My need for the drill press stems from the desire to build several cupboards, window sashes and ultimately a nice set of kitchen cabinets for our house. So influenced by the promise of 'Swiss precision' (I guess 'Swiss' is a small town in China?) I recently bought a Jet JDP-17F drill press from Axminster. It rattles and vibrates quite a bit, but I think I can tame this somewhat by adjusting the belt cover and adding some soundproofing material: it's a shame you have to do that but this is the 21st century and I'm a realist!
But side-to-side play on the spindle is my real gripe, and I would very much welcome the opinion and experience of others. When I push the spindle from side to side using only very moderate force, I read about 0.3 to 0.4mm play on my dial gauge and this play is very obvious too - I'm not bending anything: to use a technical term there is an audible 'clunk' at each extreme. In the machine's favour the quality of holes it produces isn't obviously poor, but I just can't get over the feeling that such slack a) isn't normal in this class of drill and b) must affect my ability to drill holes accurately and consistently. The accuracy must now depend solely on the spur of the drill bit if the spindle mechanism is so loose.
Am I being too picky here? Are all modern drill presses the same (Axminster, Record, Sealey to name just a few)? It's a long time unfortunately since I was let loose on such a machine in our (now dismantled) workshop at work so I don't have a proper frame of reference.
If such slack isn't the norm is there a solution? Should Axminster supply either better spindle components for me to retro-fit or a new machine? Should I just cut my losses, ebay it and buy a proper second hand machine that was made in Sheffield using non-CNC machines, but with care and attention to detail?
But side-to-side play on the spindle is my real gripe, and I would very much welcome the opinion and experience of others. When I push the spindle from side to side using only very moderate force, I read about 0.3 to 0.4mm play on my dial gauge and this play is very obvious too - I'm not bending anything: to use a technical term there is an audible 'clunk' at each extreme. In the machine's favour the quality of holes it produces isn't obviously poor, but I just can't get over the feeling that such slack a) isn't normal in this class of drill and b) must affect my ability to drill holes accurately and consistently. The accuracy must now depend solely on the spur of the drill bit if the spindle mechanism is so loose.
Am I being too picky here? Are all modern drill presses the same (Axminster, Record, Sealey to name just a few)? It's a long time unfortunately since I was let loose on such a machine in our (now dismantled) workshop at work so I don't have a proper frame of reference.
If such slack isn't the norm is there a solution? Should Axminster supply either better spindle components for me to retro-fit or a new machine? Should I just cut my losses, ebay it and buy a proper second hand machine that was made in Sheffield using non-CNC machines, but with care and attention to detail?
