Clarke CDP451F Drill Press

[Capitol]

Has anyone any good or bad experiences of this product?

Regards Capitol

[Bob Minchin]

Only buy one you have inspected in person. Extend the quill to max, grip the chuck and give it a good yank from side to side and back to front. Decide if the degree of slackness is acceptable to your drilling accuracy needs. Any perceptable shack will normally mean chatter and three cornered holes when working in sheet metal.

The above applies to most imported machines where the design has minimal quill support at full extension and often the castings are not accurately machined either.

For the same sort of money, a quality secondhand brand should be obtainable. Look at meddings, fobco, elliott etc. to get a whole load more drill for your money.

hth

Bob

[mike]

I wish I'd asked you before I bought mine! Mine looked great and felt solid and heavy but once the quill had moved down half an inch (quite common when drilling holes) it flaps around like a flag in the wind and my circles are three cornered.

I have learned from my mistakes a few times now and I only buy good tools. I work on the principle that you can buy a good tool for a good price or a cheap tool followed by a good tool (when the cheap one breaks) for the price of a good tool + the price of the cheap tool.

In my opinion, cheap tools are actually quite expensive because you have to buy a proper one to replace them but if you just buy a proper one to start with, it lasts forever and you don't have to buy the cheap one.

Mike

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same with my el cheapo NuTool. It has a grub screw to take up the slack - but unfortunately the groove this runs in was less than well machined. Stripped it down and got the groove made properly. Vast difference. Not as good as a decent one in the first place, but ok for 40 quid and much better than a drill stand that takes an electric drill.