Portable drill press/guide vs. Real drill press?

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Well, a real drill press is VERY useful - I use mine several times on every project for sure. But if you don't have the cash or the space right now, is any amount of convincing going to get you to buy one anyway? I agree that a little $99 bench-top drill press probably isn't as useful or accurate as something heavier, but if you can find a bigger used one, I'd highly recommend it. (Hint - if you can lift it with one hand, it's too small...) Other things to consider for the meantime might include a drill guide of some sort - check out

I owned a Craftsman device like that once upon a time. It was designed to fit a Craftsman drill, but I only had a Rockwell Delta. So, the combination never worked well.

I finally threw the device away. The Rockwell Delta drill wore out years ago. I have bought some new drills, but never again will I waste money on such a contraption.

You will save money if you just buy the drill press to begin with.

Jim

"blueman"

If you don't have room, make room. The drill press gets used more often in my shop than many other tools. Its a versatile and essential machine.

Do yourself a big favor and buy a good (used) drill press.

The only portable drill press I have is the Milwaukee 4206 but that might be a little to much for your purpose and its not too good when using it for wood. Dave

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It sounds reasonable to me. I always stay with Sears products because they have parts available.

i blueman wrote:

I don't know if I agree with the good quality portable vs low end fixed argument. I have a $99 8" Craftsman bench top drill press - probably about as low end as they get and it is very useful and accurate (at least for what I've done). Someone once wrote (I think on this newsgroup) that drill presses are really metal working machines so even the cheapest ones do well with wood. Also, I had one of those drill guides and it was pretty bad (maybe I had a really cheap one of those too) and I eventually threw it out.

Anyway, I would definitely get the drill press if you have the room - even if you can only get the cheapest ones.

Charles Lerner

blueman wrote:

Something like this -

You really want a decent drill press though...

They have a pretty small footprint. My 10" benchtop, while not light, is not difficult to move from one spot to another. Getting it up from floor level would not really be something I'd want to do on a regular basis, but if you have to stick it in a corner or something because you haven't got a good spot for it, if it's up at bench height it's not bad to move. I just tip it forward and get my shoulder under the head to take most of the weight and away you go.

I'm having a hard time picturing why you'd need a perfectly straight hole in something attached to the house.

-Leuf

but I find myself freehanding all the time instead of using it. I suppose if I had to drill through some dowels, I'd use this.

Avoid the one made by General, which you find at the Borg.

Sears, Ace, and Grizzly (among others) also sell those lever-operated drill stands, and they look OK to me, but for that money you're just about into a Chinese 8-10" benchtop drill press. For some reason, drill presses are one of those things the Chinese manufacturers seem to be doing OK with (as opposed to, say, scroll saws). Ace sells their 10" for $99. Their brand is just rebadged Tradesman, the el cheapo line you see in Sears and Borg. I got the 8" version from Harbor Freight on sale for $39 last weekend. Haven't assembled it yet.

I agree with the others who say that even a cheap drill press is orders of magnitude more useful than a guide.

Probably as expensive as a small stand alone drill press, but definitely on MY wish list:

This

Oops... Now I'm confused. The Rockler picture shows a guide that seems to reuse your chuck on the guide, and appears to work at right angles only. Then I downloaded the users manual, which shows a Wolfcraft guide that seems identical to the Highland Hardware picture and the guide at sears.com. So much for shopping online. It does not seem that you have a lot of choices.

I'd suggest you look for the Wolfcraft guide locally and see if it seems sturdy enough for your needs. It will probably be fine for household use and usable for most woodworking needs. The $30-35 cost will not be missed from the tool budget if/when you decide you need the standalone press, and you will still have a guide for portable use.