Drill Press AND a Vertical Mill???

[Alcap]

I have a Clausing 8520 and an old Jet 15 mill drill in the garage shop and a Craftsman 15” in the wood shop . I think having a bench top high speed drill press would be handy is that what your dads is ?

 

[sdelivery]

Now that is different.
A radial arm drill press is another story, most are capable of low rpms and infinite locating!
Place this in the right place and you could reach the lathe, mill or work bench...
Or all three!
The greatest radial arm drill I ever saw was a Giddings and Lewis with a 12 foot arm and the base sat on G&L floor mill ways and could drive itself from on end to the other!
It was an auction and went pretty cheap as I remember....something about rigging cost

 

[ConValSam]

Seem to me that space and cost are the real deciding factors to this question. I did not need a DP when I bought mine, but the price was too right to pass it up and I shoehorned it into the shop.

If you work with wood I agree you definitely need both.

 

[Eddyde]

I have a mill and two working drill presses set up. While I do a lot of drill operations on the mill, I find it very handy to have the presses available when the mill is needed for milling or for multiple operations. I leave a countersink in the chuck of one of the presses so its always at the ready for de-burring holes. I have a third drill press that's out of commission, needs work, but plan to get that up and running at some point. I'm thinking of making it into a dedicated tapping machine.

 

[Jake P]

If I had the room and the money I might have two of each! Another bandsaw would be great too. But I’ve got neither the room nor the unlimited funds, so the drill press is gone.

 

[Larry$]

Best advice. Early investments lead to significantly larger next eggs with lower input because of compound interest.

Compounding is very powerful; way more so than most people understand. If you put as much money away, actually less than what most guys spend on fast cars and fast women for the first 10 years of their working lives, they would likely retire with a Million $ in their Schwab account.

Overkill?

That's a real drill press. I'd love one of those and find space for it. I hate to tear down a mill setup when I find I was too disorganized to work in the proper sequence.

 

[tjb]

I have both, but only because I acquired a 20" floor model DP before I got a mill. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have bought the DP if I already had a mill, but it sure is nice having it in the shop for a one-off hole - especially if the mill is already set up for another operation. Since you have both, I don't think I'd consider getting rid of the DP - especially if it has some sentimental value like yours does. Don't know how old you are, so you may be too young to appreciate this: It's kinda like a microwave. If you've never had one, you won't miss it. But once you get one, you can't imagine life without it.

Regards

 

[MikeInOr]

So, I don't have a decent drill press. It's extremely shallow and doesn't have any real power. It was my Dad's so I won't get rid of it. I've thought about putting a different motor on it. But it's still to short, not a lot of travel.

I'm in the process of refurbishing, rebuilding, rehabbing, refreshing (pick a term) a 2HP Bridgeport.

Once the mill is up and running, do I really NEED a drill press? A decent floor model drill press, with something that will go down to ~200 RPM, are REALLY expensive, at least to me - I'm frugal or cheap, pick a term

Thoughts?

You can get by fairly easy with a mill and not own a drill press. I would recommend keeping an eye out for a decent used drill press and jumping on it when a good deal comes along. No use spending a lot of money on a new drill press IMHO.

But a lot of the determining factor for me would be if you have the available room for a drill press?

 

[MikeInOr]

Overkill?

I don't understand, what does overkill mean? I have never heard of such a thing!

 

[Beckerkumm]

I replaced my drill press - with a jig borer. Dave