The Grizzly G7945 radial-arm drill press performed well in our shop tests, demonstrating good drilling power while plunging a 2-in. Forstner bit 3/4-in. deep into a maple board at a steady and relatively fast pace. It features five speeds with a range of 550 rpm to 3470 rpm, suitable for most drilling tasks, and we found it was easy to change speeds by manually moving a belt from one set of pulleys to another. The tool also drilled with very little runout, and features a good size square table. It’s unique radial arm design allows the head to be rotated 90° in both directions and it’s head to be extended for up to a 34-in. reach.

Fine Woodworking Recommended Products

Freud Super Dado Saw Blade Set 8" x 5/8" Bore

Leaves a dado with a flat bottom and even performs excellent on plywood and melamine.

Buy at Woodcraft

Veritas Precision Square

This precision square is incredibly versatile, from checking squareness to dialing in machine setups.

Buy at Lee Valley

Grizzly G0495X Industrial Helical Cutterhead 8-in. Jointer

Regardless of the board’s grain, this jointer produced excellent results. Its fence was totally flat, worked smoothly, and locked well, staying in place even after jointing multiple edges. Getting the fence to 90° was very easy, but the 90° stop was a little tricky to set and the fence did not go back to square when using it. For those who would use it, there is also a digital depth-of-cut scale.

Buy at Amazon