I need a drill press

[Landrith]

I got the cheap Harbor Freight bench top press. Then I could not put enough downward pressure on it. I was also dulling out lots of bits to drill a couple holes. Turned out I did not know about how to drill through steel. There are several YouTube videos that show slow revolutions and cooling oil sprays are the solution. Now I am putting bolt holes in thick steel plate on my semi truck with a $20 dollar hand drill and reusing the same bit. A good stand up press would be nice for precision location and angle. Since I can't afford gold or silver, I thought good American machine tools would be a great store of value in hyper inflation.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

Last I looked not that many years ago, used Bridgeport vertical mills were selling dirt cheap, I mean less than a grand, and that's both a drill press and way more.

[john welsford]

My current carpy press carped out. It was a pos from the day I bought it. Early adopter at harbor fright. I’m glad it’s dead, sorta. But I have some stuff to drill and it’s holding me up.

I’d love a huge, giant, unreasonable, german industrial work of art but not seeing anything on facebook marketplace or craigslist.

I don’t really want anything modern or made in china.

This one looks reasonable. What do y’all think? It’s a 4 hour drive but maybe he will meet me in waco. Says he has replaced belts and bearings, painted, and put in a single phase motor.

Everything in Ausitn is overpriced.

Mostly 1/4-1/2” mild steel.

Edit-he’s asking $500

edit 2-powermatic 1150, circa 1964

Attachment 126195

As someone who's been a machinery repair techy, ( still am for a few pet customers) I'd suggest that the better class of Taiwan built machinery is as good as you'll get without having to spend really big sums of money on German or Belgian machinery.
But, do go to the guys who supply the trade rather than the amateur and hobby market, and take a dial gauge with you to check the runout on the chuck, and that applies to all of the manufacturers, no matter whether oriental or european.

John Welsford

[Andrew2]

I have two Meddings DrillTru models. 5/8" Bench, not floor. One came from our trailer works and I asked about a new quill shaft. "What is your serial no.?" "Ah, your father bought that in June 1960, but no, we don't have a quill shaft". I fitted a Metabo keyless chuck about 25 yrs ago and it is excellant.
The other, is a slightly later model in pristine condition, ex a tech school.
When I needed to drill a lot of 50mm holes in 6mm SS, I piggybacked a second motor on the old one. Belt drove the first motor at about half it's speed, so the bimetal hole saws turned at the correct speed. Squeezy bottle with cutting fluid and it worked well.

[Canoeyawl]

Good idea piggybacking the motors!
(I made a large dia sheave that slipped over the spindle pulley. For the same deal, hole saws in stainless! )

[Garret]

What does one do with a Sally Saw, Garrett?


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Precursor to a chain saw - which is why I quoted the "grandpa's chainsaw" post. Looking at it afresh, I guess it isn't obvious if you haven't seen one in use,

The blade runs on gears & rollers & can be tilted to either buck up wood or cut down a tree - as the engine has a standard float bowl carb & can't be tilted.

[Gerarddm]

I bought a new Wen. Not fabulous, perfectly acceptable for woodworkers. $251 through Amazon.

[sp_clark]

I have a Craftsman from about the same era. It looks much like that drill. My one complaint is that I don't have a geared vertical adjuster for the bed. I'd try to find one with an adjuster. I find it a major pain to adjust without one; especially with my arthritis ridden hands.

Same here.

I don't adjust the table height much but when I do I'm really, really careful about my back.

Replaced motor and spindle bearings in the last year, for the first time. Took about half an hour each, once I had the bearings out & new'uns in hand.

Having a geared bed adjuster'd make it 99% perfect, the last 1% would be having the tiltable-table accessory that'd bolt to the fixed table. Shoulda bought that when I bought the press 50+ years ago.

[lupussonic]

What I meant by 'grandpas chainsaw'.. is that when you are looking for a chainsaw, the ones that gramps has used once a year to cut his logs and it stays serviced in the shed for the rest of the year.. that's the one to buy. Not a thrashed dirty hard working used up chainsaw that is at the end of it's life have been full throttle for the last 8 years by a professional.

So it goes with pillar drills.

[Jon Etheredge]

The green era Powermatic machines were good "light industrial" grade equipment. They were very popular with high school shop programs and lots of the Powermatic machines that come on the market in Central Texas are ex-school machines. That often means that they weren't actually used very heavily but the use that they did see may have been closer to abuse than simple use. The one in your photos looks like it has been repainted (it isn't the right shade of green to be original paint). I think you have to go up to the 20" Powermatic 1200 drill press to get one with a geared table lift.

Powermatic typically built rugged machines that may have been slightly on the crude side as far as fit and finish. They are generally simple designs and they almost always used standard bearing sizes so they are easy and inexpensive to rebuild and maintain. The price of $500 is pretty much the market price for a Powermatic 1150.

Other popular light industrial machine brands are Delta, Walker-Turner, and Atlas. The Delta machines were usually more lightly built but were "prettier". Better fit and finish. But they tended to use die cast parts (i.e. white metal, pot metal, zamac) in their designs where Powermatic used cast iron so they don't seem to be quite as rugged. Walker-Turner machines often are more complex designs. They also used die cast parts. The most annoying part about Walker-Turner is they often used odd size bearings that aren't available anymore. There are several Walker-Turner drill presses that are highly regarded and sought after by old machine aficionados.

That Atlas machine is probably the best "value" if you want to own a vintage drill press. It looks like the middle step pulley is a low speed attachment which would be nice for drilling steel. I wonder if you could use a long belt and bypass that middle pulley to give high speeds for wood? I am not sure about the idea though.

[ron ll]

Guess I got lucky. Not sure when I bought this, must have been early ‘70s, and I doubt I paid more than $300 because back then I seldom had $300. It has a geared table height, a tilting table, and 12 speeds from 260 to 3460 rpm with a relatively easy belt change. Never done anything to it other than replace the chuck many years ago. I always assumed it was low grade junk from Taiwan, but it does everything I need and from what I’ve been reading in this thread, there are worse. Guess I better take good care of it.

44B538B7-4D4E-4824-A5C7-96AF003741B3.jpg

[Breakaway]

Precursor to a chain saw - which is why I quoted the "grandpa's chainsaw" post. Looking at it afresh, I guess it isn't obvious if you haven't seen one in use,

The blade runs on gears & rollers & can be tilted to either buck up wood or cut down a tree - as the engine has a standard float bowl carb & can't be tilted.

Wow!
I kind of intuited the bucking function, but would never have thought about felling trees.

Thank you, sir.

Kevin


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[Garret]

Wow!
I kind of intuited the bucking function, but would never have thought about felling trees.

Thank you, sir.

Kevin


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You're welcome. I don't recommend using for much of anything however...

[Tom from Rubicon]

Tom, you might want to look around for a Bridgeport. It drills and mills.

[Andrew2]

Tom, you might want to look around for a Bridgeport. It drills and mills.

Yes, but MUCH bigger and heavier, plus, more $$$ if any good.

[Canoeyawl]

And limited "headspace" after you put a chuck w/drill bit in it...

(You can get around that by having a full set of collets in 1/64" increments (which is less money than a "good" chuck!)