does anyone have an opinion on the hitachi dp15 drill press? i saw one at lowes the other day and it was $75 cheaper than a ridgid at home depot, and seemed to be built sturdier. i have also compared it to a 14″ grizzly, and it seems much more robust, for the same price. i can’t seem to find anything on the hitachi web site of value, it is a confusing maze of broken links and half-loading pages. one thing i don’t like about the hitachi machine is a laser pointer that helps you line up the bit on the workpiece. the pointer assebly looks chintzy and like it probably wouldn’t last three years. it doesn’t look like it can be removed from what i can tell. is hitachi a decent brand? i have only seen them in stores in the last few years. the price is attractive to me at $220. any help is much appreciated.
david
Replies
dstonner,
I would suggest anything over the Grizzly. Even if Grizzly offered you a free drill press, you'd be better off with another brand. At least with the Hitachi you can bring it back when it's no good. Unlike the Grizzly, where you're stuck with it, like me.
My suggestion would be to try the Ridgid. Their tools have impressed me a lot lately.
thanks for the post. it seems grizzly has been hit or miss for a lot of people. any other ideas from others on grizzly vs. hitachi vs. ridgid drill presses?thanks,dave
is hitachi even a reputable brand?thanks,
david
I don't know about reputible, but I hear they have some very pretty ww show girls.
Dave: I don't know about Hitachi's drill press' but they make lots of very good quality industrial equipment: motors, VSD's, test equipment, other big stuff. I bought a Wilton D.P., kinda expensive ($1600) but it has real solid build, 1 hp, very low runout (don't remember the # but I did measure it way back) and crank type speed control with cute little LED readout. Table doesn't tilt but I have small tilting vise that does for most small things.DukeKenneth Duke Masters
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a laser pointer that helps you line up the bit on the workpiece..
Geeee.. LASERS are for killing tanks and cuttin' steel..
I have two drill presses... L'Cheapos.. Are almost as good as my Brown And Sharp metal working one.. It's a bit old though!
I think most problems with a Drill press is the bits are crap! Or at least the sharpening... A poorly ground drill WILL wander ALOT!
I love drill presses, I have three in my shop and am STILL looking for an old American made one.
Most modern drill presses are junk. First off, almost no modern drill presses have a quill lock, a device that allows you to lock the quill. What it allows you to do it endless but the most critical one is lineing up a hole with some sort of locator in the press. One of those features that once you have used one you will NEVER go without one. The other big gripe is the the quill travel is too short to be very useful, even the bigger Deltas only have about 4 5/8ths travel.
Another problem on cheap presses is the table isn't at 90 deg to the column. Take along a piece of coat hanger and bend it into a sort of Z shape. Put one end in the chuck and bend the other piece so it just touches the table. Don't worry about left and right as that is adjustable. Check out the front and back, the wire should touch equally, if it doesn't the table is bored at an angle to the column and is worthless.
However, don't forget a Delta with these feature is nearly $500 and even more if you want a full 6" of travel. Even on the $500 Delta, if you want to use big forstner bits you need to put a real US Jacobs ball bearing chuck (another $100) to get them to actually hold and not slip.
Sorry for the rant but I despise the current batch of pretend drill presses!
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