Thread: Buying my first drill press

Hi D. I would buy it just for the mistake on the label . Looks good from the photos. Can you check if it runs?

If there's no significant slop in the quill and it runs you're probably on a good thing. These are pretty simple beasts.

While it's running, pull down the handles and extend the chuck to it's full extent. Check that the chuck is running true and not wobbling. Other than that, as aldav said , they are simple machinery.

If the chuck runs true at full extent and the motor sounds OK...should be an OK buy.

a min speed of 500 rpm will limit how large drill bit you can use.
If possible I'd be looking for something with a lower minimum speed

I would suggest it's not a quality drill press, but at that price you can't go too wrong.

So as others have said, check:
- slop in quill;
- chuck run-out when fully extended down;
and if I can add:
- the chuck works and the jaws are spaced equally and extend equally.

And longer term look out for a good quality second hand English or Australian built machine.

Cheers, Vann.

Follow the advice given re chuck and quill run out but 1/4HP (180W) seems to me to be a bit on the low side.

Considering it's a 1/2" capacity the 1/4hp motor does seem small but would probably be okay if only using the larger drills in wood. It does have the depth stop missing which is something I tend to use quite a lot. Make sure when you turn it on that the motor gets up to speed straight away and not building up slowly as that could be a start capacitor failing. But hey, if it's your first drill I'm sure you will get plenty of use out of it and one day you might need to upgrade if you're serious.