Chester and Warco tend to do very similar products to each other and Axminster do something a bit different. Most obviously the handles are different in this case. A quick look on the web is showing a £100 difference between the 12 speed models so you really need to get hands on to see what the real difference is.

Among the less expensive drill presses one major variation is the fit of the quill in the housing. My advice is to buy one only in person, after extending the quill and moving it around side to side and front to back. If you feel any play, don't buy it.

Also, have the seller plug it in and listen to it run. If it's smooth and quiet at several speeds you are probably OK. If it is noisy as a freight train, or shakes enough to knock a house down, don't buy it, it will drive you crazy. Sometimes these faults can be fixed but I've seen a few where it was just a bad combination of materials and design that result in a real mess, and could not get them quieted down and smooth .

I have a large floor model Taiwanese drill press , the 'King' brand in North America. It was relatively cheap to buy. It performs well, is very powerful, and is quiet. It had almost no play in the machined parts and has kept this quality for 8 years. However, when buying it and comparing units in the store, the same model machine right next to it shook like crazy when switched on, and had at least .030" side play in the quill when it was extended.

Good luck, JD

As everyone says do not go for one of the chingalees makes they all come out of the same factory and are badged and painted for the retailer go for a good secondhand british one you will not regret it. If you can go and inspect it first even better.

I did buy a pillar drill from old man warren when they were in esher but the finish was a hammer one not the current batch from all suppliers if you breath on it the paint flakes. regretably had to sell it as was downsizing.

My pennyworth

Bob

Edited By Springbok on 18/03/2012 20:55:12

Chris,

I don't know where you are (hint to all posters – put your location in your profile!) but in the north -east, Bede Tools (google them) often have a good range of UK made pillar drills. Well worth looking at, may be superior to new ones and offered at a sensble price.

No connection etc…

John

edited to add UK made.

Edited By John Corden on 18/03/2012 22:01:17

Hi Chris,

I have got a bench model Fobco Star drill. What a massively built job! Believe it weighs as much as the Myford. Two men struggled to get it in to my car but I managed it single-handed from car to bench. Just dont ask….

Am well pleased with it.

Don't know whos idea it is that all the machinery from China comes from the same factory, a large number of factories build the machines, the designs come from a centeral agency, the different factories have widely different standards. This is the reason why two seemingly identical can be so different. The best of the retailers go to China personally to purchase the machinery after inspection. Ian S C

Fobco star are excellent but if you can get one with a rise and fall table it makes life a whole lot easier!

I put a cross vice on mine so I can move the work under the drill under complete , accurate control.

Mind you always check belt speed ( friction welded a 10mm drill down a pilot hole some years back- I still wince when I remember that incident and the shriek it made )

Also never try to redrill a hole for a farmer in a "bit of a plough " so he could fit a bigger shear pin! By god that steel was hard. Even after oxy acetylene treatment we struggled.

Ian

Ian

Just a completely different thought: If you are indeed contemplating the purchase of a milling machine, do you in fact need a drill press?

I have a drill press, but since I bought a milling machine about 25 years ago I don't think I have used it even once for metalwork; instead it is relegated to woodwork use (keeps the sawdust away from the expensive machinery). You do of course need to make sure you get a mill with a lever operated quill, but these are quite common. You will get far better precision of hole location using the X-Y travel on the mill table (and with a DRO, even better!).

The money you save on not buying the drill will make a sizeable contribution to the cost of the mill.

David

Edited By David Littlewood on 19/03/2012 13:28:43

A good guide to the quality of a drilling machine is the engagement length of the quill in its housing and how engagement varies as quill is extended .

Taking quill diameter as basis and fully retracted position :

One and a half diameters or less = scrap metal .

One and a half to two and a half = adequate for a garage .

Two and a half upwards = getting towards a quality machine .

On a quality machine quill should not have lost more than half a diameters worth of engagement length in fully extended position .

Some imported machines don't even meet the scrap metal spec .

The general principle of quill engagement length is also a good guide to milling machine quality .

Michael Williams .

Chris

I have sent you a pm.

Regards

Norman

Chris,

Quote "preparing a room in the house for a workshop" Upstairs ? downstairs? Solid floor ie concrete or "bouncy" wood ? I`m pretty sure that there is a thread on here about workshops, floors etc have a look & a good read before you start using machinery in the house. SWMBO if you have one will probably create merry hell about the noise & vibration thus cutting off your venture into engineering & we dont want that to happen.

For what its worth my drill press is a Naerok (Korean backwards) they dont seem to be around anymore but I`ve had mine for about 25 years & its been in constant use & doesn`t have any play in the bearings or shaky quill so as far as I`m concerned it was £80 well spent.

regards Alan