Chinese drill presses

[nospambob]

[Puff Griffis]

I have 2 of the HF models one has a wobble so bad that it wont drill = fine holes the other is just fine. Puff

[bill]

At the risk of being ostracized, I thought I would ask if any have tried these tools. They clog up the drill press category on ebay.

Thanks

[Toller]

I am tempted to say "how bad can a drill press be?"; but I said that about a reciprocating saw that broke after 5 minutes. Never again.

[Frank McVey]

I suppose there are different quality standards in Chinese kit, the same as there are anywhere else in the world, and what you get will be determined by the QA set up by the outfit who markets it in your part of the world. I have a Chiwanese drill press badged by Clark (a mass-market UK tool supplier). It's pretty robust and does the job well. Dunno if I'd get +/-

1 thou accuracy with it, but it does what I need.

I expect we'll see more Chinese kit on the market as the big manufacturers and suppliers continue to outsource their production. However the big players will have pretty stringent QA requirements, so I would expect the quality of Chinese kit to rise accordingly. At one time Japanese goods had a similar reputation to that of China, but they've certainly sorted that out in the last 30-40 years.

This has got to be good for the consumer, but it'll impact heavily on Western industries who will have to match their quality/cost ratios. For example, the Japanese invasion completely destroyed the British motorcycle industry within a few years. Outsourcing much of the British garment and textile production to Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh had a similarly bad effect on our employment figures. However, what goes round, comes round, and now these three countries, with the ending of their protected trade agreements, are beginning to accept that their mass-market textile production will inevitably go to China, so they are investing heavily in going upmarket. Interestingly, a Sri-Lankan firm is dropping its bread-and-butter cheap cotton T-shirts and is tooling up for the mass production of high-quality embroidered baseball caps, with an eye to the large US market for this commodity.

Depressing, isn't it!

Cheers,

Frank

[Andy Dingley]

No better or worse than anything made anywhere else.

The real problem is the notion that you deserve to spend no more than $50 on a drill press. What do you think you're going to get for no more than the price of a decent dinner ? Spend your $50 in China and you probably get a poor drill press, but in the West you'd barely get the bits to go in it.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Australopithecus scobis]

I got one for $75; I was just shopping for a hand-drill guide. I got the functionality I was looking for and I can now do other things (NOT rout, thanks guys) that I never tried before. No, it can't do some of the things the one I learned on in HS shop class could do. It doesn't have the register pin to set the table angle. So what? I use an engineer square to check alignment anyway. I got the functionality and quality I paid for and expected.

[TexasFireGuy]

I thought a Chinese dreill was where everyone jumped out of the car at a stop light and got back into different seats.

[GTO69RA4]

If you buy a Chinese drill press, only get one from a real company like Delta, Jet, HF, etc. As a former owner of a totally-generic eBay special (Aerotek branded), I can tell you it was worthless crap. I cannot say how bad it was without screaming and lots of gestures. Useless scrap metal, barely machined, like a bunch of reject parts made in a cave.

GTO(John)

[Silvan]

$50, a *decent* dinner? If I spend $50 on dinner I'm eating at La Maison Coûte Chère.

I usually feed my family of four a "decent" dinner for about $18 at Le Roi des Hamburgers or La Cabane de la Pizza. :)

[rjs]

I got one of the HF $43 variety and offer the following comments.

It is vastly superior to any electric hand drill to drill press conversion I have ever seen.

it is somewhat under powered but you can go up to about 3/8" dia in steel if you step drill.

for some applications the slowest speed is to fast (approx 600 rpm)

The spindle runs true within a thou or so.

The chuck on mine (jacobs type) left a bit to be desired but drills in it ran true. Never the less I swapped it for a genuine jacobs i had on hand.

As someone else said buy it from a store that will be there when you take it back if you do not like it (harbor frieght, home depot etc.) Sure you can save a few bucks buying it on e-bay but the shipping will kill you if it is not up to standard.

I saw a great old Delta drill press at a flea market last summer, it was $150 and I am sure it was worth it. (I went back later to get it after much thinking and it was gone.)

If you need a drill press these will get you started, they are light enough you can stow them when not in use and even take them out on the deck in the summertime if you want.

Regards Bob

[Bridger]

I have had several Tiawanese ones. my one line synopsis would be: they can be made accurate enough with a bit of fiddling. Never had a mainland Chinese one. I think I'd want to get a good look at it first. Bridger

[Swingman]

Jacque dans la Boîte. Très exclusif!

[Phisherman]

Great for cutting holes in balsa wood.

[Howard]

I got one from

& found it was ok except for the chuck. I replaced the chuck, and it drills fairly accurately. However, I now have $55 into it instead of $35.

[Pat Barber]

Grizzly sells a ton of them... I would stay with them or one of the other majors. You can find a pretty good dp for under $300.

bill wrote:

[bill]

Noooooooo, I'm talking about the ones they sell between $35 and $60 bucks. It won't get a lot of use, but sometimes I just need to get a hole drilled that is perpendicular to the table and you know how the hand drill is for that one.

Bill

[Bridger]

you might want to consider a drill guide attached to your hand drill. lighter, portablle, cheaper and possibly about as accurate as a rock bottom end drill press.

mine is portalign brand....

[George E. Cawthon]

I bought an HF bench style for 39.95 for the same reason and I am pleased with it. Virtually no runout, quiet and smooth, not real powerful as one would expect with a small unit, but one just goes a little slower with bit larger than

1/4 to 3/8th. The table just slides up and down which requires more work than a geared table model which runs about twice the cost. If you buy direct from a HF store, you take it back if you d>