When I bought this I was trying
to decide between getting a bandsaw and a drill press as my next major
machine. It was Mark Duginske's Mastering Woodworking Machines that
pointed me towards getting the drill press over the bandsaw. In
short, he said it was a more useful machine.
Well, I've used mine a lot. I've done a couple of tasks that I
couldn't have done with a weaker machine. For example, when I
built the blast gates for my dust collection system it was nice to have
a 3/4 horsepower motor and slow 215 RPM speed for my 6" flywheel
cutter. When I drilled the dozens of holes through 4 3/4"
pieces of plywood at one time it was nice to have a serious drill
press. This is one of those situations where you only feel the
pain of the price once but you feel the joy of having the tool forever.
Having said that, it's not all perfect. The machine vibrates
more than I would consider ideal. Sometimes the wood even moves on
the table if I'm not holding it down. (Note: Now that it's
mounted on a plywood rolling base and I've added the weight of a shop
built drill press table the vibration is better.) I had a Delta service tech
come out to look at it and he said that the vibration was normal. Also, the
pulleys that control the speed don't slide into place easily when you
move the belts around. Again, the service tech said that was
normal.
As a side note, in my experience Delta's service tech was horrible.
He even stole $20 from me given that he charged me for his gas money even
though the machine is under warranty.
The quill lock is awesome, I can't imagine the pain of anything but a
quick set quill. The motor is strong and the run out is next to
nothing.
Clamping wood to the drill press table was a bit painful because of
the supports under the table. It seems like my clamps would always
hit a support and slide loose. To compensate for that, I built a
nice table for the unit. You can see it here.
