Buying a (cheap) bench drill - recommendations ?

[Adrian]

HI All

I'm looking for a (cheap) drill press / bench drill.

Currently I'm using an elderly Black & Decker drill mounted in one of those drill press adapters - and the poor old drill has seen better days. The chuck bearing is somewhat sloppy, the gearbox sounds like a cement mixer, and the holes that the chuck key fits into are oval !

So - time for a new toy !

Not expecting to do much metalwork with it, certainly nothing 'heavy-duty'. Most of the time will be spent drilling timber, and fused glass (more 'grinding' really - diamond wire & core bits).

I'm looking at the range from CPC - specifically because they do a very reasonably delivery charge out here to south-west Ireland.

They have bench drills from Clarke and NuTool - both for about 55 euro

- which seems ridiculously cheap. Budget won't stretch to the other model they have in stock which is made by Xenox (??) and costs 280 euro....

The Clarke one is here

the NuTool one is here comments / suggestions / recommendations about these two drills ?

Many thanks Adrian

[George]

> And the NuTool one is here

> Any comments / suggestions / recommendations about these two drills ? >

I bought the Aldi one when it was available at £29.99 its exactly the same as either of those two which are basically the same model. Pop into a local Aldi branch and see if its surfaced again? I'm sure it'll be on sale soon if it already hasn't been on sale?

[George]

You got a machinemart in Ireland?

[Rod]

A year or two ago I inherited what I think is a Nutool one (from a friend who was buying himself a new one).

It works. It even sounds quite nice. But the damn thing wobbles. No matter what I try to drill, the end of the bit wobbles with respect to the thing I am trying to drill.

Yesterday I did a couple of 35mm holes (for Blum hinges). Very difficult to get the bit to re-enter the partially drilled hole accurately (whether spinning or not!). Yes - the workpiece was clamped to the drilling table. Everything appears as tight as it can be.

I put this down to it being a very cheap model. So, as soon as funds permit, I shall be investigating just slightly better kit. Not expensive

- just the next level up.

O - horrible chuck. Keeps going tight-slack-tight as you try to turn the chuck key. Crap depth stop. Nasty MDF drilling table.

Have a look here:

(They do deliver to Eire.)

[Adrian]

Thanks for the reply. I get the impression that these tools at the cheap end of the market are probably all much the same... - hence the question...

Yes - 30 quid is about the same as the euro price from cpc - plus a bit for postage but I need some other stuff from them as well.

Our nearest Aldi is up in Killarney - probably 1.5 to 2 hours each way

- told you we were out in the sticks ! Actually, there's probably one in Cork City - but getting around the 'big city' is a hassle Much the same travel time anyway.

We do have a local Lidl - but (judging by their Irish fliers) there's no pillar drills on their way in the near future...

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian]

Adrian

[George]

>

>

The chuck assembly might not have been central aligned? when I bought this Aldi one the chuck had to be fixed into place up the drive shaft ie the chuck was tapred at the end and it had to be hammered into place with a soft mallet.

[Cicero]

==================================

The Clarke drill (CDP 5DD) is described as 'Hobbyist drill press' in Machine Mart's current printed catalogue. This could possibly limit your guarantee if you intend using it professionally. However, if you've been managing with a B&D / Bridges setup you'll notice a substantial improvement.

If you have a B&Q near you you might look there because they also do a few of these entry-level drill presses at reasonable prices.

Cic.

[Adrian]

Ah - so long as it makes life simpler, and hopefully a little more accurate....

Yes - there's a Homebase up in Killarney - but they seemed to be concentrating on scatter cushions the last time I was in there - and it's a fair drive to get there...

So - not much to choose between the two drills that I mentioned at CPC ?

Thanks Adrian

[Cicero]

================================== I haven't seen the Nutool press but judging by information from another respondent (Rod) about the drill table (MDF) I would think that the Clarke press is likely to be far better quality than the Nutool one *IF* the information from 'Rod' is accurate.

However, the picture (Nutool) you showed doesn't look like MDF so there's probably not much difference between the two. A quick 'phone call would confirm that the picture (showing cast table)is an accurate representation.

Cic.

[Dave Liquorice]

Certainly sounds like a problem with the chuck, especially with the reference to tight-slack-tight as you turn the key. Knock it off the shaft, it'll no doubt be a taper fit. Check the shaft runs true then set to striping the chuck to make it work evenly.

I've got a "Performance Power" (aka NuTool and countless other "brands") small cheapo pillar drill. Does well enough, drill go straight back down the hole they have just drilled. B-)

[Tim Downie]

I've got one of those but these motors are incredibly gutless. It struggles with any sort of significant load but as long at you're prepared to take your time, you will get through eventually. ;-)

My handheld drills have all been more powerful than this.

Tim

[Rod]

It's accurate *for mine*! It might be that newer ones are better, do not use MDF, etc. Sort of, I'd hope so :-)

[Ian White]

It's that kind of "almost acceptable, but not quite" performance that you would find hard to rectify with a cheaper drill. The importer may claim it was never meant for precision work anyway.

I had similar problems with a Warco pillar drill bought several years ago. The cause turned out to be the two conical seating surfaces for the MT chuck: the lower one was centred OK but the upper one was slightly off-axis. The importer readily sent a replacement quill, but that one was no better. A friend who owns a precision engineering firm had a go at re-grinding it, and that made some improvement but it still wasn't perfect.

The off-centre errors led to vibration and the same problem of the chuck dropping out. That was cured by trueing it up as accurately as possible in the taper, using a precision mandrel, engineer's square and dial gauge... and then waiting for the Loctite to set hard. (That isn't quite as drastic as it seems, as a really good thump with the drift would still release it.)

After that initial fettling work, the drill has been... well, mostly adequate and never bad enough to make me replace it. The same 13mm chuck is used for all sizes of drill, right down to 0.8mm tungsten-carbide PCB drills (with a 3mm shank). Tiny t-c drills will break if you look at them wrong, but those have given the least trouble - the reason being that they are very short. The only problems have been with the big drills, because those are also much longer, so the off-centre errors are greatly magnified.

It may be worth trying one of the lower-cost drills, but the pass/fail test would be with a big, long drill in steel. If it tries to shake itself to bits, and/or if the chuck drops out, then you'd have reasonable grounds to "reject" it under consumer law. Just don't mention "precision", as that would only muddy the waters.

[dennis]

I would have thought even the £25 in Aldi/Lidl would be better than a B&D drill in a stand. To start with they have induction motors and can run for ages without breaking.

You do have to watch vibrations on a drill press with a Morse taper.. the chuck can fall out if it vibrates too much.

[Adrian]

Thanks for the comments. I was a bit sceptical - after all, I've spent more on just a motor than they're asking for the complete thing -

About the hardest work I can imagine giving it is drilling 9.5mm holes in ash-wood..... so that shouldn't be too taxing.

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian]

Sounds good - thanks ! Adrian

[Adrian]

Well - the drill / stand combo has done ok for the last 20 years - but, as I say, the drill's seen better days - and I've got a 'proper' and continuing use for one now ....

Right - hopefully not a problem with smallish holes (up to 9.5mm in timber) - but I'll watch out for it.

Thanks Adrian

[Cicero]

================================== I wasn't actually doubting the accuracy of your description of your machine. Manufacturers have a habit of showing pictures and including a disclaimer to the effect that the picture is for illustration purposes only. It seems a bit pointless to include a picture for illustration purposes if it isn't accurate but everybody is so afraid of being sued for the most trivial deviation that they simply have to cover their backs with a disclaimer.

Cic.

[dom]

Doesn't everyone have a Meddings?

Seriously, for slightly more money, Axminster do some reasonable drill presses:

's also an excellent secondhand market for machine tools on ebay

- you could have a top quality engineers drill press/pillar drill for the price of a same-size, not-so-great looky-likey.

I realise this is more than you're looking to spend, but if you consider Meddings to be top dollar, many of the respected brands will be less than this:

paid 200 quid for a s/h Meddings - had 20 years engineering use already and completely untouched by it.