"Bill Schwab" wrote in message
ink.net...
pogo wrote:
I bought an el cheapo bench top drill press of eBay. Made in China with
absolutely no brand name. Got what I paid for, so live and learn. It
works
OK, but was seriously low horsepower motor, and also seems to wobble the
bit
a little bit.

So I am looking for something with more horsepower and better accuracy.
I'll
be doing mostly light metal work in aluminum. I have been eyeing the
Ryobi
drill presses at Home Depot. Just wondered if anyone has an opinion on
them.
I've been looking at the $99 ones and the $149 ones.\

My budget is low so that is why I am looking at these for now vs.
something
more expensive.

Thanks !

FWIW, I think that drill presses are some of the better tools Ryobi makes.
That's not to say I think they are particularly good tools, but a Ryobi
drill press sure beats a hand-held drill.

However, you might consider whether another (especially a budget model)
drill press is going to still have the same problems as your current drill
press. Give the Chinese gizmo a fair chance. Try starting with a center
drill; that will give a larger bit a well-defined starter hole and less
reason to wobble. If the hole is "large" (I will leave it to others to
correct me or fill in details here), then start by drilling a smaller hole
and then re-drilling to size. Searching archives of this group will turn
up some useful detail.

IMHO, you should at least consider limping along with the press you have
now and eye a mini-mill or a mill-drill for the future. I respect your
sticking to a budget, but would hate to see you waste money on a chain of
tools that will not meet your needs. You might spend some time
researching the next step (this is a great place to learn), combined with
saving and waiting for an excellent deal on a new or used machine that you
can afford and will do what you want. With careful planning, you can
avoid getting clobbered too badly on tooling; there will be a
cost/convenience tradeoff (e.g., R8 collets are cheap, ER collets are
convenient), but you seem ready to deal with that.

By all means stick to your budget. You will thank yourself for it.

Good luck!

Bill

Very good reply, Bill. Second that! Best idea would be to try to tighten
up the drill press quill, as suggested. IMO, best adjustment would be where
the quill would be tight enough to require withdrawal by the handles rather
than returning via the spring. Be reminded a drill press is not considered
to be a precision tool. Most any drill press will drill to the center of a
proper "pop" mark regardless of how tight or loose the quill is. Drill bits
prettty much align themselves to go straight if they are properly sharpened.

Vertical alignment is more important than play in the quill. Consider the
drill press adventure as practice for your milling machine. The quill on a
mill is not designed to return via spring action. The spring is there only
to provide some counter weight against the heavy quill. When you get a
mill, you will then have a precision drilling machine as well. Then you can
do very accurate hole location on your mill. Your drill press will soon
find its place in your shop as a non-precision machine tool and you will be
proud of it becasue of the custom alignment you did on its quill.

Bob Swinney