Recommendation? The drill press market

[butcher_block]

i have been keepign my eye part way open for a nice used gear head drill press liek shown above. as to what mill i woudl get knkowing what i have learned with my mini mill and having a over used bridgeport (they share tooling ) the mini is handy and does not drip oil in use (most bridgeports are total loss oiling read that as oil runs right through) i like the dovetail of the mini mill body but it sucks cause no nod ajustment on the head and its light. for an all in one they not have a dovetail mill thats inthe 600lb range i think and thats where i woudl look but liek stated before tooling is going to be 2X cost and thats just getting started

 

[Britt_Askew]

I have 2 drill presses , one delta I bought in the 80's and a baby grizzly that I bought a couple years ago. The delta is a good machine that I would like to have a few more of. The baby grizzly is pretty flimsy , it works ok for some things but I wouldnt be happy if that was my only press and I probably wont buy another. I would like a few more dedicated drill presses for things like countersinks and counterbore bits. Also look forward to a mill.

 

[Surgo]

Do not be afraid to upgrade chuck .Most import drill presses come with junk chucks .I hope that helps. WB

With the 25% off coupon for July 4, I figured I'd go for the import drill press in Harbor Freight and just chuck in a new chuck as suggested. That said, any suggestions for chuck brands that are worth a damn these days?

 

[E.Carlson]

I recently got the big floor stand porter cable press from Lowes and I love it. I believe it is around 400. My local store had the wrong price tag on the display so I snatched mine up for 260.
Before that I used the little 8" HF benchtop model and it worked fine for drilling tang holes, etc. Never had an issue with it.

 

[Lieblad]

That said, any suggestions for chuck brands that are worth a damn these days?

Brand has little to do with ”worth a damn”.
Virtually all chuck manufacturers offer high precision industrial models and crappys for the Homegamer too.
That said, Jacobs and Röhm are favourites on most my stuff. All are precision chucks. Some are ballbearing, others plainbearing. One machine has Yukiwa, a Japanese brand whats excellent also.