Drill Press Use

[Wayne Jolly]

You have said that you make a lot of different things and you have gone this long without a drill press, so maybe, just maybe, you don't really need one. It sounds like our woodworking is somewhat similar in that I too build many different types of things. And too, I do not go into the shop every day and rarely all day (especially now that I have a foot problem). But I do have a good floor standing drill press because when you need it, you need it and no other tool can do its job better. I have put enough importance on a good drill press that I recently bought a new Delta 28-900L. Whatta machine!


Wayne

[Roger Feeley]

My drill press was the first non-portable tool I ever bought. It was top of the line craftsman 35 years ago with a quill strong enough for light milling though I never used it for that. It's floor standing, 17" and now sports a VFD drive thanks to a lot of good advice from fellow creekers.

Things you can't do without a drill press or that would be very hard.
-- use a circle cutter
-- forstner bits
-- drill holes straight
-- drill holes in line
-- drill holes repeatedly using a positioning jig

[Ray Selinger]

Cheap drill presses are one of the revolutionary changes in home woodworking. A book can be written on that. Mind you they are not too satisfactory to use. The design you see ,I think is Japanese. Instead of allowing for wear in the quill with a clamp, they just bored the head. Some of the cheap ones are super sloppy. Any is better than none.

[Van Huskey]

Cheap drill presses are one of the revolutionary changes in home woodworking. A book can be written on that. Mind you they are not too satisfactory to use. The design you see ,I think is Japanese. Instead of allowing for wear in the quill with a clamp, they just bored the head. Some of the cheap ones are super sloppy. Any is better than none.

The only split head design being built in a "woodworking" press that I know of is the Nova Voyager, Steel City made some but they are now defunct. I am surprised that neither Delta or Powermatic went that direction with their better DPs.

[Guy Belleman]

After years of using a hand drill, I got a drill press, added a table with track fence, and wondered why I hadn't done this 30 years ago. Straighter, repetitive depth, less sloppy, at exact stopped locations, became a tool I use all the time. Just as fast to use it as drag out the old dusty hand drill. I do have my two drill presses on wheels which I find useful at times.

[Frederick Skelly]

A drill press was the second machine I bought - first was my TS - and I use it on nearly every project. I'm very glad to have one.

Fred

[Mike Cutler]

Herb

I can't imagine having a shop without a D/P, even if it's an inexpensive bench top model.
Those both appear to be nice drill presses. I especially like the lower end RPM's of each one. 200/210 rpm is slow enough to run some of the "largish" Forstner bits, 4-5" and less, and hole saws. The upper end RPM's will definitely allow you to use small bits in either wood or metal accurately.
A person will find many uses for a good drill press. A crappy one will gather dust and take up space.

[Paul K. Johnson]

I wish I'd purchased a drill press decades before I did. I can't drill a perpendicular hole to save my life and all the gizmos that are supposed to help do that using a drill aren't idiot-proof. They all have enough play that if you need really precise holes they aren't going to do it for you unless you're a lot better than I am.

A drill press is the ONLY tool I've ever purchased that I felt substantially increased the quality of my work. Any other tool that I'm not so great with I can compensate for with a secondary operation. E.g. sand off saw marks or whatever.

I also added a compound (x-y) table to my drill press. I can consistently drill with accuracy to 0.001" in wood. That requires test pieces to get it set up though.

[Cary Falk]

I don't use a DP all that often but as was said "when you need it, you need it". I restored a PM1200

[Ole Anderson]

Herb

I can't imagine having a shop without a D/P, even if it's an inexpensive bench top model.
Those both appear to be nice drill presses. I especially like the lower end RPM's of each one. 200/210 rpm is slow enough to run some of the "largish" Forstner bits, 4-5" and less, and hole saws. The upper end RPM's will definitely allow you to use small bits in either wood or metal accurately.
A person will find many uses for a good drill press. A crappy one will gather dust and take up space.

A bad DP is better than a hand held drill any day.

[glenn bradley]

Like some I consider the DP a necessity. I factor in the drill press clear back at the design stage of a piece of furniture. Because of how I use it I differ from some others who say a mediocre DP is better than none. If I don't need accuracy, I'll just drill by hand. When I go to the DP it better do its job ;-)

[Al Launier]

I guess you have our feelings by now - absolutely indispensable!

[Jim Tobias]

All the drilling processes that have been mentioned are reason enough, but I also use my DP for with pneumatic sanding drums and also Sanding Stars(Sanding Mops) a lot on smaller projects. It is essential to be able to hold object with two hands and let the drill press hold the sanding end of the job. Much more control IMHO.

Jim

[Art Moore]

I bought my first press in 1995 from one of the Traveling Tool Shows (remember those?), and I still have it. It's a K&F KS-13 Chinese cheapie press, but there's zero play in the quill and it has very little runout. For the 80 bucks or so I paid for it, it's been well worth it. My second press was a cheapie HF 8" press, which is good for doing stuff that doesn't require a big press. My last press is a Dremel micro press for the really tiny stuff. Personally I can't imagine being without one.

[Vinito Caleb]

I'm a metalworker mostly and I use a drill press every day for that. But I can see using a drill press a lot for making accurate jigs & fixtures as mentioned, but also if you're making something with some moving parts (a pivot being the most basic) seems like a drill press would be extremely useful.

If you're looking, search for a Walker Turner radial drill press. They are old iron so you have to be a little lucky, but when I've seen them for sale it's very often for a pretty good price, like $300 to $800 depending on condition. They are very heavy for their capacity, and they are the slickest "little" things I've ever seen. The head raises & lowers via crank and moves around, on ball bearing slides, to reach anywhere on the heavy T-slotted table.



I want to mention a warning too. You shouldn't use a drill press for operations requiring side (radial) pressure without applying end pressure to keep the stuff in the spindle from "flying apart". The driven-in Morse taper can easily be pushed loose and whatever is in it will simply drop out. If you are using a sanding drum or something like that, you can still use it safely in a drill press if you support the end, with pressure from a live center or a thread-on retaining collar or something. If you've been doing it and the exciting liberation hasn't happened to you yet, you've just been lucky so far.