Drill Press Minimum Quill Stroke?

[Bernie Kopfer]

For me the need for extra stroke would be primarily to minimize the number of times I need to adjust the head or table up or down. Having a quill lock is as important as having a good depth stop.

Please Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to be a trend with the newer machines to not have a quill lock. That feature i use all the time, stick the drill bit in the intended spot, lock it, and adjust the fences and hold downs to the workpiece. Length of stroke has only come into consideration only a few times in years of use of a Delta 17.

[Derek Cohen]

Nova Voyager has 6" of quill travel. About double your budget though. I have had mine since shortly after they came out. Do not recall having needed the full six inches of travel, or even close to that.

Robert, my Voyager has 12” of travel. I think that you have a typo

The advantage of a long travel is that it becomes easier to swap out drill bits (long for short, and short for long) without having to alter the position of the chuck.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frank Pratt]

Robert, my Voyager has 12” of travel. I think that you have a typo

The advantage of a long travel is that it becomes easier to swap out drill bits (long for short, and short for long) without having to alter the position of the chuck.

Regards from Perth

Derek

That's what I find to be a big benefit of a longer quill travel.

[Randall J Cox]

I have 6" of travel on an old Rockwell 15" that I restored and love it. I didn't realize they were kind of rare until I had it for a couple of years. Randy

[Robert Hayward]

Robert, my Voyager has 12” of travel. I think that you have a typo Derek

Not a typo here. As I said, my Nova Voyager has 6" of quill travel as measured by the normal method. Unless you count six inches down and then six inches back up.

[Robert Hayward]

Please Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to be a trend with the newer machines to not have a quill lock.

My Nova Voyager has a quill lock and I love it. I had never owned a drill press with a quill lock prior and did not know what I was missing.

[andrew whicker]

I think part of the reason quality DP's don't exist in this range is due to knee mills.. ? I've also gone down this rabbit hole of trying to find a nice drill and even up to 2k I don't see anything mind bending. I use both metal and wood (and other materials in the future) and my big want is variable speed and rigidity. Once you get above 2k on price, then milling machines on auction start to look nice. Of course tooling becomes much more costly.

When you start talking about not moving the table while switching bits for accuracy reasons, I start to think you're using a drill press with the hopes of creating mill quality work.

The things that have irritated me with my DP: 4" stroke, handle spoke gets in way and you can't take only one spoke off, distance between upright post and drill bit. For me, a long stroke length would also be awesome because I've had a few times where I could roll my DP up to the part while it sat on horses or whatever but the stroke wasn't long enough to reach the part. It's like I wish I could move the head up and down instead of the table / material. I guess at that point you're looking at portable DP's with suction on the bottom or building a stand for the DP that moves up and down.

[David Kumm]

Here is my " Drill Press" $900 including a bunch of tooling. Variable speed 0-2400 rpm, 5" quill travel with three down speeds, and the table travels in both directions. Originally these Moore Jig Borers were accurate to .0001. I also use a vertical borer that is foot operated and has an 8" throw, and a small Millrite with a 3.5" quill. All three together were cheaper than a good used Ellis which is kind of the standard for drill presses. DaveDSCN3830.jpgDSCN3832.jpgDSCN3834.jpgDSCN3622.jpg

[Jim Becker]

That's a....tiny...little thing, Dave!

[David Kumm]

That's a....tiny...little thing, Dave!

I'm compensating. Dave

[Rick Potter]

I can only dream of such stuff. That is outstanding.

Just curious though, which one of those pictured do you really use the most often? I suspect you might use the one next to it a lot also? Just for convenience if nothing else, when you just need to drill a couple holes.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I have the 17” Jet and it has 5” of travel. It’s about 20 years old, so I don’t know if new ones have the same amount of travel.

[David Kumm]

The Vertical borer is my go to for wood drilling. The little Jet is almost never used. The Moore gets most of the metal drilling and tapping but my Rambaudi has a 5" auto quill as well on a NMTB 50 taper so it does the large metal boring.DSCN3746.jpg Dave

[Steven Cooper2]

My 42 Delta has 5" which seems like a reasonable amount, however today I could have used 7... though I will admit I didn't really need to use the drill press for the task, I have it and it's fun to use so I did anyway.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Dandy Rockwell 15-665 on the auction site for $599.
Maybe it's near you.