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Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 22:05:37 :
In Reply to: Good/Cheap drill press? posted by SUPRDUD [66.146.251.56] on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 19:38:45 :
My main drill press is still the Sears that my dad bought before I was born (1950s). It's simple but nothing wrong with it. Slowest speed isn't slow enough for big holes in metal, and you have to raise the table up and down directly rather than with a crank, but everything is still tight and smooth. I have a floor-standing Harbor Freight one that I bought from a neighbor who never used it. It has a 2-belt drive so it can gear down lower for big holes, a crank to raise the table, and a built-in light, all of which are handy. I use it for heavier work and for taller pieces, but you can tell it's not going to last as long as the old Sears. I have a REALLY old unit, big and heavy and originally driven by flat belts, that I will probably rehabilitate and put back in service when the tall Harbor Freight one gives up. It has some curious mill-like features, like both a hand lever and a worm-drive crank to run the spindle up and down, and a power spindle feed.
Anyway, if you use it hard, I would take the money you'd spend on a mid-range new unit and spend half of it on a good solid old machine. Don't be afraid of 3-phase -- just look and see if it's easy to swap out the motor. Yes I know there are phase converters, but 1/2-hp 1 phase motors are dirt cheap.
I have never really been able to tell what's better about Jet than any other China/Taiwan brand. They were one of the first Asian tool brands to arrive in the US. An tool chain around Seattle in the early '80s called "Tool Town" sold them, and at the time people said the same thing about both the store and the tools as they do now about Harbor Freight. Actually, the stores were junkier and the tools were worse, like lots of iron castings that they hadn't even shaken all the sand out of, and with the blows filled with putty and painted over. My Jet table saw always ran rough and crooked, and it eventually burned out its motor and various plastic parts broke. I have a Jet bench-top drill press that I brought with me when I moved, but I haven't set it up anywhere yet. I used it a lot in the early days, but switched to my dad's Sears as soon as I inherited it. The Jet didn't break, but it was nothing great.
Somehow over the years Jet has gone up-market. I suspect they're made in the same factories on the same tooling as the Grizzly machines. Both brands are probably fine, but I'd still rather have an old American machine just for the quality of the castings, fit, and finish if nothing else.
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