If I had the space, I would choose the Radial for its versatility.

… But that's a very big IF

MichaelG.

It depends on what size the parts are and what size drills you want to use. Pillars drills come in a range of sizes butt I think most you will come across as a floor mounted drill will be in the 3 morse taper range. A rise and fall table with screw adjustment are around 18 inches square. Radial drills are usually much larger unless you are talking of a hobby drill with a round over arm. A radial has a fixed cube on the machine base and the overarm carries the spindle. The overarm is moved up and down on a round column and the spindle is traveresed along it. Radials are meant for heavy industrial use no good for small drills, sub 1/2 inch, there is no feel feedback. Pillar drills are sensitive in that there is a certain amount of pressure feedback through the quill rack and pinion. I have used both in industry and used to design multi spindle setups for pillar drills, a pillar drill would be my preference.

I purchased a bench drill from a well known company and was very much disappointed .. the quill had 1/2 inch of play in it and the table could not be locked in position, it moved as you drilled..! I also noticed quite a lot of 'nod' when I trammed the table.

I should have sent it back but would a replacement have similar problems, I decided to make it a project and sort the mess out.

I made an eccentric bearing for the quill and now has no play.

The table did not lock due to the locking nut surface not being parallel with the machined side of the table support arm bearing and consequently there was only one point of contact between nut and surface.

see below..

The support arm.

The relative angle of the un-machined side.

The 'nod' was a more difficult situation, so I made a new adjustable 'nod' support arm .. below.

The table now trams up perfectly…

Moral of the story… should have bought a vintage drill and renovated it..

Any of these should do the job nicely.
**LINK**

If you do decide to get a proper radial arm drill with base mounted box table you will still need to keep a bench or ordinary pillar drill for smaller work.

Driving a radial arm drill is a whole different world to using an ordinary drill. Quickly clamping a job in the vice or onto the table is not what they are generally made for. Probably true to say that if you can lift it the job is too small for a normal radial. Box tables are low too which is great for big jobs, not so great for smaller ones.

Something like the Richmond SR3 is probably the nearest radial arm drill to an ordinary pillar drill in terms of basic capacity and how you use it as it has an ordinary table as standard rather than a box. Not impossibly big either and, later ones at least, have a top speed of 1550 rpm or thereabouts. Can sometimes be found quite reasonably priced too as its a crossover machine and doesn't fit the normal pillar / drill radial drill niches. But great if its what you need. Similar machines from some other makes too, thats just the one I know the model number of.

Confession time. Looked into this idea myself when I wanted to trade up from my previous Pollard Corona drill which was more a woodworkers machine with higher than desirable spindle speeds for metal bashing. Still sometimes tempted.

Clive

I dont think you would find too many radial drills in most home workshops,they tend to be,shall we say,"A little on the large size",apart from not being suitable for most of the work passing through. The are fine for the type of work they do,but not for hobby work.

As for the other "objects",the pretend drills,the remind me of something which was dreamed up after a few bad pints at the local. To call them useless would be a kindness,you would be better off with a good hand drill. They take up too much room and are inaccurate.Only ever saw one of them in a friends shop some years ago and he was less than happy with it,said it took too long to get it to run true.

Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time,but did they ever catch on ?

Another guy I knew came up with another idea when he needed to drill holes in sheets ,too big for his bench drill to handle. He made up a long arm,using box tubing,hinged to the wall so that it could swing in an arc. A carriage moved along this beam with a bench drill head fitted to it. It was a bit "iffy" but it worked and could handle fairly big sheets. It was simple and cheap and could be swung back to the wall when not required.

Just an idea.