drill press advice

[liberty47]

I am looking to purchase a drill press for do it yourself home projects and the ability to complete 80%s sometime in the future. Tried searching in this section, but any advice on how much to spend, brand to buy or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[5.56Geo]

You can never go wrong buying good quality tools, you get what you pay for. With that said... I have seen some very nice 80% AR lowers done with Harbor Freight table top drill presses. I think I would do some extensive research on the jig, the jig WILL make a difference.

Taking the bullet items listed below in consideration will affect the finish quality of your 80% lower. I have listed them in order of inportance;

1. Patience (take your time)
2. Jig
3. Drill bits and end mills (manufacture and quality) There is a difference between a $1.25 drill bit and a $10.25 drill bit.
4. Drill press

[caver.257]

Like 5.56Geo said, go with quality if you can. You might check out Grizzly products. A lot if not all is Chinese made, but they make decent equipment for the price. High end would be Jet and the like products and those will last generations in a family if treated right. I'd also check craigslist because good used ones always seem to be available.

[71kcfdcapt]

I would buy better quality or better yet Craigslist or yard sales for an older heavy cast iron one. As long as the spindle runs true and bearings are good. Can be had pretty cheap, they just built beefier long ago.

[totalloser]

There are some smaller mills that run in the range of drill press prices. *not garbage 3-in-1 machines though. Beware of 3 morse taper, tooling can get pricey compared to R-8 and some very small mills are available with R-8 heads.

If you get a drill press to do something like this, be aware that most drill chucks are a morse taper stub going into the machine, and a jacob's taper going to the chuck. If you try and do side milling the chuck will almost always try and walk off the jacob's taper.

There is a partial way around this and that is to pull the morse taper and use collets- 3 morse taper is used on some of the larger drill presses and tooling for 3mt is fairly common.

Another issue you will likely find is that speeds on drill presses are often quite high. Carbide tooling can operate at higher speeds, so keep that in mind.

I would look very carefully at the cost of all the tooling and work table before committing to a drill press. Once you add up the cost of tooling sometimes it seems silly to not spend a bit more and get a bench mill.

[totalloser]

My neighbor has one of these things.

http://www.harborfreight.com/two-speed-variable-bench-mill-drill-machine-44991.html

Might be perfect for what you want to do. Be aware that little machines like this aren't rigid like big iron, so tool chatter will be more of an issue.

www.use-enco.com is a good place for tooling if you want to shop right out of a catalog, but get their paper catalog, the site is kinda sloppy. E-bay has a LOT of really competitive tooling vendors. Shockingly good pricing on really high quality tooling. There is some junk out there too, though.

[1flhtk4me]

The first machine shop I worked in had a small vertical mill.
It was a floor model but half the size of a bridgeport.

[shoebox56]

My neighbor has one of these things.

http://www.harborfreight.com/two-speed-variable-bench-mill-drill-machine-44991.html

Might be perfect for what you want to do. Be aware that little machines like this aren't rigid like big iron, so tool chatter will be more of an issue.

www.use-enco.com is a good place for tooling if you want to shop right out of a catalog, but get their paper catalog, the site is kinda sloppy. E-bay has a LOT of really competitive tooling vendors. Shockingly good pricing on really high quality tooling. There is some junk out there too, though.

Also for further info:

Mini-Mill.com