SonexBuilders.net

I am going to purchase a bench top drill press in the next day or so and was wondering if anyone had a good recommendation.

peter
doylestown, pa
waiting for my B

I bought a Craftsman back in the 90's. Made in Taiwan. The chuck was junk and I replaced it with a Jacobs. So, only a negative recommendation from me! Check eBay and Craigslist for an old quality domestic unit.

I just recently started my Onex. Discovered that my floor-mount drill press wouldn't take a 3/32 bit. The price of a new chuck was almost what a new Harbor Freight bench mounted drill press in its' entirety cost. So far I've had no problems with it. and plan to take it to my hangar when I'm finished with the Onex.





Ed

I've had a Ryobi now for about 10 years. It's been great. Many furniture projects, and a scratch built Sonex from it.

You can always just buy a pin chuck that allows use of smaller drills in big chucks.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo ... 9a2dirt7_e

I did that during my build.

Regards

Back in the 70s, i purchased a new Hitachi 15" bench drill press. Looks a lot like the modern El-Cheapo Harbor Freight and the like, but does not perform like one of those. When in the 80's the small company where I was the engineer needed more drill press capacity in shop, I took it in there where it was used for about 6 months, then after getting another multi-spindle press brought it home again. in late 80s same happened with my own company where it was used for another year. I have a couple of others in my shop now, but that one is still the best of them, and still using same chuck. If you see one for sale, that is in any decent condition, grab it.

David A.

thanks...

...I should have asked this up front...

Regarding bench top swing, will there be any drilling where more than a 10 inch swing is required? It appears that going 10" to 12"...12" to 15"...etc...both the price and the weight increase dramatically. Most of the 10" swing are 5 speed, above that...ie 12" swing, more speeds.

I am hoping a 10 fits the bill because at 50 to 60 # I can carry it from the garage to the basement (ie summer vs winter).

thanks again...always great info on this site.

peter h
waiting for my B