90s import) bench grinder that needed new wheels and new nuts. I consider that reasonable. Getting a new drill press that needs a new head cast and new motor right out of the box isn't.

GTO(John)

Then sometimes you get lucky and get more than you expected. I bought a $37 HF bench grinder and a $49 drill press on sale 7 years ago and both have been flawless to this day. Ya never know.

David

I don't know where you live, but TSC is not exactly generic. Of course, Tractor Supply Company might not be anything you've ever seen. Most of what they stock is pretty damned good. I have a HF $40 drillpress, and it's actually pretty damned good, very little slop in the quill, and the chuck even runs true. If I'm looking for better than a rough hole, I'll use the mill, drill presses are not considered precision machines the last time I looked.

Your comments about the one you got stuck with have no bearing on the one he asked about.

Your comments about the one you got stuck with have no bearing on the one he asked about.

Twice, so maybe you can see what I mean.