OK people - the jury (for mine at least) is in
TL
R - The pillar drill is a good un', if you are in the market grab one - FAST I went this afternoon and 3 (of the 8 they had) had already been sold.
I've got nothing else to compare it to but here's what I did:
Chucked up a 3mm drillbit (the smallest it would allow) - and drilled a bunch of holes some just the tip, some halfway and some through holes into 20mm thick expensive hardwood ply (the £70 a sheet kind). I then took the drillbit out and tried to insert the back end into the holes - it would
only go in if the bit was vertical and even then required some pressure to do so - it was not even a slip fit, more like "use a mallet to drive it home" fit. The drill bits I use are not of the expensive precision made variety either - the "3mm" bit according to my caliper is 2.87mm.
The throw column also has no play I can detect throughout the full range, even fully extended.
I chucked up a spade bit and that also gave excellent results, there was a very slight wobble at the spade end, but that could well be down to the spadebit itself - again a no name version.
It's also quiet - the manual says 87db. Well either my ears are shot or 87db isn't half as loud as I though it was. My corded hand drill is louder. It may be worth noting I did have the belts set to the lowest speed of 500rpm.
Things to look out for in assembly:
The pillar column mounts are just threads tapped into the cast steel base - 3 of. After tightening I added 3 more nuts to the exposed ends of the bolts in the underside, could be overkill but I've got hundred of the things.
When swapping the belt settings it says to release a sprung catch on the side, when in reality it needs to be pulled back away from the engine mounting - I used a screwdriver to lever in between the catch and the motor mount, then tightened it again to leave the required gap.
You will also need to loosen the nuts that form the hinge swing assembly for the motor mount on the opposite side, otherwise the motor will not hinge forward to release belt tension. Once you've set the belts let the spring bolt go and tighten and it's fine.
The motor is mounted on the pole but only 2 allen key grub screws are used to stop it moving about the pole axis - no idea if this is the norm, I'm inclined to consider drilling those holes through the pole with actual bolts.
Lastly in use the whole thing makes whatever's sitting on the bench with it vibrate, nothing major, but enough to make me do something about it - I'm going to mount the base on some ply with some stick on rubber feet.
The separate clamp mount for the adjustable support platform only has a max capacity of 2.5 inches - so I'm going to have to do something about that - the platform itself could support a much wider clamp easily 100mm or so and probably more if designed properly.
All in all I'm so far very pleased with the purchase - though I've originally bought it to drill 2x 100mm and 2x 150mm deep holes that MUST be coplanar to each other (that'll happen tommorrow, the REAL test and something that I've tried to do four times with a hand held, both freehand and in a cheapo "pillar drill" drill mount adaptor - or the moxon vice I'm building will jam up like a SOB, four times, yeah... I used to have a fullsize wooden broom and handle, now the "broom" is a hand brush and what's left of the handle is barely long enough to be a chisel handle!) .... sorry I digress, anyway I'm getting other ideas for it that I doubt I could otherwise do with a hand held drill to the required accuracy.
Hope this helps