Recommend a drill press for £300 ish

[OscarG]

Hello woodworking gurus

I made a horrible mistake last year in buying a cheapo drill for £70 at Screwfix, depth stop system a joke, chuck wobbles more than a fat lady's bingo wings. It's garbage, really annoyed at myself for buying it.

No more cheap tools!

I quite fancied this Charnwood W380, especially that laser, but read somewhere it has an intermediate spindle which can wobble.
http://www.charnwood.net/products/produ ... athway-225

Fox, Sealey any good?

Will be used for drilling bits for guitar building, so nothing massive. It must have a really good depth stop system.

Cheers

 

[DiscoStu]

I think the presses where they have the threaded bar and nut to control the depth should be good. I get frustrated with Clarke because it's just not as accurate as I'd like it to be.

Does anyone make a press or add on that allows you to zero the gauge that would be really helpful especially if you could lock it as a certain depth (just like you can with a router).


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[pike]

One of the new axminster trade series maybe?

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-tr ... ill-102552

Peter Parfitt just bought the next one up from that and is going to do a video review. They are of course all chinese made but atleast axminster have good support. You pay over the odds for it though and this one is nearer £400.

 

[OscarG]

I think the presses where they have the threaded bar and nut to control the depth should be good.

I really don't like those threaded bar and nut ones, unless it's screaming tight, sometimes the vibrations can work the nut loose and you end up drilling too deep.

I'm hoping for some quick release lock system.

 

[OscarG]

One of the new axminster trade series maybe?

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-tr ... ill-102552

Peter Parfitt just bought the next one up from that and is going to do a video review. They are of course all chinese made but atleast axminster have good support. You pay over the odds for it though and this one is nearer £400.

Cheers!

That does look quite sexy!

 

[Jacob]

Mines a 12 speed Nutool and cost £50 on ebay. It's faultless really and has an excellent and easy to adjust depth stop (rotating scale and set-screw on the operating handle mech). I suspect it wouldn't do for serious engineering and metal work but is fine for woodworking.
Most of the cheaper ones including the Axminster above are very similar to the Nutool and probably come from the same factory in China. The Axminster looks like it has a better paint finish - probably better finish all round, and better quality handles, but otherwise very similar.

Nutool depth stop similar to this:

 

[Mark A]

I bought one of the Axminster drill presses mentioned a few years ago. I can't say for certain as I don't own a dial test indicator, but I think there's some run-out on the spindle. I would have contacted Axminster before the 3-year warranty expired, but soon after buying the drill I moved house and it's been in storage ever since.

If I was buying again I wouldn't go for the same drill as it's too expensive for what it is.

Mark

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[pike]

Agree with Jacob. It depends on how much you can spend, if you want to shop around for used, know how to fix it up and can travel to collect etc. You pay a premium for new (which are usually no better or worse!) but to be honest it's a lot simpler and you can always send it back to Axminster if you aren't happy. Hopefully the new trade series are more accurate than the hobby ones but I don't know as they have just been made available.

Mark was it hobby or trade?

 

[user22161]

Fox, Sealey any good?

Will be used for drilling bits for guitar building, so nothing massive. It must have a really good depth stop system.

Cheers

I have one of these Fox ones - http://www.poolewood.co.uk/product/fox- ... -f12-943a/ and wish I hadn't bought it. No problem with accuracy but very under powered and will stall quite easily even with 1" Forstener bit. Only suitable for light work.

 

[pike]

The drills I'm looking at are 750W. That fox is 450W. I wonder if that's all there is too it for stalling.

 

[MikeJhn]

I recently obtained one of these on e-bay: http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... uctid=6767 so far so good, have not had any problems with it stalling, but then I have not used it much yet.

Mike

 

[sunnybob]

I keep looking at a new drill press, but I have a 7 year old Ryobi 2 speed hammer drill with electronic speed control, fitted into a very old wolf stand that I bought second hand for a tenner almost 20 years ago, and it does just about everything I need. Plus I can take the drill out and use it for household stuff any time i want.

Sometimes I hope the drill will break, but no luck so far.

 

[MikeJhn]

Just had a good look at the Charnwood: http://www.charnwood.net/products/produ ... athway-225 and it addresses two of the issues you get with most pillar drills.

1.0 if using a large drill table as most of us would, the press handles get in the way of a fence, but the short handle on the Charnwood get over that.

2.0 The pillar height adjustment handle is at an angle that also allows clearance to the back of a table, most all I have seen have the handle at right angles to the table and hit it when trying to adjust the height.

These two points make it convenient when using a table.

Mike

 

[Bodgers]

Fox, Sealey any good?

Will be used for drilling bits for guitar building, so nothing massive. It must have a really good depth stop system.

Cheers

I have one of these Fox ones - http://www.poolewood.co.uk/product/fox- ... -f12-943a/ and wish I hadn't bought it. No problem with accuracy but very under powered and will stall quite easily even with 1" Forstener bit. Only suitable for light work.

A 450W drill press should not be stalling a 25mm forstner bit in a piece of hardwood, for example.

My Rexon drill press is 400W and can handle that no problem. Maybe better/sharper bits are in order?

 

[Woodmonkey]

Should be able to get a used meddings on eBay within your budget. Quality will be far superior to anything you can buy new for that price.

 

[OscarG]

Just had a good look at the Charnwood: http://www.charnwood.net/products/produ ... athway-225 and it addresses two of the issues you get with most pillar drills.

1.0 if using a large drill table as most of us would, the press handles get in the way of a fence, but the short handle on the Charnwood get over that.

2.0 The pillar height adjustment handle is at an angle that also allows clearance to the back of a table, most all I have seen have the handle at right angles to the table and hit it when trying to adjust the height.

These two points make it convenient when using a table.

Mike

That's an excellent point about the height adjustment angle. I didn't notice that.

I have made my own big table/fence and it is a pain in bum to raise/lower it.

 

[MikeJhn]

I have plans to take the handle off and use a socket on my battery drill to operate it, or just extend it sideways beyond the table width, with a support at the table edge, think I have seen that somewhere so not out of my head, but someone's somewhere.

Mike

 

[pike]

Playing devils advocate, I know one or two well known online woodworkers who will swear by not having a custom drill press table. Simply so you can move it up and down easy and just cut into a loose bit of wood. I guess when they need a fence they just clamp a bit of wood on the back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj3_hR7UvQs

I wouldn't know, I don't quite yet own a drill press

 

[AJB Temple]

As wood monkey says a used Meddings (or Fobco - just as good) will be vastly superior to anything new in that price range. I have a pristine Fobco that cost what you are proposing to spend. It has zero wobble, excellent depth stop that is easy to adjust, multi speed and built like a tank. (I can barely lift it on my own). If you have already been burnt once by cheap tools, why make the same mistake again?

 

[pike]

As wood monkey says a used Meddings (or Fobco - just as good) will be vastly superior to anything new in that price range. I have a pristine Fobco that cost what you are proposing to spend. It has zero wobble, excellent depth stop that is easy to adjust, multi speed and built like a tank. (I can barely lift it on my own). If you have already been burnt once by cheap tools, why make the same mistake again?

Because it's not always easy to refurbish used, or find one, or transport it? I agree its great if you can do that but it's not for everyone.

It is a shame there are so many rubbish new machines out there though. Hard to believe no one is making a reasonable drill press.

Personally, I'm going to try Axminsters new trade range and send it back if it doesn't justify the cost.