My First Drill Press/Pillar Drill - advice please.

[OPJ]

I'm not at all sure what I should really be looking for in a drill press/pillar drill for general woodworking.

I know I need something that'll give accuracy I can't get with any of my cordless tools but I'm uncertain as to whether I really need something with a greater drilling depth then 50mm, or not?

I have hardly any bench space spare, so I may prefer a floor-standing model. Or is that rather unneccessary for occasional use?

I'll set myself a maximum budget of £150 for this.


The Perform range has caught my eye again, particularly for their 'radial-arm-action' CCRD/CCRDFS models. As much as I'd like to be able to say 'I have a drill that can do this'; I can't honestly think of a use for these actions right now.

Should I just stick to something simpler? Like the Perform CCD12L, maybe an Axminster model.


Accuratle drilling of 90degree holes, morticing (yes, I'm happy to clean up with a chisel), larger diameter drilling (save those batteries!). These are some of the things I know I'm going to need it for.
I would also like the advantage of being able to sand curves like a bobbin sander, but I understand the radial-arm drills have serious safety issues for this type of use. That feature isn't so much a neccesity anyway.


I'd really appreciate some advice on what I should be looking to buy as I don't honestly see an awful lot of difference between the very many drills on the market.

...And I thought getting a new block plane would be hard enough!! :wink:

Thanks very much for your advice.

 

[PowerTool]

Lets just throw in a curved ball here...

If you want to do mortices,have you considered getting a bench morticer? - as many of them come with an ordinary chuck so they can be used as a drill press.

Oh dear,more choices :roll:

Andrew

 

[Wanlock Dod]

Oswaldo,

I have a really cheap Ferm drill press from Screwfix. It can hardly be recommended for the utmost accuracy, but that said it is a lot more accurate than my drilling with a hand held drill. To be honest it has done all that I have required of it (drilling out mortices, large diameter holes with forstner bits, angled drilling, slow speed drilling in metal and sanding with a drum attachment).

Cheap and cheerful, but no problems so far for me.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[Anonymous]

Look at machine mart for good pillar drills at a good price. I got a tall machine with rack height adjustment for around your money and it is lovely and accurate with no run-out or other issues

 

[matt]

I've got a mains drill mounted in a Record drill press. One of my best value purchases - genuinely suprised at how good it is. That's not to say that I'd turn down the opportunity to buy something more serious but it's so good that I'd be looking to spend quite a bit of £££ to ensure that I really could justify replacing it. Ultimately this means that I'm not planning on an upgrade!

 

[RogerS]

Like Tony I bought one from Machine Mart. My only regret is that the vertical travel of the drill isn;t really long enough for thick wood. But then again it is only a baby drill. A larger model would be a better bet for the long term.

 

[j]

I've got the Homebase Powerbase XL drill press which is badged by loads of places and is about £30

It has the 50mm travel which so far has been fine for me.
Not sure if you'd need a bit more than that if you're doing mortices.
Mine has been good with everything i've thrown at it, a large hole saw was the biggest thing i've put in it, and it did stall with that, but that was my technique of just trying to crank it through the wood rater than letting it clear after a short burst.

The only real complaing I have s that the distance between the base and the chuck isn't that large. I'm planning to build a new stand for it which will allow it to sit over a hole in my bench so that it can drill into the end of some longer rails. A floor standing model will give you a much larger capacity for this.

 

[beejay]

Sealey Premier for me. A good deal from Ebay. Its got rack adjustment, plenty of travel, extremely well built and a real plus for me is the built in light. A real heavy duty benchdrill,
A great buy and Im delighted with it.
beejay

http://community.webshots.com/user/eunos9

 

[Gary]

Like Tony I also went the Machine Mart route. I had a small Clarke drill but then upgraded to the CDP401B costing £159-95 plus the dreaded VAT.

I know this is slightly over budget, however if you sign up to their web site every quarter you can visit their shops and purchase goods VAT free. This is the way I purchased this drill.

I can highly recommend it, powerful accurate and even has a work light built in.

Gary

 

[OPJ]

First, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies.

Secondly, going the Clarke route had completely slipped my mind, simply because every time I've seen their name mentioned on the Screwfix forums it has only ever been for mention of poor service and everything that comes with it.
But now I've had a look at their prices, I may well consider giving them a chance - perhaps just for this one-time-only.

I've also signed up for their e-mails - thanks for the tip! :wink:


I had a good old fashioned tidy up of the workshop last night and have found good space for a full-size pillar drill, whether I'll ever honestly need the full capacities or not.

 

[OPJ]

If you want to do mortices,have you considered getting a bench morticer?

Yes, I have already considered this. Thanks, but space is a very big issue in my garage-vs.-workshop you see; I can only afford the space for one OR the other. I didn't realise morticers double up as drills, but in the time I've been reading Good Woodworking I've discovered there are any number of ways to chop a mortice these days - and the router will probably take care of most for me.

 

[Bean]

Be careful of floor mounted bench drills, unless you boly them down they can have a nasty tendancy to fall over :shock:

Have you looked at the second hand market? For your sort of money a good ex industrial drill can be had. Some of the older ones are also single phase . They will be more robust, accurate, rigid, have a greater speed range and be longer lived that the cheapies.

The cheapies have a very thin column and that is exactly what you do not want, as it is the column that provides the accuracy to the drill. The spindle may well be square to the table at rest but where does it go to when you pull on the handle ?? the column bends and you have no accuracy.

I would avoid the radial type drills as they are not very rigid and very top heavy.

A good bench drill mounted next to the end of the bench can also do all that a floor mounted drill can do with greater accuracy (shorter column, increased rigidity). Its something to think about.

Bean

 

[PaulH]

An interesting thread from my perspective as I'm also "in the market" for a pillar drill. I've been looking at the Ryobi RDP-7525S and it seems (to my very limited knowledge) a reasonable spec at a "good" price (compared to say the Jet JDP-15 from Axminster).

Anyone any experience of using the Ryobi drill?

Paul.

 

[CHJ]

Regardless of which make you go for, two things to consider in the usefulness stakes as far as wood work is concerned.

Length of travel of the spindle (mentioned above) and Throat Depth.

Not so restricting with metal work but with wood work the ability to get a larger reach into a panel can be boon.

Many of the small pillar drills only have 50mm or less travel and 100-110 mm throats on them, the latter being the most restrictive especially if you try to use some sort of fence or location jig as well.

 

[dedee]

I do not think that using a mortiser as a bench drill is a good idea if my multico is anything to go by. The mortiser runs at about 3000rpm which is way to fast for drilling or sanding in wood. You will be more than likely to end up with scorch marks on the wood.

Andy

 

[Adam]

I'd suggest this thread was worth a read

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3138

Adam

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I bought this second hand for£100 which included the steel table it stands on.
http://us.a1.yahoofs.com/users/419e2a4a ... DBe8xL7e32

It didn't look like this when I bought it though. I stripped it down bought a couple tins of laquer. made a wooden base and fence for nothing.

http://us.a1.yahoofs.com/users/419e2a4a ... DBI4ZHFjke

It was three phase, so I bought a single phase 1420rpm 5/8th shaft motor and added a safety switch from Axminster for under £30.

Just note the depth of the shaft, it's over 6"

http://us.a1.yahoofs.com/users/419e2a4a ... DBSQM8t7AT

the only drawback is it's weight, dunno what the weight is but it's a struggle even for two men to lift it.

 

[DaveL]

I cannot see your pictures LN, is the URL correct?

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I cannot see your pictures LN, is the URL correct?

Yes the url's are correct. I use Mozilla Firefox as a browser I can see the pics if I click on them.

I have tried before to add pictures using the image tags but it don't work for me perhaps it's the settings on the BB or maybe the settings in my browser that stops me uploading pics that aren't visible immediately. Anyone got any ideas to correct the situation?

 

[Alf]

I cannot see your pictures LN, is the URL correct?

Yes the url's are correct. I use Mozilla Firefox as a browser I can see the pics if I click on them.

No joy here either, also using Firefox.

Cheers, Alf