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 !

"pogo" wrote in message
...
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.


I got a cheapo drill press and made it better...

a) get the belt really tight.

b) drill and tap two sets of three holes at 120 degrees at the bottom and
the top of the portion of the casting in which the quill slides. Made a
half-dozen brass setscrews with a bit of weed trimmer line inserted
crossways, so they don't vibrate loose. Tighten them up and all the slop in
the quill is gone. (Thanks for this idea, Gunner; works great.)

b) drill and tap two sets of three holes at 120 degrees at the bottom and
the top of the portion of the casting in which the quill slides. Made a
half-dozen brass setscrews with a bit of weed trimmer line inserted
crossways, so they don't vibrate loose. Tighten them up and all the slop
in
the quill is gone. (Thanks for this idea, Gunner; works great.)

Hmmm. So the set screws tighten against the quill? Or does the quill slide
against the screws which now limit it's lateral travel ?

Thanks for the info !

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

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.

Thanks! More great info for me. Yep - I am well aware that sometimes
"cheaper is not cheaper" !

But it does make sense to apply some of the hints and advice from this group
before I write off the cheapo drill press I currently have. The motor is
only 1/2HP --- which I honestly did not research much before I bid on it.

That's good to hear about the Ryobi drill presses ! I have been very happy
with my 18v power tools so far and have refinished most of a bath, kitchen,
and 3rd bedroom using nothing but them for power tools. I recently bought a
Ryobi mitre saw for cutting aluminum and am very pleased with it.

Anyway, Thanks for yet more great advice !
JCD

"pogo" wrote in message
...
b) drill and tap two sets of three holes at 120 degrees at the bottom
and
the top of the portion of the casting in which the quill slides. Made a
half-dozen brass setscrews with a bit of weed trimmer line inserted
crossways, so they don't vibrate loose. Tighten them up and all the
slop
in
the quill is gone. (Thanks for this idea, Gunner; works great.)

Hmmm. So the set screws tighten against the quill? Or does the quill slide
against the screws which now limit it's lateral travel ?


Quill slides on the screws. The holes in the casting were bigger than the
quill, it had about 1/8 inch wobble when about 1/2 way down. Now there's
none, basically.

"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

Quill slides on the screws. The holes in the casting were bigger than the
quill, it had about 1/8 inch wobble when about 1/2 way down. Now there's
none, basically.

Cool. I will look into this and see if it might help mine.
Thanks for the great tip!
JCD

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

Thanks! Great advice here -- you guys should write a book!
I really appreciate it!

Yeah - I *do* want to get into doing some milling sometime. I've always been
fascinated by it but just never have taken the plunge. I've been getting a
huge kick out of just tapping my own screw threads in the extrusions I've
been working with!

Thanks again !
JCD

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 21:20:29 -0400, "jtaylor"
wrote:


"pogo" wrote in message
.. .
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.


I got a cheapo drill press and made it better...

a) get the belt really tight.

b) drill and tap two sets of three holes at 120 degrees at the bottom and
the top of the portion of the casting in which the quill slides. Made a
half-dozen brass setscrews with a bit of weed trimmer line inserted
crossways, so they don't vibrate loose. Tighten them up and all the slop in
the quill is gone. (Thanks for this idea, Gunner; works great.)

G

My pleasure

Gunner



"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
- Proverbs 22:3