The 17" Taiwan machines are generally decent. They are also good value since there are a gazillion of them out there. I could be wrong but I suspect regardless of the brand name they came from the same factory. They usually have table lift, table tilt and table rotate, >1/2HP + TEFC motors, 3 pulley/wide speed range. As opposed the vintage USA machinist DP's, they are easy to find in the 100-200 price range and parts are also easy to find.
Depends on age. Just like the Japanese tools were trash in the 50's and early 60's, the Taiwanese stuff was cheap **** in the 70's and some in the early 80's. By the late 80's and early 90's it was decent and most of it is excellent in the last 15-20 years.
There are usually a decent number of Craftsman drill presses around. Keep an eye out for older Deltas as well, which are usually very good and plentiful. I'd go with one of those personally before a used Taiwan machine, but there are good ones out there as pointed out above. Maybe check runout regardless of what you're considering.
Do you have one from the late 70’s or early 80’s that was actually good? You don’t have to own something to have seen and used it in other shops to access is quality. In fact most of us here are of the skill to access the quality of tools and avoid them without having to personally learn by example every time. My wilton 17" press is a late 90's drill press and its ok and completely usable, but it doesn't hold a candle to my mid 50's Delta 14" in quality or attention to detail. On the flip side I own a Laguna 14BX band saw and a Precision Matthews bench mill that are less than 5 years old and are at the top of their segment in quality and features.
Buffalo and early Grizzly drill presses and mill/drills were POS from that time period that I have used and worked on. Some early jet stuff was iffy as well and poorly supported to boot.
I am not sure what you are trying to prove? Parallel to the drill presses Taiwan didn’t make semi conductors before 76 that I found and it was RCA, an American company showing them how it was done at first. It took decades of improvements to exceed other countries and be as good as they are now.
I just purchased an early version of this press.
My Taiwan tools go back to '81 for my drill press (power feed, 3/4" x 17") and a bit earlier for my Cheng Xi Bridgeport clone. I have also worked with some Taiwanese companies going back to '90s and on. I have profound respect for their industry - especially machine tools and injection molding equipment. Agreed that their first forays into consumer **** in the late '70s was...uh...not up to their industrial standards. You need to go there and work with them to realize that they don't stand still either ideologically or physically.
