I've already got two benchtops that pretty much permanently have the same
tool mounted. 1/4-20 tap and 10-32 tap in tapping heads. I may rarely use
oen of the tapping heads for another size, but pretty much the only time
those taps come out is when they get replaced. I've been playing with the
idea of setting up six drills press (4 more) with the two heads and the four
drills I use most often. I do a lot of casting and injection molds with
10-32 or 1/4-20 clamping screws, 1/4 alignment pins and hinge pins, and
1/4-20 threaded handles. I don't typically drill them on the CNC mills
because I do them on the little high speed spindle machines that really
don't drill all that well. They spiral mill nicely, but often I have to put
pins and screw holes in places that would hit my vise or other fictures so I
spiral mill only part way through. Even on the crappy floor model drill
press from HF (my bunchtop are also HF, but they both seem to be better
quality) I can finish the holes accurately enough for my type of work. I
just start the drill press with the bit already in the hole.

Every single day I use #21, #7, D, and F drills. I buy those bits in screw
machine length half dozen at a time so I never find myself without a good
sharp one. I've found that I spend a modest amount of time drilling to
finish up molds, but I also find myself changing bits often too. Since I do
mostly small custom work I am often taking just one mold out to the back
shop to drill, tap, and pin.

I know there are some reqally nice multiple drill stations out there, but I
am curious. Of those of you who have one in your shop do yourself setting
up jobs with mutiple tools on multiple heads, or do you find the multiple
station drill presses more often get used by different people working on
different jobs? If the former do you feel it saves you much time. I think
few minutes on every mold would save me a few hours every year. That's
worth atleast one drill press. The thing is I might spend that couple hours
doing more design work. One more custom mold done is worth a couple more.
Maybe.

I doubt I'd spring for a high end multiple press. More than likely I'd get
4 more of the benchtop 12 speeds I have my tapping heads in, and bolt them
to a heavy steel plate top table.

Yeah, Yeah, I know. This seems counter to my comments about using a foot
switch I posted about a couple days ago, but its really not. I use the foot
switch so I can hold down the mold plate with one hand and start the bit in
the hole with the other. I don't have to use a third hand to turn on the
drill press. If I setup a table like this I can easily see wanting a foot
switch on every machine. I'd just walk a mold around the table and then
back to the arbor press to set the pins.