Drill Press For The Home Shop

I think the mill/drill is a pretty good idea. Of course, with tooling it will come to at least twice the original amount mentioned.

Now I will suggest some heresy:

Before I retired and got back into machining I was just a somewhat handy home owner. I had three machines: a table saw, a bench grinder, and a drill press. The drill press was a Skil I got at Lowes for about $120 if I recall. The vise was $20. $150 (tax) got me going. It had a rack for cranking the table up and down. Frankly it worked fine for everything I did. I even used it to drill through and repair the wife's cast iron bird bath. Later on I got a nice old Atlas that was definitely more heavy duty. But that Skil is still set up as my secondary drill press because of the crank table.

Just my experience.
 
I would get the drill press first than the mill, look for a good used one. Drill presses are one of those tools that are indispensable in a shop, I have 3, all get used.
 
I'm looking for a home drill press too. I bought a Delta Homecraft, but at 120 lbs I need something smaller, that I can move in/off the bench when it's not in use. This thing is too heavy for my hobby needs.
I'd rather not get a Chinese press.

Any good American presses? Chuck of 1/4 to 3/8" with a weight of 40 to 70 lbs?
 
"sensitive drill press"

My tiny (15' by 16') shop has four bench drill presses, three of them are 'sensitive.' The return spring has been removed and replaced with half a dozen rubber bands. Yeah, they break once in a while, but I can drill a 1/32 hole in aluminum and feel the drill when it touches the bottom of the hole. I cannot do this with my PM25 mill, it isn't 'sensitive' enough, I wasted several drill bits ramming into the hole before I realized what was happening. The last DP I bought cost about $53, it's cheap, but it will drill tiny holes in aluminum all day long.
 
One of the better 'cheap' drill presses I have used is the Harbor Freight, 16 speed, floor press. Recently picked one up for a friend and it is nice for about $220. It has a range of speeds, especially on the low end which most inexpensive presses do not have. The fit and finish was better than average for an import.

Robert
 
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