Drill Press Requirements?

GibsonFan

GibsonFan

Joined
Jul 7, 2006
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I need your advice, fellas. I'm going to buy one power tool this season, and I've
decided it should be a drill press. Because I can cut straight with a good hacksaw, I can hand-file and sand straight if my grinder is down or I run out of belts before payday... but I have the usual problems that come from using a cheap cordless drill by hand: Wobbly, innaccurate holes and a lot of broken bits :grumpy:

I've decided to use Aldo Bruno's 1/4" 1084 exclusively for now, have some on order... I want the drill to start outlining the blank pattern, drill pin holes in full-tang designs, slots in guards, holes in handle material for narrow tangs...the usual stuff.

So, my question is, how much drill press do I need? I don't want to spend $2000 but I don't want to replace it every year either. How about an arbitrary limit of $250, is that reasonable for a decent quality press? This one is well within my budget, but does it have enough guts to drill through 1/4" steel? (before hardening of course.) How much HP/rpms is enough? What type or brand of bits do you guys like? I'll need at least a machinist's vise, what other accessories should I look at?

I have Sears, Harbor Freight, Home Depot and other hardware stores right here in town; I should be able to find something worthwhile there. I know I'm asking a lot (I want it all and I want it cheap!:D) I apologize for not searching out the answers myself but gol-dang that's a pain!
 
Take a trip to Canadian Tire or the Home Depot. I bought a Delta 1/2 inch drill, drill press for about $200 or maybe less from Canada tire back in the 1980's and it has served me well. Drills everything I need to drill for knives, and I have used it to drill 1/2 inch holes through 3/8ths steel plate with no problems. I have only had to change the belt on the machine once.

Be sure the machine is belt driven and has a pulley system so that you can change the speed of the drill. This is important so that the drill can be slowed down to drill through metal, and set faster for drilling wood etc. Look at the work rest and see that it is easy to change its hieght and angle.
 
If you can spend around 500 to 600 you will be happy years from now. This is one tool that one should not skimp on in my opinion.

I have 4 drill press'es in the shop but my 21" sears floor model is the go to for all my project's that demand it be right.

The other three are set up to do kydex drill and light countersinking, my big press will go down to 150 rpm and thats the speed it stays on most of the time.

Also the small cheap ones have a fixed shaft taper so if you wanted to upgrade to a keyless chuck it would not be a option. I just rencently purchaced a Albrecht keyless chuck and man what a difference.

Hope this helps
spencer
 
Spencer is right about the keyless chuck. It will remove a good portion of stress in your life.

I got a HF 12 speed drillpress and luckily found a good keyless chuck for it and it's now a pretty decent machine for the $. One thing to look for is a table that you can adjust front to back and side to side so that you can drill your holes straight. Another thing is to make sure the chuck can hold the small bits. Some will only go down to 1/8". Anything smaller will require an adaptor. I think mine will hold anything from 0"- 5/8"

Whatever you do, get the best you can afford. If you need to upgrade later that's OK. You'll have a better chance of selling the older press if it's a good one to start with.

that's my $.02
 
Thanks guys, those are exactly the kind of answers I need. Well, maybe not the $500-600 answer... I hear what you're saying, though. I'm not gonna just buy whatever one is cheapest. I can see getting a light-weight cheaper one later just for Kydex, countersinking etc. like SAR said, but I want a better one first.
 
I have several Craftsman drill presses.
I find the presses are just fine. once you upgrade the chuck to an Albrecht keyless 1/32-1/2" capacity chuck.
Did the same upgrade on on my variable speed miniture drillpresses with digital depthfinder with 0-1/4" capacity Albrecht keyless chucks...got no complaints.
Also changed out. the chucks on a couple of the ones in the garage part of my shop with less expensive Rohm keyless chucks....work just fine
Might consider making one of them having diamond specks in chuck jaws if you use solid carbide bits on occasion....
 
John, I've got a couple of high quality Jacobs chucks that I wanted to install on my Craftsman drill press, but I can't figure out what the taper is. Is it something that is special to Craftsman? Thanks
 
I got the biggest tabletop drillpress Grizzly offers. Its got a full size shaft, a bigger motor than most tabletops, and I've been very happy with it. 14" swing.
 
Like this one, Fiddleback? I can afford that if I drink cheap beer for a couple weeks... Would you guys agree 3/4HP is minimal?

I did a quick search on albrecht keyless chucks and the one I found was $100... yikes... why do I need that again?
 
Yep. Thats her. Its like a benchtop floor model. Make room for it.

The keyless chuck saves time and searching for the damn key. I attached the key to my press with a spring and a piece of string. Never lost.

Cheap beer??? I dunno. Thats a heavy sacrifice.
 
Fiddleback said:
Cheap beer??? I dunno. Thats a heavy sacrifice.
Click to expand...

It's either that or not feed the kids for a week :D Thanks for the info, I think I will use that one as sort of a standard to judge others by.

In HS my shop teacher made us tape the key to the plug end of the cord, so we had to unplug it and not drill our hand off or something while changing a bit...
 
I have 2 Drill Press's in my shop as well. You can see the press in my Shop Tour. Floor and bench type. --------:thumbup:
 
My father in law drilled out a wine cork and stuck it over the handle of the key. Very comfortable to use now.:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Tom,
It must be a "trade secret". Isn't id'd in any of the parts/catalogs and I saved for 8", 10", 15" midels... and for once, it isn't Craftsman specific like so many of their replaceable parts seem to be or used to be.
I'm 99% sure that the mount is 33JT.....If not I have 2 keyless chucks that won't work that aren't installed yet.
 
I just bought a $79 5 speed drill press from Harbor Freight a couple of months ago. It came with a keyless chuck that will go from 0" to 1/2". I bought their small 2" vise, and the total was just at $100.

In my opinion, this press will drill all the holes you would ever need to make knives. It'd be a different story if you use it to fabricate machinery or something.

Save your beer money and head to Harbor Freight.

Mike L.
 
if you want one that will do everything you need for a farily reasonable price, go on Ebay and find the guys who sell the Steel City tools. They are the only folks I found that will sell you a 17 inch floor model that has a 6 inch stroke, whihc is kind of important for making hidden tang knives. All of the ones mentioned on here have the standard stroke of around 3 inches.
 
logem, you make a powerful argument!

Joe, the stroke length is something I did notice. I've not been as successful as I'd like, drilling 3" and then reaming the rest out with a heated chisel-type thingy I made... frankly it sucks, I must be doing it wrong?:( :grumpy: Maybe I will just stick to slab scales :D
 
Tom Militano said:
John, I've got a couple of high quality Jacobs chucks that I wanted to install on my Craftsman drill press, but I can't figure out what the taper is. Is it something that is special to Craftsman? Thanks
Click to expand...
If its the 1/2hp benchtop model, then it is a JT33 taper. I so need to upgrade to a brandname chuck as the one that comes with it needs to be put out of its misery. I know this cause it says JT33 on the side of the chuck.

Gibsonfan, if I were you I would get the biggest press you can afford now. Like something 1 1/2hp or higher. I have a Craftsman benchtop model, and it does drill 1/4" holes in 1/4" mild steel pretty easy at the lowest speed with lots of coolant, but the table flexes with lots of pressure. If you want to do big jobs with it, you need to go big. IMO bigger requires less effort on the part of the operator.
 
I have the cheaper version of that one (the 5 speed version and 1/3 HP), and I've never needed more. Just use good drill bits and you're good to go. I've drilled everything from O1 to D2 to CPM S30V, works fine. The key is GOOD drill bits. :)
 
1 1/2 HP? Dang dude, now you're talking $$. I'm not ready for that at this point. This will only be used for knives, and I'm far from full-time.

Good drill bits... gimme some brand names and types that you like!
 
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