Drill Press
- Thread starter Daffy
- Start date
rhinoknives
Well-Known Member
The little Ryobi should be alright for a Starter.
Check the "Run Out" or wobble of the Spindle. There are increasing amounts of complete junk in presses from China. I had to send back a "Reconditioned" New small press about a year ago.
As far as other entry level drill presses, Check out online or your local Harbor Freight & Grizzly tools for decent entry level Drill presses under $100.00 and Metal cutting bandsaws.
Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com
Check the "Run Out" or wobble of the Spindle. There are increasing amounts of complete junk in presses from China. I had to send back a "Reconditioned" New small press about a year ago.
As far as other entry level drill presses, Check out online or your local Harbor Freight & Grizzly tools for decent entry level Drill presses under $100.00 and Metal cutting bandsaws.
Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com
Doug Lester
Well-Known Member
I haven't had much problem with my press that has a 600 rpm minimum speed but I read from others that they prefer something that can turn at around 300 rpm for drilling through hardened or higher alloy steel. The 12" pillar might be a little tight if you intend to use it for drilling holes the length of the handle block. I've run into that problem with the one that I have and it won't handle a block much longer than 4" with the table all the way down.
Doug
Doug
Frank Hunter
Well-Known Member
Here are some of my drill press experiences so far -
I started out with a $44 (on sale with coupon or some promotion) Harbor Freight drill press, their smallest 5 speed unit. It worked just fine for nearly 2 years until I scrapped it due to the spindle wobble getting too bad. Replaced it with a $89 Northern Tool unit that is amazingly enough a complete piece of junk compared to the old HF unit. Supposedly it's still a 1/3 horse but it stalls easily, nearly as bad runout as the other worn one even when new, aluminum "pinchy" pulleys that aren't nearly as easy to change the belt with over the smooth stamped steel HF design, etc etc. Even the chuck key is wonky. At this rate I'll be checking out another HF unit.
The only real issue with these small units that prevents them from doing what I want is the speed. Slowest is 620 rpm on both I've owned and that's too fast for my 7/16 through 9/16 skeletonizing holes in the tang, it's pretty rough on the corners of the bit.
I started out with a $44 (on sale with coupon or some promotion) Harbor Freight drill press, their smallest 5 speed unit. It worked just fine for nearly 2 years until I scrapped it due to the spindle wobble getting too bad. Replaced it with a $89 Northern Tool unit that is amazingly enough a complete piece of junk compared to the old HF unit. Supposedly it's still a 1/3 horse but it stalls easily, nearly as bad runout as the other worn one even when new, aluminum "pinchy" pulleys that aren't nearly as easy to change the belt with over the smooth stamped steel HF design, etc etc. Even the chuck key is wonky. At this rate I'll be checking out another HF unit.
The only real issue with these small units that prevents them from doing what I want is the speed. Slowest is 620 rpm on both I've owned and that's too fast for my 7/16 through 9/16 skeletonizing holes in the tang, it's pretty rough on the corners of the bit.
Doug Lester
Well-Known Member
Some times you just have to take your chances. I had a drill press from Sears that was a piece of junk. The one that I have now I got from a dealer that sold over Ebay. Even though it's not the greatest drill press in the world, it's better than the one that I got from Sears and it was even cheaper after shipping. I can't remember exactly what I payed for it but it was little enough that I felt for that price I could take a chance. But I do remember that it was cheaper than the one from Sears, which initially came without a chuck and I had to call their service center to have one shipped to me. I still had to return it because the chuck wouldn't go on so that it would stay plus it was one of those keyless models that kept letting the bits slip.
Doug
Doug
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That's part of the reason I didn't ask about harbor freight. In some of the reviews it sounds like they send out a few lemons here and there. In a few months one is opening 15min from me but for right now the closest one is an hour from me so I didn't want to go through the hassle of binging it back to the store or shipping it back out. Also they only have http://www.harborfreight.com/5-speed-drill-press-38119.html online right now
rhinoknives
Well-Known Member
Daffy,
All of these small inexpensive Drill Presses are from mainland China and have "Lemons"
in there. Look around at/on Craig's list, local paper, Farm sales, Swap meets etc for older used stuff and TEST it first!
Wobble or Runout in the spindle is what you want to avoid! Listen & watch it run while drilling, Is it smooth sounding? are the holes concentric? Bring a piece of annealed steel and a few good drill bits. "NOT Chinese made"
Harbor Freight is worth the money for getting started. And just so you know,
When I was in the Late Mr. Bob Loveless's shop in 2002-2003 he had three of the little Harbor Freight Drill press lined up and each was set up for one task for his knives.
Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com
DonL
Well-Known Member
I would snatch that up before they could hang up the phone. I bought the same model brand new a little over a year ago. In fact, I think I got the very last one in Tulsa. Home Depot use to sell them and I called everyone in the area and only one store had one left. I immediately drove over and bought it. Since then I think they've discontinued it in favor of the 10" model.
I absolutely love mine and I've been able to do a lot of stuff with it. Everything from drilling large holes in metal and wood to using it as a drum sander. I had to do some tweaking to it out of the box, but after the initial tweaking everything has been running great. I especially like how easy it is to change speed with one lever instead of fiddling with gears!