Thread: Carbatec 3/4 HP 12 speed bench drill press

Carbatec 3/4 HP 12 speed bench drill press, model DP-4116B.

I bought one of these at the half yearly sale, and only managed to drag it out of the box last weekend.

Disclaimer: This is the first bench drill I've used in about 20 years, and the only one I've owned. I may be a little rusty on the finer points. I haven't tested the work light yet.

The box contained all the usual things you'd expect - manual, base, post, table, head unit, chuck and assorted handles and bolts. Assembly was easy enough, although if you aren't reasonably adept at following manuals you'll probably find yourself backtracking a bit because some of the comments weren't necessarily in the step I expected them.

I pulled the box out because I was making a trailer ramp, so in true impatient style decided to test for square by the simple expedient of drilling a 12mm hole through both faces of a piece of 4x3 because the chuck travel is not long enough to drill through a 4" section in one pass. If the holes meet neatly it's good enough for the immediate task. Conclusion? Impressively close, and close enough for a trailer ramp, so I'll get on with it and fine tune it later.

Next up was to drill some 12mm holes through some 6mm cold dipped galvanised brackets. Pilot holes were fine, but as soon as the 12mm drill bit started to bite into the steel it stuck. Tightened the chuck and it still jammed. Looked carefully and the chuck was not spinning on the drill, the chuck has stopped. Figured I hasn't cleaned the tapers properly so dragged out the metho again and gave all the tapered surfaces another good clean. Retried, and same story. Opened the top to watch the pulleys to pinpoint the problem, and it gave a horrible shuddering noise. Hmm, the emergency stop button arrangement works very nicely. When you slap the button it latches into place pressing against the off button, so it *cannot* turn back on. Usually this is irritating, but it is sometimes reassuring... Just push the button cover up a bit and it unlatches, allowing you to lift the flap and press the on button again.

Looked a little closer and saw that the rear pulley is seated on the motor shaft, the middle pulley is on a fixed shaft, but the front pulley is on a spline with a nut holding it in place. Well, it was, until the nut came off and jumped into the gap between the spline and the outer part of the pulley. Pried it out, put it back where it should be and tightened it up, and voila, the 12mm drill now cuts through the steel properly.

I was making a ramp from 3 lengths of 4x3 pine laid on edge and bolted together in two places, to make a nominal 12x3 ramp held together with two 12" lengths of threaded gal rod. The nuts and washers on the rod ends were recessed with a 37mm spade bit (only size I had bigger than 25mm), so all up I needed 6 12mm holes through both sides of 4x3 pine (so 12 holes drilled) plus 4 countersunk 37mm holes for the washers and nuts and another 4 12mm holes through the wider face of the 4x3 at one end for the brackets that hook onto the trailer. Add to that further 25mm countersinking for the bracket bolts and the holes through the brackets themselves and it was a good demo of how the drill press worked. It was also a thorough reminder of why I bought this thing. Doing this with a hand drill would have been unamusing.

Part way through this process I found it making a strange vibrating noise as I drilled. This turned out to be the collar around the quill shaft that holds the depth gauge. The collar was loose so the threaded rod depth gauge moved fore-aft, and the threads touched the edge of the hole that acts as the measurement line making the vibrating noise as you lowered the drill bit. Moving the depth gauge rod into the right position and tightening the collar fixed it, but the Allen key required did not match either of the two supplied keys. I think it was a 5mm, if it matters.

Things I liked:
- The power
- 16mm check
- Positive action power off button.
- Wide spread of gear ratios
- General solidity and sturdiness
- Just having a drill press!

Things I'd change:
- A chuck key? What? Why?
- The 82mm chuck travel I can see being an issue. Over 100mm would be more useful.
- Ditto the limited depth for workpieces. I chose this one because of space limits, but I'd be surprised if I didn't wish at some stage that I'd bought a floor standing model.
- It would be nice to have a momentary-on test mode. When I first turned it on I found you could not turn it on then retreat across the shed and turn on the extension lead's power to start the drill. You have to actually press the power on button while power to the drill is live. This made it a little nervous turning on a drill with a friction fit tapered rod chuck for the first time.

Potential gotchas:
- Loose front pulley nut
- Loose Allen key holding the depth gauge collar
- Getting the thing back onto the bench after fitting the motor assembly. It's 53kg net, so even without the handles or table it's still going to be around 45kg. People with bad backs will want to phone a friend.

Specs, from Carba-Tec® ¾HP 12 Speed Bench Drill Press : CARBA-TEC

motor 3/4hp
speed steps 12 speed
speed range 120 - 2500rpm
chuck capacity 3 to 16mm
chuck/quill travel 82mm
chuck to base 520mm
taper MT2
tilt type & degree table, 360°
column to drill centre 160mm
chuck to table max 320mm
work light provision yes
table size 305mm
diameter base size 240 x 410mm
workshop footprint 340 x 630 x 970mm
drilling capacity 3/4" (19mm) steel
net weight 53kg
shipping weight 57kg

Hmm, this has turned out a bit longer than I thought. Took a bit longer too. 'Night folks.