Chester D20 Pillar drill

[D Hart]

Hello all,

I am looking at buying a floor standing pillar drill for woodworking. I am on a fairly limited budget, so looking at the best money can buy for say less than £300. I realise this isn't going to get me top quality but I hope I can get something reasonably good for hobby use.

Have already discounted Clarke on basis of most other reviews, which tend not to be overly complimentary (but happy to listen to any other points of view!). Axminster ones such as the AHDP16F look ok but will stretch the budget a bit. SIP drills also seem to get quite a good write up for this sort of price bracket.

However, I am also looking at Chester drills, specifically the D20, and I wondered whether anyone has any experience with these (or any other model) drills by Chester, as I can't seem to find out much about them in terms of independent reviews.

Failing this, what other recommendations might anyone have for this sort of budget?

As ever, any help and advice much appreciated!

D

 

[MikeJhn]

I don't have one, but Warco seem to get good reviews on here, have you done a search on the Forum?

: http://www.warco.co.uk/68-bench-mounting-drills

Mike

Sorry, just re-read your post and its floor standing you want: http://www.warco.co.uk/69-pillar-drills ... g-machines

 

[Fitzroy]

Would you consider2nd hand? If so check gumtree in your local area for some old cast iron beastie.

F.

 

[D Hart]

MikeJhn - yes i did do a quick search; the only mention of chester drills i could find (which-drill-press-again-t22671.html) was what put me on to them

Fitzroy - yes I keep a weather eye out for secondhand stuff. Would certainly consider the old Startrites, Fobcos or Meddings, which is what most seem to recommend, but it seems a bit risky buying old machines. If my ongoing experiences with an old coronet minor i bought are anything to go by. Its proving to be something of a money pit!

 

[rlukey]

I have had the D19 for about 2 years now, used every other weekend occasionally drilling through metals but mostly wood. I am no expert but I am happy with the machine and does everything I need it to do. Never had anything go wrong or break (tempting fate here!) so I would buy one again if needed.

I don't like that the rack used to raise / lower the plate moves against the pillar and so it drops few mm once every revolution, it is just annoying and doesn't affect the use... put in context... it is not annoying enough to fix it

 

[deema]

I would look at secondhand as an alternative. Looking in popular auction sites I was able to find both Meddings and Ajax bench and floor standing drill 240V or 3Ph for £300 or less. Either would IMO be a great investment and meet all of your needs with a great resale value (probably make money) when you have done with it. There are threads on the forum of doing up drills. There are other drills that are also good, Fobco, Startrite Mercury are examples.

 

[Bm101]

If it helps I'm doing up an old Meddings at the moment. After a lot of seaching and even more dead ends I got one that seems to run ok for about £130. The West Country seemed to have a lot of Fobcos going at good prices. Similarly, the further North you go. In the South East it's harder I think, you're/we're in just the wrong area. Too many buyers, too much money around which makes it harder but not impossible.
I swore I was just going to do a basic refurb. Didn't happen. I asked a retired engineer on here and he told me straight. Go for it if you want to spend the money and put the hours in. Otherwise get a jet, axi or similar and get drilling. I happily ignored him because I wanted to but he was bang on. Total costs now including car filler, primer, undercoat, gloss from Craftmaster paints, all the rest of the bits I've had to buy, at basic would be at least £300. Probably a little more... Sourcing old bsf thread nuts is a pita and expensive. I don't dare include my time because it would be frightening on day rate. But I do it because I enjoy it as a hobby (mostly). But it's worth bearing in mind. Still. One good tip I saw was these machines were built well, not always treated well. It's always a risk.
Just think. You could have one of the best drills in the world at the end of it. Tools now are built to cost, these babies were built to standards.
Depends on what you want doesn't it.
Good luck!

 

[memzey]

It seems as though drill presses offer further evidence of the old adage “they don’t build them like they used to”. In my case I have an old Fobco Star that I picked up for about £50 or so a couple of years ago. It has less than half a thou’ run out at full quill extension (which could be flecks of dust on my test bit come to think of it - <0.0005” is pretty small). It just purrs and always does its job with no fuss or complication. There’s no way I could buy anything remotely as good for anything less than 20 times what I paid for it - whatever a modern Meddings goes for today I suppose. I wouldn’t swap it for a new equivalent either way.

 

[SteveF]

it does seem we dont get many of these old drills in the south east
I am in the market for a bench drill and think i will have to buy new sadly

Steve

 

[D Hart]

Many thanks for all the advice everyone and apologies for not replying sooner. Work kinda got in the way last week!

Much to ponder tho. The consensus is vintage it seems. There is (or was) an old Boxford Union pillar drill for sale locally recently but it definitely needed work and I'm not sure I'm ready to spend several more months trying to press (no pun intended) elderly machinery back into service in light of recent experiences (£50 for an old coronet minor, £150 and counting buying spares in a so far vain effort to get it running). The temptation is to buy new simply so I have a working machine.

I plan to go to Axminster next weekend tho, so will let you all know the outcome!

thanks again