Drill press recommendation

[jainbaby]

Looking to buy a drill press. I want to use it specifically on metal. Restoring/hot rodding an old car. Would like to drill out steering wheel, door handles etc.

New or used, what do you recommend and why?

Thanks

 

[5lima30]

Look for an older floor mount (US made) Rockwell, Atlas, or even Craftsman. With older presses the heavier the better!

 

[jainbaby]

Any idea of size and hp recommendation?

 

[MarkIowa]

My favorites are the old King Seeley Craftsman drill presses. They show up on craigslist fairly often. I'm making a copy of the Craftsman intermediate pulley for slow speeds for my press.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169997

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150684

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156731

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89366

If you do get one, there are many more threads here on the Garage Journal. Also, original manuals with exploded diagrams and parts lists can be downloaded for free on the web.

 

[Davefr]

Look for an older floor mount (US made) Rockwell, Atlas, or even Craftsman. With older presses the heavier the better!

Yes, but there's one caveat. Most of these really old drill presses do not have a rack and pinion table elevation feature. If your work requires a lot of table height adjustments these old machines will drive you nuts.

You typically unlock the heavy table and wiggle it back and forth and raise it about 1/8" per wiggle. I could not live with this for what I do.

I'd look for older models that came out right after table elevation became a mainstream feature.

 

[billp603]

For primarily drilling metal you'll want one that can run at low RPM's. For steel you'll want to go down to 450 RPM for 3/8" and 250 RPM for 1/2"

 

[Packard V8]

There are literally tons of good old DPs out there, but very few with the intermediate pulley to slow the speed enough for large holes in steel.

If you're sufficiently skilled, the answer today is convert to a DC treadmill motor with a VFD. Then, most any DP can do the job for you. Buy one in good shape but without a motor, switch or pulleys, as you'll be changing those anyway.

jack vines

 

[383 240z]

Save your self the heartache and just buy a big *** manual milling machine. I found mine at a farm auction. I ended up paying right around $350 if I remember right.

Here is what it looked like when I found it.