Rigid Drill Press-any good?

I was at Home Depot on Sunday and was stuck waiting for them to open the isle so I could get some sheet rock. While waiting I looked at the 14" floor model it was very light and sure needs to be bolted down. I would look for a good second hand older delta or the like. I just finshed cleaning and painting an old delta that has the over head bearing its about 360 pounds. Not as mamy speeds as the imports but it is more machine.

I haven't looked at them. But if I were in the market for a drill press, I would compare them to the various ones listed in the Harbor Freight catalog. The critical things to me are the Column diameter ( has a lot to do with rigidity ) and the spindle stroke. That is assuming other things are reasonble.

Dan

We have one. Much better than the average Chinese drill press. Reasonably stiff, but does need to be bolted down or it would sooner or later get knocked over.

Dan

Well the cheapistan imports have interesting features in both these areas. The columns are cast iron and you can't depend on the cores to be centered so sometimes they break under pressure, though sometimes the tables just break off first. One of the features I have noticed is the drill presses with a soft plastic down stop. Spindle travel varied

1/2" with various handle pressures. Unfortunately you still get what you pay for. A decent Clausing drill press is over $2k and while that is way to much for most HSM's they are really worth the extra money if you want to do nice work. Leigh@MarMachine

I'm inclined to agree with most of the suggestions to find an old industrial machine. The problem is that Austin is devoid of heavy industry and old stuff is hard to find. You should see the tool buying frenzies at the local school and university auctions.

So, anybody around Austin have an old drill press for sale? (shot in the dark) Gary Brady Austin, TX