benchtop drill press

[Alex Eisenhut]

Anyone know if this thing is good or not? There's one at work that looks exactly like this and it feels good and seems to run true.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/6mm-MINI-DRILL-PRESS-COMPACT-BENCHTOP-DRILL-JEWELER-HOBBY-3-SPEEDS-MAX-8500-RPM-/380915111290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58b04f557a

Yes I'll ask them where they got it too.

[tautech]

Can you find out if your at work unit will hold bits less than 1mm?
Many chucks won't.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Can you find out if your at work unit will hold bits less than 1mm?
Many chucks won't.

Good question. Aren't there baby chucks you can put in the bigger chuck?

[BradC]

Can you find out if your at work unit will hold bits less than 1mm?
Many chucks won't.

Good question. Aren't there baby chucks you can put in the bigger chuck?

Of course, but you then start getting unacceptable levels of runout, unless you want to clock and adjust the mini-chuck every time you mount it. For small high speed drills you want a standard sized shank and a collet mount.

[tautech]

Can you find out if your at work unit will hold bits less than 1mm?
Many chucks won't.

Good question. Aren't there baby chucks you can put in the bigger chuck?

Yep, but who'd want to? PITA.
With your linked unit you only have 5" to start with, put a block/sheet of wood down to protect the bed and you'll have even less. Add another chuck and at best you'll have only 3 1/2" left. Add small drill, there's another 1 1/2" gone and now 2" left to work with. Get the idea?

[mikerj]

Hopefully the quill is better supported than the vast majority of full size Chinese bench drills which tend to have huge amounts of slop.

[John Coloccia]

Hopefully the quill is better supported than the vast majority of full size Chinese bench drills which tend to have huge amounts of slop.

Very doubtful.  Even "high-end" drill presses have done away with the split-head design, and now all depend on the fit between the quill and the bosses in the case.  They make it even worse by putting the bosses too close together to get maximum quill stroke.  This is a fine method, and generally how mills are made (Bridgeport, for example), but when THEY do it, the bosses are chromed, and then precision lapped to perfection.  Just that step alone costs more than any drill press you'll find from Delta, Powermatic, etc...  I gave up looking and simply fixed my Delta by drilling 4 holes in the front corners of the casting, and inserting a nylon plug with setscrews to tighten up the quill.  Now I have no slop.

The thing is, the smaller the bit, the less runout you can tolerate before the bit just simply snaps, never mind making round holes.

Now Clausing...THEY still make a superb drill press.

Anyhow, it only has a 1" stroke.  That's a good thing, actually.  For $80, expect an $80 drill press, but I'm a little encouraged that it has a very limited stroke.  You have at least some hope that it will be reasonably tight.

[JacquesBBB]

The reference to which you will have to compare is the proxxon  TBM-220

http://www.amazon.de/Proxxon-28128-Tischbohrmaschine-TBM-220/dp/B002K9XR18/ref=sr_1_27?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1431174594&sr=1-27&keywords=proxxon

[Alex Eisenhut]

I asked. They said it's crap. It broke the day they bought it... 

[george graves]

I have a sears/craftsman drill press that I use for one-off PCB.  The runout is so small I have no problem with drilling PCB's.

0.35mm bits turn true with no wobble what so ever.  It only runs at about 4000 rpms - I wish it would do faster (7k would be better).  But, on the plus side you can change it's speed to like 500 RPMs.  And that's really handy for drilling plastic cases, or when you need to go slow with metal.  It's a win-win.

I paid $80 for it on sale.  Fathers day (June 20th weekend) is when you want to look for sale prices in the US.

It comes with a laser guide that is totally worthless for drilling.

Sears has weird formatted links that don't pasted well - but search for "Craftsman 10 Bench Drill Press with Laser"  with 1/2 HP motor.  And you should find it.  I'm sure they buy it from someone else - so it most likely re-branded and available else where.

Harbor freight(or Canada's version - what's it called - kelli auto or something?) might have a knock version of it - but made with cheaper parts - So if mine ever fails, I'm going to get another from sears/craftsman.