Thread: Bosch 710W Corded Bench Drill

I’ve had a few smaller bench mounted drill press machines over the years, mainly for timber and aluminium with occasional thicker hard aluminium plate, and they have worked reasonably well, but even very small drill bits tend to skew ever so slightly in AL unless the work is pre punched. The small table is not really suited to WW or indeed most of the metal work that I usually do. Constant bit size changes and material changes with respect to speed are cumbersome and I tend to find reasons not to use the DP. Obviously there is some movement in the quill etc, in these lower cost units. Yes! I know I can overcome a most of these things but this is just a brief history and was the situation up until a few weeks ago.

Now I’ve been looking around for some time at various bench units and even some free standing units, but every time I lower the chuck and check for movement (disregarding any chuck movement itself) they all have play in some way, most feel ok when not lowered and some at first seem ok, but as the chuck is raised and lowered there often appears to be some movement at various points. I figured that if I’m going to replace my old unit with an almost identical sized block of cast iron then it should be a little better in some way, so I was still looking and saving.

Now of course I haven’t tried every frigging unit out there! and yes I’m sure more expensive quality units are just great. From what I understand though, with lower cost units it’s sometimes the luck of the draw, one unit can be is off and another of the same model a lot better, I also have a modest budget as there are higher priorities for the home, workshop changes and equipment.

Anyway, had a milestone event recently and my wife got a few of the family together and pooled a few dollars for a present. Now as we often do, I had made the mistake of looking at the Bosch a few times while shopping for other things, obviously she reasoned that the Bosch unit would be something I might like, so on the day I find this really large carton in the lounge room and you know the rest.

Now in the past I’ve looked at quite a few YouTube videos, a lot happy with the Bosch and a few not so, and I’ve seen the Bosch unit totally dismissed on forums as a bit of junk, therefor I was not as excited about the occasion as I should have been on unwrapping it.

Now onto the Bosch PDB-40:

The table is a quite large nicely finished aluminium casting and the main support column is a metal tube, it’s not aluminium and it is hollow so I would expect some flex if really winding up the pressure, but I haven’t noticed this in the slightest so far. Possibly drilling deep holes in hardwood with a big bit may cause some eccentricity? Only time will tell. FYI there appears to be nothing stopping you from fitting a very thick walled steel tube inside of it if you were worried about any flex.

At around 1HP it’s more powerful than the old drill press and much to my surprise (after reading forums and YouTube), there is only a very tiny amount of movement at the chuck and no play in the column, the drill head does not move in the slightest when the locking lever tightened correctly, there was no visually noticeable runout with a 1/16” or 1/2” bit, I haven’t actually measured it yet as it looked fine and drilled perfectly in the time that I’ve used it.

When I first assembled the unit I drilled a 1/16" hole in an AL box without a pilot mark, there was no trace of drill movement away from the pencil marked pinpoint, same old drill bits as before. I repeated it with a 1” drill into thick AL plate with the same result. I drilled a second hole using a smaller bit, then unlocked the head unit and moved it up the column and locked it down again, fitted a 1/2” bit and finished drilling the hole. Before I started I had used the laser cross hairs to mark a spot with a pen, after finishing, the laser cross hair was dead center at the bottom point of countersunk hole in the backing timber. There is zero lateral movement in the head unit as it is raised, lowered or repositioned and relocked, I guess I got lucky and got a good one. I also removed the top cover and had a look inside, easy brush replacement and everything looks well made.

Things I really like:

The big table with nice long jig slots, so it's easy to fit a few inventive jigs for repetitive jobs etc.

The quick action clamp and parallel guide.

The keyless chuck, it’s simple and easy to use, so far no problems with inserting or removing bits.

The speed control with digital display of the actual drilling speed is just great.

The motor speed is held constant as load changes.

The low speed gearbox setting that offers more torque at lower speeds with big cutters if needed.

The Digital depth readout is just fabulous and setting the depth stop is easy when required.

The 3 position power switch incorporates an NVR relay and emergency press to stop.

Only problem I encountered was the speed control knob being a bit tight in spots, but it’s freeing up with use.

I’m sure those who think it’s junk will still think that way, but I have to say that it feels very good when clamped / bolted down and it does exactly what I need.

Except for big jobs and heavy metal work, I really could not go back to the old style of table and table movement. And NO, I have not tried it on thick steel, but within the limitations of the unit and allowing for that in use, I’m sure this bench drill would do most small steel work that I might need to do.

Having read some forums, I guess this is something that I would not have bought, however I’m pleasantly surprised by how really nice it is to use, and how well it actually works. The build quality is really a lot better than I thought it would be. Dare I say it (ok I’ll whisper so you can’t hear - look away now) -- I sort of like it.