Current Drill Presses for metalworking

Iggy,

I knew the bandsaw would need work when I bought it. Bad tires, bearings guides, pulleys. But I like the speed ranges it had. I'm just not very fast putting things together. I'd never get a trailer together as quickly as you did. I bought the lathe from a big place with fancy offices/reception area. I was really green at the time and did my best to check it out. They never advertised it as working.

I would never buy a used lathe or mill. I know a lot of people on this newsgroup do and they get good deals. They also have more patience than I getting them working. For me metalworking has supported my hobby. It isn't my primary hobby. But I do like making things I can use.

Wayne D.

I googled Ibarmias, but got no responses. Sounds like it might be more than I need, but wouldn't mind looking anyway.

Wayne D.

I am very envious myself.(in a good way)

I am not fast, either, usually. With the trailer, it was more of an exception than the rule, it was taking 2/3 of the garage and I knew that keeping it there for too long would strain my family relations.

The more typical case is projects taking months, some stuff never gets finished.

Sorry to hear that Wayne. I think that to a large extent, it is a luck issue. I just have not had those bad luck deals, yet. I'll see how is that drill press. I will pick it up tomorrow.

I saw this brand mentioned in this group awhile back and looked it up. Its an expensive machine, but I've talked to the manufacturer and looked at the specs and am thinking its worth the money. Anyone here used or have one? I'd sure like to hear about its pros and cons. Thanks. At least I shouldn't have to pin the table so it doesn't move around on its own.

Looks like a dream machine to me, though I have never seen or used them.

Yep..wont break anything as long as the downfeed clutches are in good shape...but its not real condusive to long life.

Gunner

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide"

- James Burnham

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Hey Wayne,

Sorry, it's Ibarmia (no "s').

You'd want the round column machines, with powerfeed (love the powerfeed). They have quite a bit available, but no prices listed.

Regards,

Robin

Gunner wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Gunner, I emailed you about your Buffalo, maybe your spam filter got me? Since I moved and sold nearly everything I had, I am on the look out for a small drill press, an old walker turner, rockwell, powermatic, clausing would be fine. Nothing over 15" though, I just don't have the space. I do like the OLD machines. :-)

You have to watch the Delta Variable Speed drives, crappy cheap design, I'd guess from the 80's?

I'd take an old walker turner, Rockwell, Clausing or Buffalo in a heart beat.....:-)

Hope you are doing well, both health and work wise. I know you were struggling for awhile!

Marty

--Well I'm still using mine; no problems.. I converted it from bench to floor model maybe a year ago; that was an adventure... ;-)

Powermatic still makes a metalworking drill press in the USA. Wilton still imports high quality european drill presses, as they have for 30 years or so- most Wilton drill presses, going back to the 60's, were actually Strands from Germany or Sweden, or Arboga's also from Sweden. Clausing still makes a metalworking drill press in the USA.

There are several quite good european geared head drill presses available new.

All of these start at around 3 grand, and go up from there.

There isnt much of anything, however, in between a cheapo chinese model for $300 to $500, and a $3000 real drill press.

The chinese do make some much higher quality geared head models, but aside from the one Grizzly, which sells for around 2 grand, and maybe some of the Knuth models, there really arent any being imported- most people who spend real money on a drill press are companies that will pay a bit more for Clausing or Powermatic, or a european model.

--It'll be on my webpage one of these years, but the gist of it is I was too cheap to spring the $300 or whatever it was for a length of DOM tubing which Delta sells for the column. I went and bought a piece from a dealer (not sure who; probably Castle Metals) and got ready to assemble the pieces. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the drillpress head casting was bored .010" below the nominal o.d. of the tube! No way to mount this on the mill and bore it out, so instead I mounted the tube on my Myford and turned down one end. This was adventure #2: the 3-point work support that Myford offers was too small to hold this diameter, so I had to make a larger one from scratch! Got it done: both ends, as the base was .010" under as well. Third adventure: the table casting was undersize too, but at least this one was small enough that I could clamp it to the mill table and bore it out. Sure enough the phone rang while I was clamping it down, I made a mistake and would up boring it oversized! Good fortune intervened in the form of Ernie Leimkuhler, who happened to be in the neighborhood. He welded beads at three points on the top and three on the bottom of the bore, so that I could re-center and re-bore the table, so that it fit snugly on the new column. --Only took a month to do a one-day job but I saved a hundred bucks, eh? ;-) To add insult to injury I went to Los Angeles a few months after this, on a used tool buying expedition and the guy (maybe catruckman?) said 'heck I've got lots of spare columns for drillpresses; you should have called me'!!! Yes, an adventure indeed.