When do you use a drill press vs a mill?

I have a mill and 2 drill presses*. One press is left set-up with a countersink for deburring, the other for times when the mill is set-up for milling or it's just a one-off hole thats quicker to set up on the drill press.
*I have a third drill press that is currently out of commission, I intend to fix and set up with a tapping head.
 
A milling machine can mill AND drill. It can do both and well. A drill press can drill but is not intended for milling. Milling on a drill press is iffy at best, hard on your drill press and not safe…Dave
 
If I am drilling accurate holes, I use the mill, for drilling out established holes, I generally use the drill press for that. In reality,
if you have a mill, you really don't need a drill press. I really can't think of a case where a drill press outshines a mill...
 
I have a mill and two drill presses. In my brain, the mill is for accurate work, when layout and control are important. When I just need a hole, it’s the drill press, every time.

The drill press is faster to adjust the table-to-head, and has a longer spindle. And, the small DP (an old Delta 220) has a foot feed.
 
If you want to drill a hole in a three foot thick something, you either need a milling machine with a turret or a floor model drill press, though a bench drill press can also do the job with a bit of setup. With a bench type milling machine, you can run out of thickness capacity and options. A drill press is also often quicker for quick and dirty jobs than a milling machine is. For anything needing to be accurate that will also fit on your mill, that is the way to go. I have both and no plans to sell either. I find them complementary.
 
Most of my drilling gets done on the mill, even those ''drill press'' type jobs. Mostly the drill press gets used for chamfering/deburring. It normally has a countersink in the chuck.
 
Generally speaking I drill small holes in most things with my drill press. However, the DP bogs down with most any work over 1/2" diameter - so larger than 1/2" diameter goes onto my mill.

Now, when my 21" Canedy Otto camel back DP comes back into service, With its 2" hole capacity and power down feed, I may be tempted to abandon my mill altogether for simple drilling operations. To much fun!

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Glenn
 
drill presses and milling machines compliment each other and other machine tools too.
i find myself doing a lot of drilling in my lathe, than in my drill presses.
i use the mill when i got to do a lot of accurately spaced holes, (it has a DRO)
otherwise i use the drill press for repetitive work, using jigs and/or stops to speed things up
 
Ok, thanks. Mostly what I expected to hear, and a few thoughts that hadn't occurred to me.

The speed of drilling multiple holes is something I really hadn't thought of, but makes a lot of sense.

In my particular case size (too big for the mill) is definitely a consideration, but I see a few of you have large mills that result in the reverse (too big for the DP).
 
I’ve never drilled a hole in a mill, unless the part was in the mill for other machine needs. I own a big buck drill press, along with 3 other ones, I use on a daily basis. The mill have 1-1/2 to 2 hp motors, while the large drill press has a 3 hp motor.
 
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