Bench drill press / pillar drill

No specific advice as to make etc, but FWIW:

I had a Lidl/Aldi one for a while - it was decent enough for my purposes. There are very many of similar quality & build around. I ended up selling it and bought a slightly bigger Sealey, mainly because I had a need for the larger height for a particular project.

I would probably look out for a second hand one; if you are not in a rush then keepjng an eye out for an old British one via eBay/Gumtree might work.

One thing to bear in mind is that the chuck on these does not go to zero. I think my Sealey has trouble below 3mm diameter drills. I keep meaning to buy a reducing chuck.

I have *never* moved the belt on the pulleys!

J^n

PS: The most fun power tool I bought in the last ten years was an old but good (Inca) bandsaw. I wish I had bought one years ago...

Most chucks dont "go to zero" (although I have to say that 3mm sounds a bit neanderthal) - which is why the pin chuck was invented

Theres loads of them online, including eBay.

If you have one of those screwdriver / impact driver things you might like to consider one with a hexagonal drive shank - alternatively if your main chuck has 4 jaws then forget it.

I have a small Scheppach bench drill which I bought at Aldi/Lidl which is quite good has good depth drilling, a two speed gearbox with electronic speed control so no changing belts and also has an accurate electronic depth readout. The only bug bear is the chuck which does not have a problem gripping small diameter drills but being hand tightened is a PITA when inserting drills. I keep meaning to get onto Scheppach to change it for a keyed version. The model number is DP60 I paid a lot less than the current advertised price.

Richard

I bought a 2nd hand equivalent of the smallest pillar drill listed on the Clarke website (Clarke CDP102B) the stand/table/quill are steady enough for my needs. The depth gauge isn't all that. Strangely they don't list a price on the website, Machine Mart list it for £120 which seems fair

A 'pin chuck', and yes, it will grip a standard straight pin, though you can't drill much with it.

Nor me, other than to clean and grease occasionally. Not the belt itself. I pretty much only ever drill wood and plastic, and small diameter holes in aluminium. I've never needed a speed below maximum.

It's a cheap Chinese one from B&Q, about £40 about 15 years ago, but has a solid cast iron base, bolted down to my bench. I do also have an old Wolf press which holds a standard size hand drill, but I only use it occasionally if I need to drill several sets of holes with two drill sizes.

The father of the woman next door to us died, and to my surprise, I inherited a Burgess bandsaw and several smaller items. I'd never bought one, because I had no need for one. I used it for the first time the next day... so far, I've gone through three blades and a power switch.

Indeed - as I mentioned, the Sealey is larger than the 'standard' pillar drills from Aldi etc, and the chuck is also correspondingly larger. It might go down to 2.5mm, but not less.

I assume the OP has considered and rejected the various drill guides that can be used with a hand held drill? The cheap & simple ones can at least ensure that drilling is vertical.