Looking for a drill press

[chrisb]

Hello,

I am in the market for a drill press that can drill 1" Mild Steel. Suggestions for what brands to consider or used machines to keep an eye out for would be great. My budget is MAX $500.

Thanks

Chris

[winchman]

Any drill press can drill through 1" steel.

You need to tell us the largest drill you want to use and how fast you want to drill through the 1" steel with it.

It's also important to know how big a piece of steel you'll be working on. The most common homeshop DP will drill in the center of a 12" disc, so it's called a 12" DP. Getting a larger one adds convenience, but the weight and price go up quickly.

We really need more info to give you a meaningful answer.

I've got a 12" Craftsman, which I bought new in 1982. It's still going strong, and I haven't had any trouble with it. I added a foot pedal so I could turn it on/off without taking my hand off the work. I like the fact that the belt will slip before all H breaks loose. It's very forgiving, and it gets the job done.

The school has a 22" Wilton which scares me. The motor is way too powerful. It'll rip the vise right off the table if the bit jams.

Roger

[Phil McCrackin]

Just about any drill press can. There are more factors than just the thickness of the metal and price. (room in shop, accuracy, variable speed, work table size, size of chuck, accessories available............)

Go to Sears(or someplace similar) and look at them and decide which one you like the best. Here is a link to one at Sears that would probably work for most people for a very long time.

Mine is 1 or 2 steps down from this one and has served me well for at least 10 years.

Happy New Year.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00922900000P?vName=Tools&cName=BenchPowerTools&sName=Drill%20Presses&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a

[andy_b]

heck, for $500 you can find a used mag-drill and drill a hole in the side of a battleship if you want.

andy b.

[Bill Pace]

I use a DP mainly to use a variety of drum sanders usually running in the highest speeds, which makes the quill bearings wear faster. I'd had an import for some 20yrs and it got so 'rattley' that bout a year ago I went out to HF and picked up one of their larger ones - a 17" I think, round $200? (on sale)...

Any how, I was pleasantly surprised at the fit, finish, tightness, etc (as I have with a couple other larger items I've got there!) and it does a fantastic job of running the drum sanders, plus, I've even have had a few times to actually use it as a "drill" press and it has handled those with ease...its a surprisingly nice tool.

[SVS]

Chris,
Get on ebay and Craigs list and search for drill presses. There are a lot of threads on PM's antique forum in particular that cover the old heavy ones.

Your'e in the classic triangle, good, cheap, or quick-you can have two.

Damm good DP's show up all the time for near zero dollars, but you'll have to do some work.

Leland Gifford, Allen, Buffalo Forge, Cincinatti Bickford, Cleereman, Snyder, Cannedy Otto, would be a few names, but it all depends on your tolerance for weight, floorspace, 3phase electricity, plus work to get it running.

[aboard_epsilon]

....any drill press can drill through 1 inch steel .....

NOT SO

a lot are too fast for it ..and will burn the drill bit out .

a typical chinese one will have a slowest speed of 350 rpm

look for one that has slow speeds starting at 60 rpm

all the best.markj

[hardtail]

You don't have a location so.....If your north of the border Busy Bee has this model, even cheaper than previously, nice Tslot table, relatively heavy for you homeshop store variety......

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=CT026N

If south I think Grizzly has a trade agreement and flogs similar stuuf as BB likely at even cheaper pricing.

[J Tiers]

NOT SO

a lot are too fast for it ..and will burn the drill bit out .

a typical chinese one will have a slowest speed of 350 rpm

look for one that has slow speeds starting at 60 rpm

all the best.markj

He didn't say what SIZE hole, just that he wanted to go THROUGH 1" steel. So about all he has specified so far is at least a 1.25" quill movement (more for convenience).

a 1/4" hole is a 1/4" hole, and depth isn't directly affecting speed.

Naturally he will probably want up to a 1" diameter hole, so that suggests that your speed of 350 rpm is actually not that horrible..... 1" drill, circumference 3", 4 turns per foot traveled.

At 100 SFM for mild steel that is about 400 rpm max. I'd suggest 3/4 of that, or 300 rpm, but of course slower is OK if you don't insist on huge feeds.

[aboard_epsilon]

i would like to see you turn 400 rpm, on a one inch drill, on a cheap chinese drill press, with no flood coolant or power downfeed.....it would be toast at 200 rpm............that's if it didnt vibrate its self out of the morse taper.

all the best.markj

[BadDog]

I got a 20" Wilton VSG (older made in the USA, not China) that looked almost like new other than some dirt and dust. It had a broken elbow in the speed indicating manometer, I made a new one out of aluminum scrap and filled it with auto trans fluid (close spec grav). Other than that, I have just run it. And it will punch a 1" drill through 1" of steel in VERY short order, chips "crackle" and roll up like stiff coil springs, smoking hot and turning blue as they run. RPM from something like 40 up to 1200 or so, 1.5hp. It weighs about 700 lbs, and the table is rated for something like 650 lbs. Big square t-slotted thing with rack for up/down. 7" quill travel, 5" quill with 3 beefy "milling capable" bearings (according to OEM manual), nice easy/quick depth limit changes along with convenient quill lock, quick crank speed changes, and MT3 in the spindle. Works great for anything I need over 1/4" or so, and has been known to run smaller, though not ideal. I paid $500 for it...

On the new "import" front, looking at "bang for the buck", you can't beat the 2 larger so called "Industrial" drill press from Harbor Freight. One goes down to around 150 rpm, the other is just north of 200 I think, but they also do higher rpms for smaller bits and wood/aluminum that mine doesn't work so well for. The chucks are junk and MUST be replaced immediately (IMO), but the basic machine is quite up to basic fab/machine drill plunging work. I used one of them for 7 years and just got rid of it ONLY because I simply don't have space. Now I have a gap in the range of drills I can run at "ideal" rpms, but I make do. One of my "some day" projects is a planetary "speeder" for the big Wilton so I can get bits into the 3000 rpm range... some day...

[J Tiers]

i would like to see you turn 400 rpm, on a one inch drill, on a cheap chinese drill press,

No thanks........ it would probably drop its cookies at 100 RPM..... which it will be going pretty soon anyhow, if not 0 RPM, if you try that...

Point is that the speed itself is not the issue, which you seem to be agreeing with. You DO need the power to go with the speed.

[rmack898]

Slight hi-jack here. Bad Dog I have the same drill press as you do but mine is missing the depth stop, could you post or send me a pic of the stop so that I can make whatever I'm missing on mine?

Thanks

[chrisb]

I do need to drill 1" holes. In the 1" plate its actually two 1/2" plates stacked on top of each other they need to be exact duplicates. I figure the easy solution to avoid layout/drilling screwup and having misalignment was to tack weld the two pieces together and drill thru both at once.

I posted the same question over on PM. I was basically told I needed to spend 4k on a radial drill press. One guy mentioned a Rigid Tool drill press and the post was deleted later because he mentioned a tool made in china.

My bother has a mill at his work I could use however he lives two hours away.

I see Grizzly bumped up the prices on drill presses today vs. yesterday. New year new prices I suppose.

I've had my eye on CL for a couple weeks hopefully something will turn up.

[Milacron of PM]

I posted the same question over on PM. I was basically told I needed to spend 4k on a radial drill press.

No you weren't... a $4,500 radial drill that is available was mentioned but NO ONE told you you need to spend $4K on a radial drill press.

In fact if you are in the right place at the right time...i.e. a live machine tool auction....you can often get a nice very heavy duty Allen or Avey drill press for 200 bucks.. maybe even less if it's particularly dirty or flaking paint.

Example of Avey here - http://www.reliabletoolmachine.biz/images/Avery_3.JPG