How much does one really need to spend on a new drill press?

[Mike Cutler]

Erik

They're retiring to other places at a rapid rate. It's really a shame because most of those "Old Timers" had amazing skill sets that they were never able to pass on.

[Jared Walters]

Jared,

You mentioned that your wife will need to use the DP for drilling pen blanks. I gave up on that years ago, primarily because my benchtop DP only has about 2-3/4" of quill travel. But I also had issues with alignment, it was just too much of a pain to verify each blank was clamped correctly. I use my lathe to do all pen blank boring. I bought a set of pen drilling jaws for my Nova chuck. If a blank is oddly shaped, I jsut turn it between centers until round, and then bore the hole. But I cut most of the blanks I use, so I can size them to go right into the chuck on the lathe. And, as an added bonus, there is massive amount of quill travel on a lathe ...

One other thought -- why must you have a floor model? (If you covered this and I somehow missed it, sorry ...) Is it just to get the long quill travel you see on several of them? One thing that would make life easier for you is to get a benchtop model, and put it on a rolling cabinet that would make moving it in and out much simpler. I have a cabinet under mine with drawers, so I get extra storage in my relatively small basement shop.

I'll be following this thread closely. I mentioned in previous post that the Powermatic was at top of list, but I'm holding off for awhile until I'm convinced I'll not find an alternative, at least for a new DP. I've struck out finding anything I'd consider, so far, on Craigslist.

It's just gonna live outside, it won't be wheeled into the apartment. I have nowhere indoor to store it. I'm not worried about rust because there is little to no moisture in the air here.

[Erik Manchester]

It's really a shame because most of those "Old Timers" had amazing skill sets that they were never able to pass on.

Yes, too many of the youth today are looking for the university education and so many of the manufacturing jobs have gone offshore that the manual trade schools are hard to find now.