Drill Press versus Mini-Mill

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dml66

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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I have a 13" floor standing HF drill press now which I use all the time, and thanks to help on this forum I've managed to do very light, very slow millwork with it. I never have a need for drilling really tall parts which a floor standing DP permits. I'm increasingly coming up with parts where I wish I had a small mill.

I know a DP will not out-mill a mill, but, will a mill/drill out-drill a DP?

Thank you.
 
IMO, A mill/drill will out drill a drill press. The spindle bearings are more rugged, you typically have a more available speeds, and can go lower in speed. The ability to precisely move the table and thus the work in x and y is an advantage. One disadvantage is the z working range.
 
My drill press is about the size (vertical) of my mini mill. It doesn't outperform my mini mill on any point except its light weight and makes lesser noise (belt driven). I prefer to use my mini mill for all kinds of work.
 
You can do much more accurate drilling with a milling machine, but as mentioned above the workspace available from the table to the spindle is often limited compared to a drill press- especially in your case with a floor model DP
 
I had a Taiwanese 13” drill press in the garage back when I had a Mill Drill and 8” Taiwanese lathe in the basement shop. I downsized for financial reasons in the 90’s, selling all three, eventually getting a Craftsman bench top drill press, then my 7x16 Mini-Lathe about 10 years ago.

When I got my Mini-Mill in 2019 I needed the bench where the DP was, so it went. While there are times I wish I had a drill press for drilling holes about where they need to be, I don’t really miss it.
 
I'll add that my DP is fairly well tricked out with 10µm X, Y and Z axis encoders and a DRO, a cross-slide vise, an ER25 chuck with drawbar, and a 3-phase motor with VFD drive. It's really quite easy to use, and it does a good job, but the lack of rigidity is very obvious, especially as the drill bit size increases. Its got about 5.5" of X and Y-axis travel, Z-axis travel is not an issue. I hate to get rid of it but, even an additional mini-mill would leave me with too little bench room.
 
If you haven't got the space for both a mill and a drill press and you do need to mill, then you really need a mill.

One possibility that might suit you better than a mini-mill is one of the Taiwanese RF 30/31 type mill/drills. These typically have a bit better vertical work envelope than a mini mill.

Given your experience with a drill press, you'll probably not find the round column mill "issue" (often overemphasized by those who aren't keen on round column mills anyway), much of a bother.

If you can find a tidy, used RF 30/31 type then you'll probably save a fair bit of money too.

If you can afford not to have to sell your existing drill press as it is, you could move your DRO (and possibly even the 3ph motor and VFD) across to the RF 30/31.
 
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