Continuously-Variable Speed Drill Press - Recommendation Needed (no belt-changing pulleys!)

I'm looking for a drill press with the external handle for speed adjustment (reeves drive). There don't seem to be many options. This is for my company, not for me, so it must be a new machine that can be easily purchased. Budget is about $1000. The only two that are suitable are the Delta 17-968 for ~$529 and the Grizzly G9749 for ~$1800 including delivery.

I think the Delta is too cheap and unlikely to handle our long-term needs. The Grizzly looks pretty good, but is outside my budget.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

At this point, I think I need to get my budget increased so I can afford the Grizzly.

Thanks,

Stan

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What about a used Clausing drill press similar to ebay item

270038555811. i

Reply to
Ignoramus29901

=============== Any reason you are locked into mechanical variable speed? I would at least consider a VFD drive.

Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

You think that this is expensive? Knowing the prizes of "Flott" and "Alzmetall", you would consider the $1800 cheap. They start at 5000 EUR ($6000) but would last for several decades. I have worked on many of them. Undestructable!

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

$1000 doesnt buy you much of a new drill press these days.

A new variable speed Clausing or Powermatic is $2500 to $3500.

All the $1000 drill presses are at best from Taiwan.

One place you could look is Knuth- they are a big German company like Grizzly, which sources tools from all over the world, paints em blue, and calls em their own. They have a warehouse in Illinois. They sell several variable speed drill presses, and I believe the cheapest ones might be almost in your price range.

I think most of them are eastern european or turkish copies of the swedish and german drill presses mentioned by Nick.

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Reply to
Ries

Knuth is simply an importer which -you are right- paints chinese crap blue. Different to Grizzly, they multiply their prizes by three. They don't have the best reputation here (they come from Germany), and have nothing to do with Alzmetall and Flott. These two are genuine German iron. Rock solid and bejond any doubt like the good old US-iron.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

Are you sure you really want that type of drill press? Most work is done at a fixed rpm on the production line and engineering work is usually slower than production work. You're right, cheap variable drives really don't cut it while good ones are rather expensive. I don't know what you're doing but I'd seriously look hard at whether you really need a variable speed on the spindle. You may also want to consider a variable speed motor (DC or 3 phase AC) instead.

-- Yeppie, Bush is such an idiot that He usually outwits everybody else. How dumb!

Reply to
Bob May

Your budget is unrealistic. The only thing you will find in this price range is from mainland China, regardless of what it says on the front panel. I can sell you agreat Clausing vari-speed for $500. but it is used. I can sell you a great Wilton, from Taiwan, for about $2600. and it is new. I also have a vari-speed made in the USA Powermatic 20" that could be repainted and waranted as new for about $1500. Leigh at MarMachine

Reply to
CATRUCKMAN

Nick M=FCller wrote:

Nick- what is interesting about Knuth, here in the USA, is that they are often the only company that imports european style tools to the US. Yes, some of their tools are chinese. And some are from Taiwan, and Bulgaria, and Romania, and Turkey. But the prices reflect that. Real German tools are quite expensive here. I have several, and the customs clearance alone is more than you would pay for a chinese tool.

But no american importer brings in any of the chinese copies of german tools- I did not say the Knuth tools WERE german, only that they copied them. The chinese make an entire range of copies of german and swedish variable speed drill presses, but they are unavailable here. The chinese also make Deckel copies, as do the Iranians, and the Poles and Bulgarians. None of them are imported here. Many other German and european styles of equipment are only available from Knuth here- for instance, foot pedal operated bending brakes, quite common in europe. Until very recently, slow speed cold saws, like my Haberle, were very rare here as well. I own a German made Hebo ornamental iron machine- I had to pay a small fortune, above and beyond the already expensive machine price, to get it shipped here and thru customs. Knuth is now selling what I am quite sure are Turkish made versions of this machine, much simplified and of course, 1/3 the price. Many of the fabrication tools sold at Knuth are Turkish- I recognize the lines, so to speak. So many Turkish "guest workers" have gone back to Turkey and started companies copying german tools and equipment, that here in america we are getting Turkish blacksmiths air hammers, ring rolling machines, ironworkers, and many sheet metal fabricating machines. I actually own one Turkish machine, a set of power rolls for plate, and for the money, they are quite decent. They cost about 1/3 what an american made set would have cost, about

1/4 or 1/5 of a german or swedish (Roundo) set. I did not buy these from Knuth, but they sell products from the same factory- I can tell because the castings and electrics are identical.

so not everything Knuth sells is crap. And certainly, from what I have seen, a lot of it is better than what Grizzly sells- their quality control is quite erratic. I live a half hour from the Grizzly headquarters, and I tend to avoid any Grizzly product with moving parts.

ries

Reply to
Ries

That varies from my experience. I never saw a high-speed abrasive cutoff saw in use in a "real" steel fabrication shop until about 1985. _Every_ shop I've seen had low-speed cold saws before then. (and band/hack saws, of course).

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

I just stressed that point. They are a German importer, but don't sell German iron.

Turkish!? I think they only can hammer water pipes out of copper. :-) Never seen a "Made in Turk" on any tool here. Made in Asia ... ah! Turk isn't Europe, they are Asia. LOL.

I was at their shop. It was 5 years ago. So this might well be an excuse: They wanted big money for low quality. Screws right through dials (no, you had to turn a lousy screw to set the dial to zero). When I opened the electric cabinet of a mill ... did you ever buy a russian oscilloscope that came in a wooden box? Then you know the smell. And if you opened the oscilloscope, you know how it looked inside. Oh, the scope I'm taling about was bought 20 years ago.

I read recently, that the former senior boss (Mr. Knuth) handed the business to his son and that the quality dropped from that moment.

LOL!

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

Maybe its a regional thing, but I never saw a single cold saw in the flesh, until I bought mine, in about 1992. Fab shops here on the west coast seldom had them, and the few I heard about were $30,000 models with 30" or bigger diameter blades, for cutting huge slabs of steel.

Nick- you would be amazed at the low quality of tools that are accepted as normal here in the USA. Yes, we have a lot of "good old american iron". But most of it that is any good is VERY old. As in world war 2 era stuff. Since most of this stuff is completely obsolete in industry, it sells for scrap price. In fact, the United States is so huge that in many places, the cost of trucking scrap metal to a mill to be remelted, or to a port to be shipped overseas, is so high, that often machines sell for LESS than scrap prices per pound. This further warps our ideas of what a machine tool should cost, as the old ones are so cheap.

Most shops here run tools that would not even be considered in a german shop. Your standards are just much higher than ours.

A new DMG machining center can easily run $250,000 US- and most shops here grumble and complain about having to spend $40,000 for a Taiwanese machine.

A new Peddinghaus or Mubea ironworker runs twice or three times what a barely adequate american made or import will cost, even though they outlast them two or three times. I have seen shops buy 2 or 3 american made Scotchman ironworkers, at $8000 a piece, as they wear out in a few years, yet shake their head at the thought of paying $20,000 for a german made Peddinghaus. They dont seem to realize that many Peddy's and Mubeas are still working every day after 20 and 30 years.

Unfortunately, due to political differences, I have never smelled that Russian smell. We have almost no Russian imports of ANYTHING available here, except titanium and aluminum, neither of which smells much.

But I can imagine what it might be like- American Military Surplus often has a funky smell.

Reply to
Ries

Im in the process of rebuilding the tranny of a Polish lathe. 34" with a 10" spindle hole. Based on some limited experience with Bulgarian and Russian machine tools, this appears to be typical of Comblock machine tool design philosophy. Rather fascinating. Well made but quite simple in design, no bells and whistles..just the absolute necessary to get the job done, and rugged as hell. Minimal use of complicated machining needs. Extremely well finished on running surfaces, crap on hidden or non running surfaces. Reminds me of US "War Production" This has been running continioiusly since the late 1970s, in a pipe/oil tool shop and still runs accurately

The 20hp motor is coupled direct to the tranny with a brute force coupler..which finally wore out, but is easy to remanufacture.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

Reply to
Gunner

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