My cheap drillpress seems to be undergoing some kind of bearing deterioration that is greatly increasing its runout. Since the primary purpose of such a tool is the creation of precise holes, I think it my be time to shoot this tool and send it to the knackers. I could replace it, but then I asked myself how often I have a need for such precise holes. Perhaps I could gain some space, spend the money on wood instead, and satisfy my growing handtool inclinations. Does anyone have any thoughts about being drillpressless? Sensei Adam?
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Up to 2 weeks ago I used a drill mounted in a B&D stand. Then my wife bought me a Drill Press and frankly I was astounded by the quantum leap in performance.
1. Full torque at low speeds. The drill stalls.
2. No flexing. The drill stand flexes a little, throws off the hole by up to 1.5 unless you punch a largish hole first.
3. Much quieter
This weekend I was making my own shelf supports from 20mm box section. Store bought ones have too much spring for the heavy loads my wife is contemplating. Drilling 8mm holes for Fischer screws and 4mm ones for wood screws was a breeze. I even countersunk the holes! Doing this with a drill would have been a major task and I would have ruined at least one bit by overheating it.
My opinion? Don't think of downgrading.
Hi Dave;
"Quantum" leap? That is defined as a leap of an electron from one energy level to another instantaneously, without ever moving between the level.Yep you got that right!
Jim
Two words: Post Drill. I got three!
T.Z.
I often use a plunge router for larger holes (especially with flat bottoms) that would normally be drilled with a drill press and a fostner bit. But a press is handy!
Hate to admit it in "hand tools" but occassionally I do the same! In my original answer to the OP, I was a bit blunt in suggesting a "post drill", but if you find one with a self-feed, they do work well.
To tell the truth, I wouldn't be without a drill press. As far as powered tools go, I wouldn't do without a drill press (powered or not!) and bandsaw.
T.Z.
I work with almost all hand tools. Two exceptions as was stated a bit a go. Drill press and bandsaw. I have a table saw but hardly use it.
I do a bit of metal work (have a metal lathe, TIG welder, etc., etc., etc., to. I use the drill press for metal work a lot but just for wood working it is an important tool to me and a quiet and friendly tool. I have two. A floor model and a small table top.
I suppose it depends on what you build whether you need one. For building my big old Klausz cabinet maker's bench it came in HANDY !
roc
Edited 12/22/2008 9:17 pm by roc
Come on man, they are simple things. Check it over-what you say does not necessarily indicate worn bearings and anyway if they are sick it easy and cheap to replace them. Run out can be blamed on other things like the chuck and dirt. Holes for woodworking don't require screaming accuracy anyway .... Just about any drill press is a useful tool as it does more than just drill holes.
Julian,
In the past I mentioned using a Hollow Chisel Mortiser as a drill press in the hopes of dual purposing a machine. They offer long quill travel (desirous) and could save space especially in a small woodshop. 'Bout the only major disadvantage I was told is that you typically can't vary their speed.
Regards,
P.S. Still pursuing it.
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
What do guys do with their drill presses? I don't typically screw furniture together.
I have a Jet wood lathe which I like. I like turning and I do a lot of it. But I couldn't say what I actually do with it. If it disappeared tomorrow, I don't think my work would be impacted. Maybe a drill press is like that. Is it an essential tool? If so, for what work is it essential?
If guys can tell me what they use their drill presses for, I might be able to say how I do that sort of work without one. It could be tho that it's just a convenient tool for a wide range of tasks (like my lathe).
For excavations for inlay, locks, I use a center bit. I could see others using forstner bits in a DP for this. I think good sharp brace bits (not augers) are really very helpful and fairly easy to operate and sharpen. Center bits and shells remain cheap second hand (but won't forever).
Adam
I use mine rarely, but when I need it, it's nice to have for:
Drilling for European-style cabinet hinges.Drilling overlapping holes for large-ish mortises (too big for the mortiser).Drilling holes where it's essential for them to be exactly perpendicular or at a particular angle.Drilling in metal, such as making holes that need to be threaded.Drilling where I have a lot of holes that need to be an exact depth (I hate depth stops for hand drills -- mar the surface and are not particularly accurate
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
"Drilling for European-style cabinet hinges." These are shallow holes that can be drilled just as accurately (in solid woods) with a center bit. The only disadvantage of the c.b. being that it's hard to come by metric sizes. But you really measure a c.b. easily, so I wouldn't rule out that a 1/2" is really 13mm or whatever. And you can change their size with a file and a hammer."Drilling overlapping holes for large-ish mortises (too big for the mortiser)." Ditto, I've done this with a center bit. Excavations for whetstone boxes etc."Drilling holes where it's essential for them to be exactly perpendicular or at a particular angle." I grant you this can be tricky by hand. Boring by hand is a skill like any other that can be improved upon with practice (duh!)"Drilling in metal, such as making holes that need to be threaded." This is the reason why I need a drill press. Good use for a drill press. In the 18th c, guys would hot punch holes in metal, then ream them to precise size. They could also "line ream" holes together which is something folks still do on very precise assemblies."Drilling where I have a lot of holes that need to be an exact depth (I hate depth stops for hand drills -- mar the surface and are not particularly accurate" Not sure what the application is here. Nice thing about center bit holes is that they have a flat bottom like a spade or forstner bit hole and they leave a center behind that you can go back into (to adjust depth) with the same bit or a smaller one (tho sometimes the center hole is too sloppy for the smaller bit).Other advantages of brace bits over a drill press
1) You can bore in the center of a large project, like adding butterflies in a table top.
2) they never EVER burn
3) Shell bits don't generally break out the back side of the hole.
4) Extreme low angle drilling is possible (with shells or spoons
5) Tapers work well!
6) special bits for end grain work well.This is just devil's advocate kind of stuff. I have nothing against drill presses. But I hope I made the point that one can do traditional woodwork without one without too much sacrifice. Sawing is really the trick to working by hand. Everything else is pretty easy and fun.Adam
Adam, and all,
Dril press is one of those tools that is not essential ( you can nearly always figure a workaround if it is set up for something else, or out of commission), but really handy.
The times I use a drill press and really appreciate what it brings to the table (heh heh):
Repetitive tasks where you can set up stop blocks and or depth stop to punch holes precisely without a lot of layout or thinking. Drilling holes for screws in candlestand top battens for instance, when making a run of a dozen or more of them. Mortising is another one of those tasks for me, but I know many do not care for the mortising set up for drill press. And drilling for those Euro-type hinges is another--if I had more than two of those to do, I think it's worthwhile to set up and drill press them.
Plugs, as another has posted. I don't have a brace driven plug cutter, and the power driven types want to skate in a hand drill.
Drilling for pivot pins in the hinges of swing-leg table aprons. To drill a 1/4" dia hole perfectly straight over 5 inches thru the knuckles of a wooden hinge is quite a challenge to do by hand, and fairly straightforward in a drill press. One of those cases where you don't need to do it often, but it really helps when you do.
Ray
Ray,
Or when you have your first 4 cabriole legs and you need to make mortises in the posts to attach the ends. The ends that you made from panels made up of rough cherry boards that you painstakenly milled to be perfect.
A Forstner bit is just the right size to make that perfect semi circle patternyou need in your first set of bracket feet.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
MikeHennessy pretty much hit it !I will add making wood working jigs. They tend to be more accurate if bolted together than if put together with drywall screws or bolts put in at less than square angles. I make mine disassemble able (no glue ) so if I didn't think of everything or if I made it too inaccurately I can pull apart and shave or shim.Nice for making up your own marking gauges. Can put the pin/scriber hole right where you want it and use DP to press the scriber right in to the perfect projection.Also for modifying hand tools and machine tools. Rather than clamp stuff to the fence I have drilled and threaded various spots on my fences. Can make nice counter bored holes in the bolt-on that fit washers perfectly and that place the hex head bolt heads bellow the surface.Comes under Mike's exact depth holes already mentioned.BUT BUT BUTThis is one of the coolest things I use mine for. I must say I learned this in another mag. Joshua Ballard of Wilmington, DE (my files are close to hand so I pulled the torn out page ) said when he resaws long boards his roller stand is too unstable when up high so he turns the drill press table and raises it to the same hight as the table on his bandsaw and now he has a perfect out feed table. This is what tipped the scales for me to get a big floor model drill press. That and I needed it to make my Kalusz bench. I swore I was going to get the knee mill, when my ship came in, mentioned here in the woodworking mill thread. Now I can save up for a full on metal mill which is what I really want.The table is still parallel to the floor just rotated around the column to clear the drill head.One other use is if you need a press fit you can use the drill press like a bearing press on small stuff. Knobs, hand tools, bearings in your machines.Edited 12/23/2008 12:20 pm by roc
Edited 12/23/2008 12:23 pm by roc
I use my press for a variety of things, but especially for repetitive angle hole drilling. This can be quite a pain by hand, and shop-made wooden drill guides tend to wear pretty quickly. For example, I recently made a new over-bench tool rack. It involves two boards with a slot between them (for hanging saws, rasps, marking gauges), and a lot of little pegs in the front for whisk brooms, compasses, and whatever else hangs on small pegs. There are 34 pegs. I did them by hand because my drill press was set for another job -- but I really wished I could just slide and drill instead of the tedious hand process, plus, the oak guides I made kept wearing loose and sloppy. Barf.The other job for which the drill press is set is to replicate holes at a particular angle for wall hung saddle racks in the tack room. It is pretty simple in concept, but a pain to do. Fortunately, I now have only one left. The idea is that you take a 4x4, jig it and clamp it, and drill a half-inch hole from one corner to the other, at a shallow angel. This makes for a very long hole. A 10-inch eye bolt is then run through. 1x8 panels are fastened to the the top of the 4x4, making a 90 degree support for the saddle. The rack is then hung from hooks on the wall. This gives a solid support with no bracing to get in the way, so several can be set above each other up the wall. It all works very well, BUT I would hate to try to start that long angled hole on the corner without a pre-set machine. It is tough enough WITH the machine.I also have my rather small shop set up so that I can use the press table as an out-feed support if necessary.As with some of the other guys, the drill press and the band saw are the truly indispensable power tools in my largely hand tool shop. Joe
Yeah, I pretty much only screw my projects together, so a drill press is absolutely essential for me. I couldn't screw anything together were it not for my drill press. The way it presses and drills, makes screwing possible.
Seriously, did you really think a drill press was typically used in some sort of screwing operation? Or were you making a joke?
A drill press is a power alternative to the hand equivalents. And like most power equivalents it is easier for a novice to be accurate and consistent. Likewise fast and sweat free. Very little in woodworking can only be accmplished in one way.
Edited 12/23/2008 10:55 pm ET by Samson
I have a floor standing drill press. It is very useful - mostly for things other than drilling holes!
I have a selection of deburring wheels that I can spin for cleaning or polishing metal.
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There is a WASP sander (which I must admit is rarely used) that is useful for sanding curves (one can add all manner of belts)..
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I have used the drill press for morticing, but really prefer a mortice chisel and, occasionally, a router.
Repitition drilling is great on a drill press. Drilling metal - especially when you plan to tap it for threads - is also preferred on the drill press as the hole is square with clean sides (no rocking of drill side-to-side).
Essentially, my drill press has become more of a metalworking tool than a woodworking tool.
Regards from Perth
Derek
"Yeah, I pretty much only screw my projects together, so a drill press is absolutely essential for me. I couldn't screw anything together were it not for my drill press. The way it presses and drills, makes screwing possible. Seriously, did you really think a drill press was typically used in some sort of screwing operation? Or were you making a joke?"That's some funny tongue in cheek stuff there, Samson! My experience with factory furniture is that they drill very accurate holes in mating pieces and tinker toy it together. They'll set up little fixtures on their drill presses to drill mating holes in multiple pieces accurately. It's a great way, perhaps the best way, to join plywood or mdf. They use biscuits and I assume Festool Dominos in the same way. I think this is one of the better and more typical uses of drill presses in woodshops. Personally, I'd have trouble justifying the space, let alone the price of one of these for simply incidental jobs. I'm sure they work great and are fun to use. So is a McDonald's frier. And though I like french fries, I don't have one of those either.If I had a job building kitchen cabinets, I think I'd want a drill press. But I don't do that sort of work so i don't feel I need one.Adam
Adam, I think you are mistaken as to the typical uses of a drill press for serious woodworkers. If you type "drill press" into the search function on the FWW home page, it will spit out several articles that have appeared in the magazine over the years ticking off various uses. While some mention the ability to drill in the same spot on different idnetical pieces, those pieces are not sheet goods.
I cannot even imagine why I would try to haul a sheet good to my drill press to make a screw hole in it. It would be much easier to bring a hand drill to the piece. But perhaps you do not mean literal screws, and instead are referring to some sort of Ikea type joinery mechanism that where a pin fits in a sleeve or something. If so, I'm doubtful that many woodworkers use such fastners. Ikea and factories may need them for production, shipping, and warehousing reasons (i.e., the piece is broken down so takes up less space), but few home shops have these constraints.
Here are some of the recent uses I've had for my drill press:
- forstner a recess for the pull on this box:
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drill precise holes and recessess to accomodate the split nuts on this saw handle as well as drill overlapping holes to begin the process of letting in the brass back (see Joel's DT kit instructions):
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Use a plug cutter to make dozens of cross grain plugs in about two minutes. Yup, that menas I use screws sometimes.
Use forstners to create recesses for nuts and washers in some wooden stands.
Drill large holes (forstner) - later rasped to a bevel - for the file/rasp rack seen here:
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I've also used it in the past to begin the mortising process. It's ability to be perfectly perpendicular and fenced is convenient.
In sum, a drill press for me is not essential, but regularly comes in very handy. Like the drill press, I could get by without a TS or BS etc. ect., but why should I?
I think you've given Julian, our OP, a lot to think about. I think it would help if you said a little more about the drill press you have and any recommendations about what sort of tool is required for the practical work you are doing.For my part, I think I've been pretty specific about the tools I use and what they are good for. I can say that I have a set of plug cutters for a hand brace (which look a lot like spoons with the end cut off). Drilling metal is a huge PITA by hand, especially hard metal like saw blades. But for a lot of the miscellaneous jobs that Samson has mentioned (with the noted exceptions) I think I do fine with brace bits. I think a center bit can cut as fast or almost as fast as a forstner. Its not a lot of work to cut holes by hand. And there's a whole world of bits besides agers and most of them cut better than augers.Adam
Adam, I took Julian to be asking whether any of us had operations that we found could only be performed well with a drill press. My answer to that limited question is: no, there are usually alternatives; if you have those alternative tools and the skills to use them.
Julian's question struck me as somewhat odd wince he presently has a drill press and knows how often and for what he uses it. As such, you would think he would be in the best position to access what it would mean for him to go without. {No offense, Julian, I just found it confusing.}
And Adam, Julian views you as a "sensai." He seems to have been asking you directly what he would have to buy and master if he chose not to buy a new drill press. I think you have answered that pretty well - braces and various vintage bits that may or not be very easy to locate in his area.
I have various hand drills - Yankee braces and Miller's Falls eggbeaters. I also have augers, spoon bits, and tapers. All work fine, but I'm not inclined to dump my drill press in favor of using these all the time.
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(restored by Wiktor Kuc)
And, Adam:
Merry Christmas!!!
I agree that there are times when a brace wins the race (even though they are a lot of work), and others when an egg beater beats all. And, still other times when a Yankee is a push above. But, like you, I'm not inclined to push the drill press out the shop door.
Well, thank you all for so much interesting discussion from so many skilled and thoughtful people. Adam is not the only one I listen to, I have learned from many people here, but I do like his ability to cut to the core of an issue with questions that make me think about the basics more directly.I am, of course, best situated to know what I use a drill press for, and that, on reflection, seems like hardly anything. When I got it I thought I'd do all sorts of things with it, and everyone else seemed to have one. With the miniscule space and budget of my shop it helps to cut out surplus. For me the equation also goes like this: I can either get another not-very-good machine or a good hand drill and a bunch of wood. The latter will give me much more satisfaction.Fundamentally, I can't improve a machine that's not good, but I can improve myself. (Really I can). Thanks everyone for helping me with this decision. Best Wishes for the Season and New Year.
Hey Sean ,
Easy Lad , Adam was baiting the hook .
I truly think this was a response designed to get our Goat's .
Adam did say in very small print something like : " for the type of work I do"
So , right there he said it was o.k. if you were making kitchen cabinets er such , but he really didn't need one much for his work .
We know the benefits of drill presses and the many operations we perform on them , others use the methods available or in the space they have .
I could use a router to cut most any size hole in many materials but a drill press is more efficient and repeatable for accuracy and takes less time .
I use a Fly Cutter or a Circle cutter on the drill press for holes larger or different then on hand bits.
I use 4 different drilling machines , admittedly 3 are set up for repeat operations , the one DP I would recommend for all serious wood workers is a Radial Drill Press , a true woodworkers tool .
Whether it's drilling a hole in the center of a 30" circle or drilling compound angled holes in chair seats the tool gets a thumbs up from me .
regards and Best Wishes
dusty
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