Drill Press recommendation

I am getting tired of trying to use my dremel or hand drill, to drill straight holes. The other night I was drilling a small hole, the last one on a new build and wouldn't you know it the bit slipped as soon as the drill started to spin. Not a big deal but I would like to step up my game and good tools can make all the difference.

I am looking for a recommendation for a decent hobby drill press. I will likely use it infrequently however I am not afraid to spend a bit more for decent quality. Some issues I have noticed with drill presses is they tend to wobble, some more than others, also the mechanics of the drill moving up and down can have some play. I would like to eliminate as much of the sloppiness as much as possible, keeping within my budget.

What other features or issues should I be looking for or to avoid? If you have makes and or models that would be ideal. Also I am located in Canada so some models may not be available here. Budget is no more than $500.00 and I will consider used if anyone knows a good source in Canada, local to Toronto?

Thank you.

How much room do you have? Are you considering a full size floor mount unit, or a tabletop unit, or...?

If you want a floorstander consider buying used off Craigslist. Some of the older ones are really good units, and (unless it's mistreated) a drill press basically lasts forever, so why not try used?

Good luck with your search.

If most of what you do is on the small side, Dremel has a drill press attachment that is OK. I would not do precision work with it, however not bad for the cost and it can as serve as a tool holder for horizontal ops like buffing and grinding.

If you know your way around tools, I would just go to a home center and look at their offerings. Activate the hand feed lever and notice how it feels as it goes down and how it travels up. Does the travel stop look like it's easy to set? See how the top cover sits (tight or loose). Figure out what your top two or three choices are and go home and to some research on the web to find the pros and cons of each (perhaps look on Amazon). At the end of the process, you will be more informed and should be able to come to a decision that you are happy with.

Greg

I just bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HQONFVE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 I haven't unboxed it yet. That is scheduled for tomorrow night. From reading lots of reviews, this seemed to be the best balance between low cost and decent quality.

Now, I was looking for a benchtop model that wouldn't break the bank. Planned projects include a competition launch tower, cutting plywood circles, adding rail buttons, and other really simple, basic stuff. I did inherit a floor-standing drill press, but until I get a dedicated and climate-controlled work area, that is going to stay in storage. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00064NGR4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 - it's just above your max price, and a whole different level of quality.

mpitfield said:

Budget is no more than $500.00 and I will consider used if anyone knows a good source in Canada, local to Toronto?
Thank you.

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Lots of good suggestions in the above posts. If you wanted to see a nice selection of drill presses in action, I suggest you visit the Busy Bee show room in Concord. https://www.busybeetools.com/. Busy Bee is the "Grizzly Tools" of Canada. While you are there, you may want to look at a small drill/mill combination as well. These can be used as a drill press, but also offer a whole lot more possibilities for the future.

Princess Auto https://www.princessauto.com also sells some drill presses, but I have no experience with those.

Personally I like drill presses with a Morse Taper (MT) or R8 spindles over the ones with a fixed spindle. This way you can exchange chucks easily and also use larger drills easily.

Jeroen

I have a table top from harbor freight and it has been good for me I have had it for two years think I paid $60


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Harbor Freight in Niagara Falls is within 50 miles of Toronto. Reasonable prices and reasonable quality. Fine for occasional hobby use.

How you hold you part makes a difference in how your hole comes out. Clamping the part to a machine table or workbench and using a drill guide or drill press will insure that the holes are straight and in the right place. Using the right speed and a sharp drill bit is also important.

Bob

All good advice. Generally I am hearing that I should get out and kick the tires. Based on this Busy Bee Tools looks like my best choice.

As I mentioned I am partly inspired from the pain of my recent miss alignment, but also after seeing the holes Jim Jarvis was able to drill into his carbon fiber body, having a tool like this seems essential for accuracy.

Thank you for the advice.

mpitfield said:

All good advice. Generally I am hearing that I should get out and kick the tires. Based on this Busy Bee Tools looks like my best choice.

As I mentioned I am partly inspired from the pain of my recent miss alignment, but also after seeing the holes Jim Jarvis was able to drill into his carbon fiber body, having a tool like this seems essential for accuracy.

Thank you for the advice.

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If you get a floor mounted drill press, you could easily make an auxiliary table that could accommodate your Guillotine Fin Jig in the correct position for drilling. It would probably be best to do this before fin placement whenever possible.

Ted

A few years ago I bought a Skil benchtop drill press from Lowe's and have been VERY pleased with it.

BTW, Bosch owns the Skil name. Made in China but with pretty good quality control.

I have the horror freight $59.99 special. My only complaint is the low power. I have stalled it a couple times cutting rings with a fly cutter. As long as I take it easy and let the tool do its job, it works well.

I bought a bench-top drill press from Horror Freight once, the drill turned so badly that I had to spin the chuck to get it to start, they do not have enough HP anyway.
I just saw a 10" table top by Craftsman like I have for $134.00 on their website, I make a lot of parts with that drill press. It has the power to do most anything.

I have a Ryobi 1/2" 6 speed tabletop that is over 10 years old. Still works great.

I purchased a table top 10-speed harbor freight drill press over 20 years ago. I've used it alot building tons of equipment, handycraft & model stuff. It also gets countless hours of use on woodwork and cabinet building projects. It's used on All kinds of woods, Brass, Aluminum, Steel and Stainless steel drilling, tapping, Holesaws to 6" and all types of bits and drum sanders.

Yes; I've stalled this machine with large diameter Holesaws, Forstner Bits and Fly-cutters but she still gets the job done. May take a little longer but as mentioned I've successfully cut several 6" diameter x 1" holes in RedOak with this vary machine.

I've heard other complain about spindle drift on some of the HF table top drill press machines, Have to say, mine has none of that in fact with an adaptor in the 1/2" Chuck i've used it to drill down to #50 bits (tap hole for 2-56") with no trouble at all.
I seen to recall spending about 90.00 bucks for it new. I've also recently seen a Craftsman Table Top at Sears for about the same price. If you have a local Sears or K-Mart (they merged) I think I'd go with that just for the name. Either machine will have been made in China anyway so your subject to getting whatever QC happened to be in place at the time. For the hobbiest...Cheap tools can usually work, I don't always buy cheap as it use and over-use most tools but I've been very pleased with the quality and performance of my little Harbor Freight 1/3HP belt driven Drill Press.

Also you might look into DogHouse Rocketry the have a 90degree tube aligning drilling jog with several different hole sizes that work great with a hand still but will also help with drill press alignment.
I've been very happy with it
https://doghouse.blastzone.org/drill-guide-tool.html

I ended up picking this up at Busy Bee Tools today, it gets delivered on Monday. Man I could get carried away in that show room.

https://www.busybeetools.com/products/drill-press-14in-fl-model-3-4hp-laser-csa.html

Cut and paste from the preceding link:

This 14" Drill press is ideal for the medium sized shop. With a 3/4 HP motor, 12 speeds, surface ground cast iron table and rigid columns, this machine gives long lasting service and can handle some of the toughest jobs. This model now features laser-guided technology, and a solid cast iron handle with comfort-grip pads.

Features
Rack and pinion raising mechanism, solid cast iron handle with comfort-grip pads, laser-guide technology, generous sized tilting table, and solid construction. Comes complete with pulleys, belts, arbor, drill chuck and motor.

Specifications
Size: 14"
Motor: 3/4 HP
Chuck: 5/8"
Spindle: MT2
Spindle travel: 3 1/2"
Quill: 66mm
Table: 11 1/4" SQ.
Speeds: 12
Height: 64"
Weight N/G.: 86 kg.
2 Year Warranty

I also picked up a drill press table https://www.busybeetools.com/products/drill-press-table.html and two 9" Vise clamps https://www.busybeetools.com/products/vise-clamp-9in.html

Nick@JET said:

Also you might look into DogHouse Rocketry the have a 90degree tube aligning drilling jog with several different hole sizes that work great with a hand still but will also help with drill press alignment.
I've been very happy with it
https://doghouse.blastzone.org/drill-guide-tool.html

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That was my first low priced solution as I picked one up when they came out. However they can move around quite a bit and have a finite number of sizes you can drill with them.

Michael,,
be 100% certain to pick up a decent Cross slide vise.......
That's as important as the press..

Teddy

OK so this is really on the small side but it does really beautiful tiny work. I love this drill press.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058ECQX2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Check this page...

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6p1jichddc_b

Some nice ones here..
Just homework and research which will be the most solid / accurate in it's setting ( won't move once you have it set )....

Teddy

onebadhawk said:

Check this page...

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6p1jichddc_b

Some nice ones here..
Just homework and research which will be the most solid / accurate in it's setting ( won't move once you have it set )....

Teddy

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Thanks Teddy, I am surprised at how good the prices are for this Canadian supplier and they are local to me so no shipping. They have a nice 5" cross sliding vise.

I use the heck out of my vise clamps. Good call on picking up a few.

o1d_dude said:

I use the heck out of my vise clamps. Good call on picking up a few.

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I never really thought of them but there was one connected up to the bed of the drill press in the showroom and it looked really useful. They have a bunch of add-ons and equipment in that showroom, but I ended up just over $100 over budget...could of been a lot worse had I hung around any longer!

The accuracy of the vise is the exact same importance as the accuracy of the press..............
Just the opposite side of the equation......................

Teddy

Cross Slide Vice, a Drill Press Vice, and the drill press Vice Grips all have one really important thing in common, even more important than accuracy...they get your fingers out of the danger zone!

I'm a big fan of the older heavy-iron type drill presses that you can buy cheaply on Craigslist. Most of my shop tools are 1950's vintage. I take them apart then drop them off at a local place that does sandblasting for about $50-75 per machine. I then do my own rattle can spray painting with industrial paint and they come out looking like new. Bearings for old drill presses are usually less than $10 each. So you can buy an old machine for around $100 and it'll cost about the same to fix it up. You'll have a really sturdy drill press for about $200.

Pat_B said:

I'm a big fan of the older heavy-iron type drill presses that you can buy cheaply on Craigslist. Most of my shop tools are 1950's vintage. I take them apart then drop them off at a local place that does sandblasting for about $50-75 per machine. I then do my own rattle can spray painting with industrial paint and they come out looking like new. Bearings for old drill presses are usually less than $10 each. So you can buy an old machine for around $100 and it'll cost about the same to fix it up. You'll have a really sturdy drill press for about $200.

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I've seen a few restorations that will make your mouth water. Truly the old machines were made awfully well.

Pat_B said:

I'm a big fan of the older heavy-iron type drill presses that you can buy cheaply on Craigslist. Most of my shop tools are 1950's vintage. I take them apart then drop them off at a local place that does sandblasting for about $50-75 per machine. I then do my own rattle can spray painting with industrial paint and they come out looking like new. Bearings for old drill presses are usually less than $10 each. So you can buy an old machine for around $100 and it'll cost about the same to fix it up. You'll have a really sturdy drill press for about $200.

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Ohh mannn + 1..........

All that beef,,
all that weight,,
all that mass,,
Super rigid...
Now just a good set of bearings that will cost very little,,,
And you've got a press that you'd never even consider buying for the price....
And any tool of that quality is always an absolute pleasure to use for the rest of your life........
Just as smooth as silk and more accurate then the amount your eyes can squint.....

Teddy

Pat_B said:

I'm a big fan of the older heavy-iron type drill presses that you can buy cheaply on Craigslist. Most of my shop tools are 1950's vintage. I take them apart then drop them off at a local place that does sandblasting for about $50-75 per machine. I then do my own rattle can spray painting with industrial paint and they come out looking like new. Bearings for old drill presses are usually less than $10 each. So you can buy an old machine for around $100 and it'll cost about the same to fix it up. You'll have a really sturdy drill press for about $200.

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I hear you and agree that would be ideal and a rewarding restoration. However the practicality of me running around looking at all the turds to find something with potential then have to run around even more was not great based on my lifestyle. Besides I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the machine I purchased. It is their own brand, Canadian made and old school like you describe. At 190lbs it is no slouch, sold cast base, solid cast machined bed, solid cast housing, 3/4 horse power, solid cast handle and rack and pinion mechanism with no slop in the travel and it comes with a 2 year warranty...plus it has "LASER".