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Sears Drill Press?

If you have the space, I recommend the floor model.
Not sure about now, but many years ago when I bought mine, the Sears drill press was identical to the Harbor Freight except for a much higher price tag. I went with the HF and never regretted it. And I use it almost every day! That's been over 25 years ago.
 
Years ago I bought a 12" Delta bench top drill press. It has been just OK, nothing special.

Floor models tend to have more pulleys, thus more speeds.

Also, the Delta power switch is junk. Mine broke and wouldn't allow me to turn the thing off. This is a major safety issue, so be careful. When I called Delta about it, after checking a few woodworking boards, they said they had never heard of this problem before, yet it was a well-known issue on the other boards. Delta even made me pay for the switch, which really upset me.
 
drill press

I am very happy with my harbor freight 16 speed floor model
. I believe its the next to largest available from hf. The lower speeds are useful for hole saws and also for drilling steel with larger drill bits.
 
Yep!

jrs14855 said:
I am very happy with my harbor freight 16 speed floor model
. I believe its the next to largest available from hf. The lower speeds are useful for hole saws and also for drilling steel with larger drill bits.
Click to expand...

That's the one I have. Goes down to about 170 rpm.
 
I use their floor press and it works great. Pretty easy to change the speed settings too when that's necessary.

Phil
 
I've got the Sears floor model. Found it useful a few months back as a giant arbor press to the reduce the width of roll bar during slider canopy work.
Works good as a drill press too!

Stewart
RV6, finishing.
 
sears drill press

I also have the sears floor model and am very happy with it but also have a HF bench model which works good, how ever a freind had a HF model that looks just like mine and had nothin but trouble, I think he's trashed it by now !
 
Relient

I have a Relient bench top drill press. For $129 this thing is amazing. My dad has a Sears floor model and has had nothing but trouble with it. Worst part was the spindle wasn't centered so the tip of the bit always wobbled - totally unacceptable. No issues with the Relient and I've been using if for about 10 years... oh, the plastic crank broke that adjusts the height of the table, but I fashioned a new one out of tiger maple :D
 
I bought the HF 16-speed bench mount press sometime aound 1990, and it's still going strong. I did mount it on small roll-around table with disk sander and grinding wheel and that arrangement has worked great through two homebuilts.
 
bigger is better

I think the one I have is a harbor fright model as well. (Large floor model) 3 pulleys, w/2 belts. It seems like the sweet area of spindle speeds always require you to move both belt and you have to take one off, so you can cross one over the other. It doesn’t run as smooth as the variable speed ones at work, but then it doesn’t cost a gazillion bucks either. I’ve been very pleased with it.
 
Experimental Chaos said:
It seems like the sweet area of spindle speeds always require you to move both belts.
Click to expand...

I have the big floor model HF and seldom, if ever, change the "lower" belt position. The lower belt stays in the bottom position.
For aluminum and wood, the top belt is in the 3rd or 4th from top position (500 or 600 rpm) and for steel the top belt is in the top position (170 rpm).
 
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