Why do I need a drill press?

[Terrywerm]

To all responders, thank you.

I think I will hold up in sourcing a DP. At least I will be getting more trigger time on the mill and getting my upper body work out for a bonus manually cranking on all axes. Will use the power feed when I am comfortable with what I am doing on the mill. That knee crank is wearing me out.... and the Y crank is harder to crank when the table is near either end of the travel.

One thing that will help you, not to mention that you will want one once you do get a drill press, is a drill press vise. You will still need to bring the table up to an appropriate height, and then use the quill (assuming your mill has one) to actually drill the hole. The drill press vise is easily held by hand and will relieve you from having to move the table in the X and Y axis just to line up and drill a hole.

If your mill is like Mark's, and has no quill, then you might want to reconsider obtaining a drill press. My mill does have a quill, but I still place high value on my drill press. It is one of those Chinese models, but still gets the job done in great fashion and saves me tons of work setting up the mill just to drill some holes.

Do I NEED the drill press? No.
Would I want to be without one? No.
Would I go out of my way to get one? YES!

 

[thomas s]

I have a Jet 16 mill/drill and a 1939 Walker Turner drill press for one hole I always go for the drill press much faster. thomas s

 

[sk1nner]

I say wait until a deal you can't pass up comes along. My small drill press was garbage picked, the switch had dirty contacts but after cleaning it is fine. My bigger dp (15 walker turner) I got for $25 at an estate sale. Since you have a mill a dp is just a convenient thing to have around. I do suggest getting a dp vise to hold work so you don't have to get the mill vise in perfect location. Just leave the mill vise where it is and move the table so the vise is out of the way and use the dp vise

 

[Shadowdog500]

I was just without a drill press for about 6 months when the motor I'm my 30 year old one bit the dust. I did all of my drilling on the mill during that time. Drilling on the mill seemed to take a bit more setup so it wasn't as quick, and I was always concerned about drilling the table. I was also a little concerned about saw dust getting in the ways which I hear isn't good for it . The mill could never give me the height range that the drill press does. It is also nice to have a dedicated machine just for drilling, so you can drill something while the mill is set up for something else.

I just bought a new drill press a couple weeks ago. After looking for a while and reading a bunch of reviews I bought a porter Cable 12 speed 15" floor standing drill press from lowes on sale for $319. I couldn't be happier with the thing. When I was putting it together I couldn't believe how well made it is. I checked the runout with my dial indictator and the needle barley wiggled, so I tested it again with a 1/10,000 indicator and the runout was 0.0002". I started to make a video review that I will post when I finish. For my home shop it is perfect. It replaced a 13" drill press.

I owned a crafstman drill press for 1 day about a month ago, but took it back after getting it home and trying to use it while it vibrated my work all over the table.

Chris

[UPDATE]. Here is a short video of the first hole I drilled. It is a #58 bit. Note how smooth and quiet the drill press is. This is part of the larger review video.
http://youtu.be/CwNcd1DgHzQ

 

[furpo]

Didn't I read some where that a Series 1 BP is quite limited on how big of a drill bit it is rated for?
Or am I wrong?

 

[zmotorsports]

There's really no reason to have a drill press if you have a BP milling machine. I have a 20" floor standing model drill press that I purchased a few years back when I upgraded from my 15" floor model. I had a benchtop milling machine and the drill press was a lot faster and more convenient at the time.

Now with my BP clone I still find myself using the drill press a lot. I don't think it is something that I am going to get rid of, ever.

 

[Eddyde]

I have three drill presses, while it may seem a bit excessive, it is a great convenience. One is a 15" Rockwell floor press, I use it for special situations that I can leave setup for a while if necessary. The other floor type, a 15" Delta has foot pedal operated quill, that one I use for random quick use, as the foot pedal means I can often simply hold the work with both hands and safely drill it without having to clamp it down.
The third is a 15" Atlas bench type that I leave set up with a tapping head. I feel the drill presses take up relatively little space for their shop value, so I'm not planning to let any of them go anytime soon.

 

[xalky]

Didn't I read some where that a Series 1 BP is quite limited on how big of a drill bit it is rated for?
Or am I wrong?

A bridgeport will out drill all but the biggest of drill presses, diameter wise. I haven't found the limit to it yet. )

A drill press is nice to have but not really necessary if you already have a mill with decent quill travel. The drill press is quicker for those quick holes that really don't have to be all that precise.

 

[18w]

Didn't I read some where that a Series 1 BP is quite limited on how big of a drill bit it is rated for?
Or am I wrong?

The limit on Bridgeport drilling capacity you have heard about applies to the auto down feed. It was designed for boring which uses much less downfeed pressure. The quill feed will not stand the loads large drill bits impart on the gears, Bridgeport put a limit of 3/8 diameter when using the quill feed as I recall.

Darrell

 

[Dave Smith]

well the first good reason to have a drill press is---because your good machinist friend told you to get one--he -seen that you needed to stop using your nice mill for simple drilling -----the nice milling machine should be used for the precision work it was designed for------I have many more reasons also along with the many replies you have gotten from other members-----convenience of having DPs in several areas of your shop (some shops have three or even more---I have 5 floor models and 4 or 5 bench models)--NOT that ANYONE should have that many--I just do------if you have nice long drills with MT shanks the mill wouldn't handle these as well as a DP-------I have used small drum sanders in my DPs for deburring metal--not many machinists would like the grit on their mill--most wouldn't even want the wood dust and chips either-------you can move the DPs easier and having benchtop DPs on your workbench is much handier than taking each project to your mill for quick use-----I have many more whys -------but after looking at the first pictures that I am including of some of my DPs----you can decide if you would really use your mill for holding handy tools and stuff ???----I think not------:nervous::nono:---Dave