Drill Press Capable of Slower Speeds...

FlyBye

FlyBye

Member
I'm in the market for a drill press and I'm not aware of a lot of choices in the $200 range that has an adjustable slow speed control (200 rpm). I did find a Grizzly bench drill press (G7943) that goes down to 140 rpm ($295 + $79 for shipping).

Are there any other bench drill presses that would be suitable for drilling metal without it overheating and still be moderately priced?
 
i have a bigbox Skil benchtop drill press.($125) the lowest speed is about 500 rpm. if you do the math, this is slow enough for bits 3/8" and less if drilling high carbon steel or basic tool steel(like O1). just need to pay attention to the feed rate and be sure to use some oil or cutting fluid.
 
Yep. I second what Scott said.

But if you're a patient man, garage sales are a great way to go. I've gotten two of my 5 drill presses at garage sales. I got an old 'benchtop' (it's almost too big for that) heavy duty drill press for $50. It's got 16 speeds (I have it set on about 120 rpm), it's 3/4HP and has a huge Morse Taper chuck that will take bits with a shank size of 5/8" all the way down to 1/16" and it's the smoothest and most solid drill press I have. It's at least 30 years old. It's great.
 
I may be going out on a limb here, but you can convert a standard drill press to variable speed fairly easily. I've done it, but it'll cost you a bit. I put a single phase input variable speed drive on one of mine, which required replacing the motor with an equivalent 3 phase motor. It'll go any speed you want now. Probably not what you were wanting though.
 
Gee, are there ANY drill presses out there that don't have about 12 speeds? You just have to figure how much you want to spend and once you buy, check the table alignment and away you go. Frank
 
I find that slower is better with metal and particularly when drilling harden steel. I like about 200-250RPMs when using carbide for drilling harden steel.

All that said, the first time I ever say a harbor fright drill press was when I was in the late Bob Loveless's shop in Riverside back in 1998.

He had three of them, all lined up, bolted to a work bench and set with improved stops for depth etc.. One did the bolt hole in the steel, one did the pin hole in the Micarta/Handle and the last was set for the counter sink in the Micarta/ handle material for his Loveless bolts which happen to be what I use 99% of the time.

Though I prefer the 200RPM range myself for the steel and particularly harden steel with carbide bits, you can use the 500 RPM range cheeps if you use a drop or two of a non-sulphured cutting oil or, 2 in1 or even Mobile one 5/30 weight works fine.

Sharp bits and a drop or two of oil will save you some bucks so you can spend it on other machinery :biggrin:

Here is one that will do the job for less! with a 300RPM slowest speed. http://www.harborfreight.com/10-in-bench-mount-drill-press-12-speed-60237.html
 
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Frank Niro said:
Gee, are there ANY drill presses out there that don't have about 12 speeds? You just have to figure how much you want to spend and once you buy, check the table alignment and away you go. Frank
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Frank, I think you are missing the point of my original post... "Are there any other bench drill presses that would be suitable for drilling metal without it overheating and still be moderately priced?"

"rhinoknives: I find that slower is better with metal and particularly when drilling harden steel. I like about 200-250RPMs when using carbide for drilling harden steel."

Rhinoknives, That is the same suggestion that I've been reading. If I were only going to do one knife, then I probably wouldn't worry much about it. But hoping to be in the hobby a while, it sure would be nice to have the right equipment and not wish I had something else down the road.

I appreciate all the advice and suggestions. Maybe I can narrow the search down in a day or two. :smile:
 
FlyBye said:
Frank, I think you are missing the point of my original post... "Are there any other bench drill presses that would be suitable for drilling metal without it overheating and still be moderately priced?"

"rhinoknives: I find that slower is better with metal and particularly when drilling harden steel. I like about 200-250RPMs when using carbide for drilling harden steel."

Rhinoknives, That is the same suggestion that I've been reading. If I were only going to do one knife, then I probably wouldn't worry much about it. But hoping to be in the hobby a while, it sure would be nice to have the right equipment and not wish I had something else down the road.

I appreciate all the advice and suggestions. Maybe I can narrow the search down in a day or two. :smile:
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Flybye, The one I linked to at 300rpm will work fine! The point I was making was that I saw these little slightly faster ones in the shop of a professional world known, full time maker. If I may, You are over thinking this about having to have exactly what it says in a machinist's handbook.

For your budget, that one will work fine, I am currently using two similar drill presses now in my shop. If you have about a $1000.00 to spend that's another story. Put your money into a top shelf 2 x 72" belt grinder, Disc grinder and all the other stuff you may want.
 
Thanks... I've already got the grinder picked out, unfortunately it will be a month or two away.
 
I replaced the motor on my drill press with a 3 phase motor and wired my VFD on my disk grinder with a plug and the motors with 4 prong outlets. Now I plug the VFD to the motor for the piece of equipment I am using. I have my drill press, disk grinder and mill drill done this way.

So if you have a piece of equipment with a VFD you can get the same hp motor and put it on a good used drill press for the additional cost of a motor.

Let me know if I can help you.
 
I appreciate the thoughts, suggestions and considerations. I went ahead and got the Grizzly 7943. The unit came slightly damaged. A little damage from the shipper and a little more from the manufacture. Fortunately, the folks at Grizzly were quick to replace the damaged parts with some "less damaged" parts when I sent them the photos (don't ask ~ I can live with it :). So thumbs up for their customer service. I just got it all fully installed tonight. It runs super quite. I glad I went ahead and got this one. Can't wait to make some holes!

Again, I appreciate the advice.
 
You will certainly enjoy that Grizzly drill press - I do like the slow speeds, and it's setup that way. You don't even have to change pulley's to get the slow speeds. Congrats.

Ken H>
 
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