I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

keith

Can't tell you which is best per say, but also check out Jet and Grizzly if
you are shopping around. Delta has a decent reputation for sure. No
knowledge of Rigid's larger units...

Joe - V#8013 - '86 VN750 - joe @ yunx .com
Northern, NJ
Ride a Motorcycle? Ask me about "The Ride"
http://www.youthelate.com/the_ride.htm

Born once - Die twice. Born twice - Die only once. Your choice...

Have unwanted music CDs or DVDs of any type? I can use them for our
charity. eMail me privately for details. Donation receipts available.


"Keith Boeheim" wrote in message
...
I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

keith

"Keith Boeheim" wrote in message
...
I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

For a bit more above the entry level floor drill press, you get a much
longer quill stroke and a much easier and more flexible belt system. Forget
the Delta with the junky mortising attachment. If you're going to spend $400
go for the better drill press. The Jet 16 1/2" has 16 speeds going all the
way down to 200 rpm and has a three pulley system that is much easier to
change than some of the two pulley systems. It also has a 4 3/8" quill
stroke. The longer quill stroke is really nice. The delta and Jet are pretty
much equal except the Jet has a TEFC motor (considered more desirable).

Bob

Can not offer any advice on what brand to recommend...My floor model
drill presss is a Craftsman...(NOT CRAPSMAN) that I purchased new in
the mid 60's and it has been a workhorse in my shop ever since... used
almost daily and has gone thru maybe 2 belts over the years ..and I
did replace the bearings about 10 years ago..only because I felt like
it was time....

I also own a benchtop Delta that is not nearly as old but just as
problem free ... I have no direct knowledge about Ridgid Drill
presses...just never bothered to look at them ...

Personally I would look at Delta and Jet and compare them to
Grizley....

Bob Griffiths



On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 12:10:10 GMT, "Keith Boeheim"
wrote:

I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

keith

Ditto..

The Jet 16 1/2" (Model 17 MF) has been in my basement less than 2 weeks.
$400 got the drill press, the Jet morticing attachment, and 3 morticing
chisels at the Rockler store near me. Jet gives a coupon for 50$ off
accessories with the purchase of this drill press. Forgoing that, the store
manager was willing to order it for me and price the package as described.

You can find different models, and download manuals by perusing the link
below.

Dave


http://www.wmhtoolgroup.com/index.cf...=vendors&VID=1





"Bob" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Keith Boeheim" wrote in message
...
I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

For a bit more above the entry level floor drill press, you get a much
longer quill stroke and a much easier and more flexible belt system.
Forget
the Delta with the junky mortising attachment. If you're going to spend
$400
go for the better drill press. The Jet 16 1/2" has 16 speeds going all
the
way down to 200 rpm and has a three pulley system that is much easier to
change than some of the two pulley systems. It also has a 4 3/8" quill
stroke. The longer quill stroke is really nice. The delta and Jet are
pretty
much equal except the Jet has a TEFC motor (considered more desirable).

Bob

Bob G. wrote in
:

snip of Bob G.'s good, but vintage, Craftsman experience

Personally I would look at Delta and Jet and compare them to
Grizzly....

The adult school shop has two drill presses, and wanted a third. The first
is a Delta/Rockwell from around the Eisenhower administration. The second
is a Delta 17-965. They bought a Griz, because some folks wanted to see
how they turned out, and it was inexpensive.

It stayed around for about 3 months, never worked well, and finally
disappeared, because everyone, especially the instructors, were better off
without it.

I bought a Delta 17-965 for my home shop last year, on sale at Woodcraft
for around US$325. It's not perfect, but it's solid, and suits my needs
well.

Grizzly certainly has some reasonably good products, if you go by
experience here in this group, but drill presses seem not to be their
strong spot.

Patriarch

In article , Keith Boeheim
wrote:

€ Amazon.com has a delta 15" with mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and
€ no tax. I know the mortising kit is entry level at best.

Mortising attachments don't cut perfect mortises- they still need to be
cleaned up by hand.

Better to learn to cut mortises by hand, or to cut them by hogging out
the centers with a drill press and cleaning up the corners, which is
what you have to do with a mortising attachment, anyway.

Best of luck, and let us know how it comes out!

--
Lyle B. Harwood, President
Phoenix Homes, Inc.
(206) 523-9500 www.phoenixhomesinc.com

Bob wrote:

go for the better drill press. The Jet 16 1/2" has 16 speeds going all
the way down to 200 rpm and has a three pulley system that is much easier
to
change than some of the two pulley systems. It also has a 4 3/8" quill

I have to smile at this one. Not too long ago somebody was asking how to
rig up his DP to get rid of the third pulley and convert it to a two pulley
system.

I'm for three pulleys, personally. I like the setup on my Crapsman DP, with
the little tension lever.

To throw in my tupence on this topic, I wound up getting a Crapsman during
one of those dumb sales they have every other week. 15" I think, twelve
speeds.

The rack for the column never has been quite right. There's some alignment
problem, and it's necessary to jiggle it just so to avoid letting the top
of the rack bind up in the top collar and chew itself to bits. That's
definitely a blemish.

The table is a mixed bag. It has T tracks in it, which seemed like a cool
idea at shopping time, but it's actually pretty annoying. I can't use my
cross-slide vise on it. I rigged up an adapter flummy, but I didn't rig it
up very well, and it isn't sufficiently precise. That's another blemish,
for me anyway. That stupid table is definitely more trouble than one with
ordinary through holes.

The depth stop is another blemish. You have to be careful not to keep
pushing once you hit the stop, because even though you've put 50,000 ft.
lbs. of torque on the screws holding the big aluminum thing onto the head,
it will still move if you push on it. When precision matters, such as when
taking care not to bore through the veneer on the bottom side of a piece of
plywood, say, I adjust things around so that the bottom of quill travel
regulates the depth.

The quill itself has given me problems too. I tinkered with it to adjust
out as much slop as I could, and improved it, but it still doesn't feel
quite right. At the bottom of travel (see previous comment) it wants to
move the entire mechanism a little, which can be hell on precision work.

This machine is still one of my best friends, and it has been a real
workhorse for me, but I have to admit in retrospect that it has been a
question of learning to live with it because it's paid for, and it's there,
and it's heavy. It really isn't a very well-designed or well made machine
for that much cashola.

I didn't like the look of the Deltas they had at Lowe's for various reasons
I can't put my finger on now, and the same thing for the Rigids. I guess
if I were doing this all again, I might go with a JET indeed. Or I might
just buy the Crapsman anyway, in spite of all this, because the price was
right.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

I have the Ridgid and find it to be a very capable machine. No problems for
me.

Darrell


"Keith Boeheim" wrote in message
...
I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

keith

Harbor Freight has 11 models in their on-line catalog, starting at $ 39 for
a 5-speed. Many models are available in their store.

http://order.harborfreight.com/EasyA...ht/results.jsp

--

Walter
The Happy Iconoclast www.rationality.net
-

"Keith Boeheim" wrote in message
...
I am looking to get a 15" drill press. Amazon.com has a delta 15" with
mortising kit for $399 minus $25 and no tax. I know the mortising kit is
entry level at best. At Home Depot they have a 15" Rigid with 3 yr. warr.
for $240-$260 (can't completely remember). I am not making a living at
woodworking but I also am looking for durability and accuracy. Any advise
would be appreciated. Thank you.

keith

Walter R. wrote:

Harbor Freight has 11 models in their on-line catalog, starting at $ 39 for
a 5-speed. Many models are available in their store.

http://order.harborfreight.com/EasyA...ht/results.jsp


Harbor Freight is a great place for really junk tools that you only need
to use once or twice or cut up for special uses, but if you want
something to use for a few years, this isn't the place to buy it.


Matt