Need advice: what floor-standing drill press should I buy?

Two things that I have learned I want on any drill press that I would buy:

1) t-slots in the table. I got lucky that the drill press I bought had t-slots that take the same t-nuts as my mill. That opens a world of possible hold-down options. I figure if I make it easy to use clamps and hold-downs, then I won't try to hand hold things that could get away and either break my wrist or slice a finger when the drill grabs it on hole exit.

2) speed options: either having the centre step-pulley from the start, or at least a hole in the top of the column to have a place to upgrade it to a two-belt/three-step-pully design. Adding this was discussed here:
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/gearing-down-a-jet-drill.42251/#post-362773
and here:
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/slowing-down-my-drill-press.33007/

.....possibly a 3rd nice to have....a motor that supports reversing. On my old drill press I added a toggle switch (that must be set _before_ turning it on) that changes the motor direction. I needed it to support some "back spot facing" tools, that I wanted to use as normal spot facing tools, but of course the teeth were facing the wrong way for the standard "forward" direction.

-brino
 
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If I had to go the drill press route I would go to the large very old ones with a low speed setting that's easy to access. Never found a nice heavy American one around here. I always figure it would be better to get a used mill if I was going to spend much money on one.

I've seen some cheap Chinese round colum mills around here, that would be a better choice than a regular drill press.

I would keep checking craig's list and find an old vertical mill of some sort, I've seen cheap bridgeports or the clones with 1 hp single phase motors on them occasionally. They are big and sometimes very cheap because they are such a pain to move.

Last year I bought a Chinese made Precision Mathews PM-727M and replaced my old iron with it, takes up much less room and is far more accurate since its not worn out. I haven't used my last remaining chinese drill press since. I should have upgraded years ago, I fussed with drill presses and old worn out stuff for way to long. :bipolar:
 
Thanks guys, for all the input. One idea I really like is a T-slot table... I really liked my little Delta benchmount DP, and I did some nice work on it... but I was forever coming up with the most idiotic-looking ways to clamp my work. Before this last move to our new home, I not only had to sell my drill press but I also had to sell my Little Machine Shop bench mill. I always loved how the T-slots let me clamp my work so solidly... I honestly didn't know some drill presses came that way too.

I'm going to start watching CL, and there's a few farm machine auctions around here so I'll watch them too.

Thank you all for lots of food for thought!
 
Jet 17 or 20 inch. Just the basic one. T slot table and large variety of speeds. Parts available.
I was just looking on Jet's website. The ONLY drill presses I see with slotted tables are the ones for metalworking, and the lowest speeds for those are in the 400's. Nothing in the 200's. They only have ONE woodworking drill press in a floor-standing configuration, and the speed goes down to 210... but it has a standard flat table. What am I missing? I don't want to buy a new Jet woodworking drill press, and then hunt around for just the table off of a metalworking one...
 
Avoid imported drill presses of any brand. Look for a solid, US-made, used unit in excellent condition.
 
I'd say the same watch for an older drill press, at minimum 17" but 20" is better. As the others large tables mean a very lot when using them. Morse taper spindle of 2-3 is desirable also. Most of the larger ones have racks for table some for the head also. My lust for press is an older RADIAL ARM walker Turner or delta of the same type. But there running about a grand to buy. Why not look on eBay at them to get an idea of what is around. I've never understood why there speeds are so high. There nothing out there that needs more then 1,000 - 1,500 max rpms and the lows should start at 100 rpms or less.
 
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I'd go with this one. Seriously, keep an eye on Craigs list. Something like a 17" Delta can be had very reasonably. Cheers, Mike
bigradial.jpg

does the drill bit have a lifting eye ?

:)
 
People laugh at them, but I have a Harbor Freight 20” floor drill press, that does between 100-200 holes a day, everyday (in a production setting) and has done so for the last 10 years. I’m on the second motor, changed out about 4 years ago, and the third drill chuck. Used to drill, 1/2” bolt holes in 5/16” plates and 2” x 2” x 1/4” angle iron.
 
There are a lot of good suggestions, if you can find them. Buffalo's suggestion is sound. I used one of those HF 20 " machines for a couple of years . A lot of value for the buck. I would still have it, if I hadn't gotten tired of doing belt changes. But with 21 available speeds, it will handle about anything you throw at it.
Randy
 
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