I disagree. I have the floor model Delta, I find it cumbersome to change speeds. I wish I had bought the model with the variable width pulleys. I think I will convert my DP to a 5 speed model, flip the motor pulley, take out the middle pulley, and get a longer link belt.
Electronic speed control would be a very high end item. Not sure anyone is doing a drill press that way.
A rheostat on an AC motor would not work.
My $.02
-Dan V.
I was using my drill press tonight to drill out a mounting plate for a new motor for my lathe. Metal work- chips all over- yech!
Don't forget, one of the two words here is "press". I had to press very hard at times. I would not like a radial drill press for that type of work.
Sooner or later, I bet you will use the tool for something that requires some real "push".
I guess I could see a radial arm press as a second drill press for a busy shop.
Either way, skip the mortice attachment. Not that hard to cut them by hand with a sharp chisel.
-Dan V.
I haven't used a JET, but I'd probably buy the JET. I'd definitely recommend a full-sized unit if you have space and capital. You can do everything a small press can do on a big one, but not the other way around. After trading up from a benchtop to a 15" floor model, I rarely use more column travel than I had before, but when I need it, it sure is handy. It's also a much better machine overall. Bigger table, bigger chuck, bigger motor, better belt tensioning mechanism, etc.
I don't have a mortising accessory. If I were going to do something with some huge number of mortises, I'd probably buy a dedicated mortising machine. For the number I do, boring out the waste with the drill press and then cleaning up the holes with a chisel is a fine way to do things.
On 4 Feb 2004 10:23:09 -0800,
Since I do only need a mortiser occasionally BUT was faced with a one time project that required a lot of mortises I just went ahead and purchased a smaller Delta Bench top Drill press and a Mortising attachment for it.... Rather then a dedicated Mortiser...
THIS WAS YEARS AGO..... and I can honesly say that having a second drill press in the shop all these years I made the correct decision.... I get much more use out of it then I would a dedicated machine...and for slightly less money to boot....
HOWEVER the drill press mounted Mortising attachment does work . l t is much slower, takes twice as long to cut a mortise, not nearkly as powerful etc...
Bob Griffiths
I recently upgraded my drill press. I was using a largish bench model taiwanese 15(or so) speed machine. as far as I could tell, it was the same as the floor model, but with a shorter column. I had it for a number of years and for the most part it worked fine. there was a limited distance from the chuck to the column that I occasionally wished to exceed. I did a few things to it to improve useability- I separated the wiring for the motor from the wiring for the light, so I could leave the light on and run the motor from a foot switch. I trammed in the table to square and for the most part left it there. I made a base for it with drawers in it. it wasn't a great drill press but it was adequate. One function it wasn't able to fulfill for me was milling. after a few attempts that ended in dropping the chuck I gave up.
I started looking at mill drills. what I found is that although there are a lot of them out there, and from what I gather there are quite a few manufacturers (all SE Asia) there aren't all that many variations on the design, and all were similar in price. I figured out what features I really wanted and began looking. I was saving pennies, and figured sooner or later I'd have enough to buy new, but meantime I shopped the usual secondhand sources. I saw a few go by on ebay for prices I was willing to pay, but all of them were too far away. the local machinery junk guy said he never got them in. finally I found one in the paper. went down and looked at it and ended up buying it. it had a shop made mobile base that looks like you could stack a few trucks on top of. it came with extra collets and a stout milling vise.
basically, it's a machine tool, meant for working metal, so I suppose it's OT for this forum. however, it makes a great woodworking machine. top speed is 2500 rpm, a bit slow but the feed is so controllable that it hasn't been a problem. it has considerably more swing than the old drill press. a radial drill press would have more, but at the cost of lots of flex. it has a 2 hp motor that I doubt I'll ever slow down. it uses R8 tooling, same as the bridgeport mills, so there's lots of stuff for it. it's also heavy. I had to disassemble it to get into and out of my truck. it took 2 guys to get the head back on.
all in all it's a worthwhile addition to a woodshop Bridger
On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 09:34:41 -0700, Bridger brought forth from the murky depths:
Check out Grizzly's woodworking mill when you get ready to upgrade. They can be used to make your own hardware, too.
I'll bet it is!
------------------------------------------ Do the voices in my head bother you? ------------------------------------------
plus, it's too new to find one on the used tool market
Bridger
Guess I got lucky with both of the Deltas I've owned in terms of speed change. It really only takes me seconds. Consult the chart they give you for type of material, type of bit and size, note the speed. Then open the lid, "consult" the pulley arrangement chart pasted inside for that speed or the nearest to it, loosen the locking thumb screws, turn the handle to release pressure on the belts, arrange the belts on the pulleys as the lid arrangement tells you to, tighten up the handle and then the thumb screws. What's so hard about that?
New belts can make this a little tougher but that is temporary. They stretch with use.
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