Recommendations for a floor-standing drill press (in USA)?

Most low-end floor presses have pitiful bearings and the import models often "feature" unbalanced motors and pulleys which cause lots of vibration. Next time you're in a store, grab the chuck on any floor or bench drill press and pull on it horizontally. Most will move anywhere from .01 to .03 inches! A mill-drill is far superior for drilling metal if you don't need a lot of chuck to table space. They have better bearings, a cast iron table, and the X-Y-Z feeds can be very handy.

The downside of mill-drills is they're heavy and usually cost more than $500.

DeepDiver wrote:

Michael, I have to agree with Tim, most of the import stuff is genuine junk for metal work... I'll even add to his assessment about horzontal play...most of them don't have any kind of friction lock on the spindle and vertical play is even worse. That make 'em real drill bit busters when the bit grabs, the spindle goes down .200 and the.. snap...

A mill drill is really what you want you'll get your R8 collet, and most of them at least have a friction clamp on the spindle that will add enough drag to keep them from busting bits. If you are going to go with a drill press, try and find a used American machine like a Delta or Rockwell from the 50's-60's even a Craftsman of that vintage is a pretty good machine Too bad you are on such a short clock, both mill-drills and drill presses show up on evilBay quite regularly.

Are you hep to

Dave

Hi Tim,

Thanks for responding. I agree that a mill-drill is superior. Just so you know, I have a 9x20 lathe and one of those tiny micro-mills (usually referred to as a mini-mill). I wanted larger machines for both (particularly the mill since the one I have is so limited), but I was/am seriously constrained by space (primary problem) and money (secondary problem). I will be buying larger machines in the future, but not anytime soon.

There is another consideration: for this job, I need to be enlarging the holes in base plates that have already been welded to posts that are up to

So I think I'm stuck with the floor-standing drill press idea. But if any of you have any better ideas, my mind is still open!

Regards, Michael

I had a Jet 17MF once (floor model 17" swing) and I thought it was well worth $275 which is what I paid. It had less than .001" runout in the spindle, and the vibration and overall fit and finish were acceptable. In short, it worked fine. I think if you look carefully at what you're getting, the larger import floor model DPs can be fine. You might want to look at something I wrote once:

Lay the pipe down on its side. Get a cheap bench drillpress and C-clamp the table to the baseplate so your hole will be where you want it.

Pick up one of the Gorton small mills, like the 016-A Makes one hell of a drill press and you CAN mill with it

They do weigh about 1500 lbs though....

Gunner

Lathe Dementia. Recognized as one of the major sub-strains of the all-consuming virus, Packratitis. Usual symptoms easily recognized and normally is contracted for life. Can be very contagious. michael

How about a mag drill with a rota broch type bit. You might even be able to rent one.

just a thought

Andrew

The 16" Delta isn't much more than the Chinese boats [Junk]. Mine has .0004" runout and is stout enough to do some light milling. Bugs

Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I've read that the Delta drill presses are made in China, and generally of slightly lesser quality than Jet.

I've also read that Jet's drill presses used to be made in Taiwan. Is that still the case?

....

If you get a mill/drill with a round column, you can swing the head around to the backside. That would give you plenty of clearance, but no table to work with. So you really don't need a taller stand, just a way to hold the part.

Wayne D.