dentedr Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Hey all, I am looking into adding a drill press to the home tool arsenal for some light duty gunsmithing projects and other around the house projects. Also what model of vise would you recommend? Looking for some opinions before buying to make sure I don't end up with a pile... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolguy Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 The best drill press of all is a mill. With that you can put your holes exactly on location and your part is held solidly in place in the mill vise or bolted to the mill table. Of course then you can do a lot more than with just a drill press too. There are lots of low(er) cost bench top mills out there now, Grizzly.com is a good place to get a feel for the variety. If a mill is over the budget, they have some good drill presses too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Miles Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Bridgeport! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPostman Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 (edited) Just get a benchtop mill and add a DRO to it later. I do all kinds of machining with my DRO equipped X2 mill. Edited June 21, 2016 by MrPostman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanduneCC Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 I'm a fan of Harbor Freight. Good enough for what I use it for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Hello: Look at a lot of different ones. Check the spindle for being tight with no wobble. Some of the old machines are still good after 60-70 years. Some where not good to start with. The drill press I have is actually a Sears model and is still tight as a drum after 15 years. My Bridgeport is the old M head model in 110 volt and a small table. It is from the 1940's and still is great. As for a vice, you will end up buying a couple to do different jobs with. I have 4 for my drill press and 3 monster ones for my milling machine that my dad made 50 years ago. Check Craigs list and the local machine shops to see what's out there locally. You may find a gem for not much money. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentedr Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 Thanks for the information. I would ultimately like to get a full size bridgeport mill but it is out of the budget right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta66 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 I recently bought a WEN drill press from Home Depot's website. The spindle is tight and the laser has come in handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ltdmstr Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Clausing is pretty much the industry standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 (edited) Question; I've read a few times in this thread of people making shure there drill press is tight. I'm wondering what does that mean to you? Clausing is pretty much the industry standard.I strongly disagree with this. Maybe in your area but the 2 clausings I've had experience on were junk, and nobody in my area uses them. Edited June 27, 2016 by Can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ltdmstr Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Question; I've read a few times in this thread of people making shure there drill press is tight. I'm wondering what does that mean to you? Clausing is pretty much the industry standard.I strongly disagree with this. Maybe in your area but the 2 clausings I've had experience on were junk, and nobody in my area uses them. Ok, not sure what's up with that. Mine works great and and I've had zero issues with it since I bought it about 10 years ago. Also, the local community college here has several that get used pretty much all day every day and no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Carter Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 Nearly every time you need to drill a hole for gunsmithing it will need to be precisely located. You can do that with a good drill press and a good cross slide vice but by the time you get all that you can nearly buy one of the small bench top mills that will do a much much better job. If you are thinking you can do some light milling in a drill press forget that idea, drill presses make horrible mills but mills make great drill presses. Even the better drill presses have bearings that aren't designed for side loads so you get a bunch of vibration and excessive tool wear if you try to mill with them. It's tough starting out but no use making the same mistakes many of us including myself have made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPostman Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 Nearly every time you need to drill a hole for gunsmithing it will need to be precisely located. You can do that with a good drill press and a good cross slide vice but by the time you get all that you can nearly buy one of the small bench top mills that will do a much much better job. If you are thinking you can do some light milling in a drill press forget that idea, drill presses make horrible mills but mills make great drill presses. Even the better drill presses have bearings that aren't designed for side loads so you get a bunch of vibration and excessive tool wear if you try to mill with them. It's tough starting out but no use making the same mistakes many of us including myself have made. Very good advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogtired Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 (edited) I would recommend a mini mill over a drill press also. I have been using mine for all sorts of projects. Their limitation is the Z axis. Not too much working depth. Edited July 3, 2016 by dogtired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinj308 Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Nearly every time you need to drill a hole for gunsmithing it will need to be precisely located. You can do that with a good drill press and a good cross slide vice but by the time you get all that you can nearly buy one of the small bench top mills that will do a much much better job. If you are thinking you can do some light milling in a drill press forget that idea, drill presses make horrible mills but mills make great drill presses. Even the better drill presses have bearings that aren't designed for side loads so you get a bunch of vibration and excessive tool wear if you try to mill with them. It's tough starting out but no use making the same mistakes many of us including myself have made. Very good advice! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Mill-with-Stand/G0704, the head can be flipped over for a total of 16 inches of Z. I did it to mine. If thats too much then http://www.grizzly.com/products/4-x-18-3-4-HP-Mill-Drill/G0781?utm_campaign=zPage check out this thread for StraightUpOg's amazing work with a mini mill http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168050 I know he converted to CNC, but it should give you some idea of how versatile that little mill can be. Almost any pistol part can fit in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkreutz Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Grizzly makes some good drill presses, and mill drills. If I had to choose, I'd go with a mill drill. This is my choice. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Mill-with-Stand-29-inch-x-8-inch-Table/G0705?utm_campaign=zPage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolguy Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 For anyone who has not made a purchase yet, I would say don't buy a mill drill with a round vertical column. These are subject to major vibrations when trying to mill your part. Much better is a square column one with a dovetail for the head to ride up and down on. Also, on the round ones, every time you move the head up or down, you lose your horizontal index because the head swings around side to side. These seem like minor points until you are actually trying to use the machine, then they become major headaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPostman Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 For anyone who has not made a purchase yet, I would say don't buy a mill drill with a round vertical column. These are subject to major vibrations when trying to mill your part. Much better is a square column one with a dovetail for the head to ride up and down on. Also, on the round ones, every time you move the head up or down, you lose your horizontal index because the head swings around side to side. These seem like minor points until you are actually trying to use the machine, then they become major headaches.Agreed, get a square column version. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogtired Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 " the head can be flipped over for a total of 16 inches of Z. I did it to mine" Can you provide more details please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinj308 Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 " the head can be flipped over for a total of 16 inches of Z. I did it to mine" Can you provide more details please? He got 18.5 of Z, I don't remember why but i ended up with 16. This is just for the G0704/BF20 machines as far as I know. I had read about this mod before I bought the machine so I did it as part of the initial disassemble and clean. Also slotted out the table for a little more Y while I was in there. I eventually converted to CNC but even as a manual machine the extra travel was great. Obviously some rigidity is lost at the extreme height of travel, but I don't cut while its up there. It's great for tool clearance though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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