Reply To: Drill press purchase

[david pierce]

Harold,
Before getting a drill press, or any other machine, first decide what you want the machine to do. A small bench top drill press should be good for general clock size holes but will not work well for large drill bits and will not work at all (the drill bits will break off in the holes) for tiny (#60 – #80 and smaller) drill bits. This will greatly affect the cost of the machine. The Dumore I mentioned in the previous post is designed and built for very tiny drill bits and is unsuitable for larger sizes. If most of your drilling will be in the 1/16th to 3/8ths diameter range you are in luck. There are a number of bench top drill presses that are made for drilling holes in this size range that cost around $100.00. Check with Harbor Freight as they have several models in this size and price range. Make sure that whatever drill press you buy the shaft that holds the drill chuck has a standard Jacobs taper.
For drill presses designed to drill tiny holes (sensative drill presses), I looked at the selection on Ebay. The ones that stand out are a Dumore that is up for bid, a Jet for $175.00 and a Hamilton for $199.95. The Dumore and the Jet are both high precision industrial quality machines. The Hamilton looks like a good machine from the picture but I have never owned one so I do not know for sure.
david