I bought an el cheapo bench top drill press of eBay. Made in China with absolutely no brand name. Got what I paid for, so live and learn. It works OK, but was seriously low horsepower motor, and also seems to wobble the bit a little bit.
So I am looking for something with more horsepower and better accuracy. I'll be doing mostly light metal work in aluminum. I have been eyeing the Ryobi drill presses at Home Depot. Just wondered if anyone has an opinion on them. I've been looking at the $99 ones and the $149 ones.\
My budget is low so that is why I am looking at these for now vs. something more expensive.
b) drill and tap two sets of three holes at 120 degrees at the bottom and the top of the portion of the casting in which the quill slides. Made a half-dozen brass setscrews with a bit of weed trimmer line inserted crossways, so they don't vibrate loose. Tighten them up and all the slop in the quill is gone. (Thanks for this idea, Gunner; works great.)
FWIW, I think that drill presses are some of the better tools Ryobi makes. That's not to say I think they are particularly good tools, but a Ryobi drill press sure beats a hand-held drill.
However, you might consider whether another (especially a budget model) drill press is going to still have the same problems as your current drill press. Give the Chinese gizmo a fair chance. Try starting with a center drill; that will give a larger bit a well-defined starter hole and less reason to wobble. If the hole is "large" (I will leave it to others to correct me or fill in details here), then start by drilling a smaller hole and then re-drilling to size. Searching archives of this group will turn up some useful detail.
IMHO, you should at least consider limping along with the press you have now and eye a mini-mill or a mill-drill for the future. I respect your sticking to a budget, but would hate to see you waste money on a chain of tools that will not meet your needs. You might spend some time researching the next step (this is a great place to learn), combined with saving and waiting for an excellent deal on a new or used machine that you can afford and will do what you want. With careful planning, you can avoid getting clobbered too badly on tooling; there will be a cost/convenience tradeoff (e.g., R8 collets are cheap, ER collets are convenient), but you seem ready to deal with that.
By all means stick to your budget. You will thank yourself for it.
Thanks! More great info for me. Yep - I am well aware that sometimes "cheaper is not cheaper" !
But it does make sense to apply some of the hints and advice from this group before I write off the cheapo drill press I currently have. The motor is only 1/2HP --- which I honestly did not research much before I bid on it.
That's good to hear about the Ryobi drill presses ! I have been very happy with my 18v power tools so far and have refinished most of a bath, kitchen, and 3rd bedroom using nothing but them for power tools. I recently bought a Ryobi mitre saw for cutting aluminum and am very pleased with it.
Quill slides on the screws. The holes in the casting were bigger than the quill, it had about 1/8 inch wobble when about 1/2 way down. Now there's none, basically.
Very good reply, Bill. Second that! Best idea would be to try to tighten up the drill press quill, as suggested. IMO, best adjustment would be where the quill would be tight enough to require withdrawal by the handles rather than returning via the spring. Be reminded a drill press is not considered to be a precision tool. Most any drill press will drill to the center of a proper "pop" mark regardless of how tight or loose the quill is. Drill bits prettty much align themselves to go straight if they are properly sharpened.
Vertical alignment is more important than play in the quill. Consider the drill press adventure as practice for your milling machine. The quill on a mill is not designed to return via spring action. The spring is there only to provide some counter weight against the heavy quill. When you get a mill, you will then have a precision drilling machine as well. Then you can do very accurate hole location on your mill. Your drill press will soon find its place in your shop as a non-precision machine tool and you will be proud of it becasue of the custom alignment you did on its quill.
Thanks! Great advice here -- you guys should write a book! I really appreciate it!
Yeah - I *do* want to get into doing some milling sometime. I've always been fascinated by it but just never have taken the plunge. I've been getting a huge kick out of just tapping my own screw threads in the extrusions I've been working with!
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