New or Used Drill Press

[Jim Oaks]

Now that I finally have electric in my shop, I really want a drill press.

I found a Craftsman 137.229150 15" 5/8" 1 HP floor model on Marketplace for $150. From what I can find these were made in the early 2000's, so it's probably roughly 20-years old. I checked Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Lowes, and the only other good deals I found was a Kobalt at Lowes that's 1 HP with a 5/" chuck on sale for $200, and a 5/8" .64 HP Craftsman for $180.

I like Kobalt hand tools but never bought their power tools. I prefer a floor model and kind of dig having older tools, but does it make sense to spend $150 on a 20-year-old drill press if I can get a new one for $50 more?

 

[Shran]

You will run out of room on most bench mount drill presses immediately unless you are just using it for wood. Add 3-5" to the table height at its lowest position to account for a good vise or clamp.

$150 for that Craftsman is a good deal if it's in good shape. Open the cover and see if it's clean inside or if there's chunks of belts all over. Run the quill all the way down and shake the chuck around - should be very little movement (none is better!) Turn it on and make sure it sounds healthy. Tighten the table down everywhere and push on it... can you move it up or down at all? Should not be able to.

I mentioned this in your garage thread but if you are doing any metal work you want the table to do these things:
- crank up & down height adjustment
- pivot on the main post tube
- table itself rotates and can be locked in position - this is a very nice feature to have - almost essential in my mind
- table itself tilts (not necessary but nice.)
- a drain hole is really nice for oil to run out of into a bottle

This is the vise I have on my drill press, Vevor makes some cheese dick stuff but this is an exception, I love this thing:

VEVOR 5 Inch ACCU Lock Down Vise Precision Milling Vice 5 Inch Jaw Width Drill Press Vise Milling Drilling Machine Bench Clamp Clamping Vice with 360 Degree Swiveling Base CNC Vise | VEVOR US

VEVOR Precision Milling Vise offers a 360º swiveling base, high accuracy screw, and 24 KN clamping force for top-notch stability and flexibility in precision tasks.

www.vevor.com

 

[pjtoledo]

find one with more travel. you can eat up 3.5" just changing from a pilot bit to a jobber size 1/2".
and bigger is better, so is older.

 

[pjtoledo]

also light weight tables/columns flex a lot.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Look for a third pulley. Then you can get slow enough for metal.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'd do the Craftsman one just because it is like my dad's lol.

He had to replace the chuck, otherwise it has been great.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So…

Dad years ago bought a Delta floor drill press. Nice looking, has a lot of nice features, except the quill wobbles pretty good when you run it out. Brand new. Delta told him to get lost when he complained along with the store he bought it at.

I bought a Harbor Freight benchtop drill press newly used from a guy. Quill wobbles a little when you run it out and it doesn’t go nearly slow enough for metal. I’m about ready to start watching for a mill…

 

[broncc]

Bigger is better for drill presses. Bring a dial indicator and turn a drill shank in the chuck or something to see how clapped out it is.

 

[rubydist]

The 20+ year old Craftsman will be the best choice by far as long as it is in good shape. As Shran said, run it all the way down and make sure it doesn't wiggle all over - as long as the bushings are in good shape, and it runs well, you will be golden.

 

[Shran]

A lot of drill presses have an adjustment for removing some of the slop out of the quill… and I guess I consider a little bit to be normal with any sub $1000 drill press… so keep that in mind.

If you want a tool boner go to your local welding place and look at an Ellis drill press. Matheson sells them up here. Those things are sweet but are also in used small mill price range!

 

[Jim Oaks]

I just found a 3/4 HP 16-speed Northern Tool floor model for $75 and it looks like it comes with a vice.

 

[Shran]

If it's the same Klutch drill press that they sell now, I would be tempted to go with the Craftsman. Just a cursory glance on the Northern Tool website makes me think that their Klutch one is very similar to the recently discontinued ones at Harbor Freight. I bought one from there brand new a few years ago and it was a gigantic piece of crap.

The Craftsman one you posted looks very, very similar to my Porter Cable DP, probably made by the same company. I am pretty happy with that one other than the lack of the table rotate feature.