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I also purchased the Delta 20-619 6-Inch Drill Press Vise for it. It would be nice if the light tied in to the main power cord internally for one thing to plug in- I understand why they didn't do this, but how many people will run this on 240V.
It is not perfect as others have stated, but for the $ it is a good drill press for a home shop. It is not a $2000 production level drill press so I think some of the criticism here of this is unwarranted: if you expect the Ferrari of drill presses then buy something else and pay much more for it.
I've had this for just over a year and am pleased with it. As other(s) said, the criticisms of it are the typical lack of attention to detail seen in most China built tools: the belt tensioner is a very substandard design- but yeah, it works; there really needs to be a place to store the chuck key and drift key- it's unacceptable that they couldn't add some sort of clip and hangar pin on the side of the main casting to store these items.
I had no trouble assembling it, the lasers work well (not perfect), and it drills fine. The runout on the chuck is.0015" which I think is acceptable.
Despite these criticisms, overall it is a good unit for the $. This vise is not intended for this press but it will work with it with some modifications- I cut out the slot divider on the vise so there is one long slot per side instead of two and added some half inch diameter mounting bolts with large wingnuts to clamp it to the drill press table.
I've had this drill press for a year. The table was not milled correctly. The adjustment screw handles all broke in the first week and now I have 'dog bones' hanging everywhere. I should have taken my lumps for the amount of money I spent and found a better press early on. I have spent significantly more hours modifying, adjusting, adapting, disassembling (except for the head from the post), reading the manual and reassembling the press than drilling holes. Assembly was a nightmare. I am embarrassed to say I've had it this long. I could not drill a vertical hole until I hand ground the casting on the front-to-back table set/stop.
The head was not milled correctly for the post. It was seated only after dry ice and other means of persuasion and about a week of messing around. One of the lasers puts out a very fuzzy beam making 'spot-on' impossible. No, not a good choice.
I purchased this drill press for woodworking. The table is a large flat rectangle with T slots and a replaceable MDF center piece with leveling set screws.It tilts forward, Left or right. It also has the ability to lock the spindle at any height making drum sanding or even setting up depth stops easier. Fortunately, I examined this drill press in person, prior to purchase which greatly aided me in setting it up. The runout on the chuck is.001 inch. However, once set up properly this is an excellent piece of equipment. First, the product manual for setting up this machine is inadequate. The depth stop adjustment is without a doubt the easiest most intuitive of any drill press.
It is smooth running very massive head to absorb vibration, a stable base for stability, 16 speeds and powerful motor(3/4hp). It has many amenities which are very useful for woodworking. As an added bonus the unit comes with lasers to locate the hole and a work light. Except for the owner's manual this is all I could ask for in a drill press.
This drill press represents the worst in mainland Chinese manufacturing. As you apply tension to the belts, the motor shifts upward causing the drive belt to skew upward. The laser adjustments are poorly designed and the beam width at working distances are too thick for precise hole designation. The casting are rough throughout. The best I can say for this drill press is that it will drill a hole. The pulleys are unbalanced, the drive belts are stiff. Delta is squandering their good name with products like this. The poor build results in a lot of vibration especially at higher speeds.
The idler pully shaft and the shafts used as part of the belt tensioning system ride in holes drilled in the head casting. No bushings are used and the play can be measured in fractions of inches. I haven't measured runout because I wouldn't bother using this drill on any precision work. I wouldn't expect it to last for long however.
I've recently purchaced the drill with expectations of a 500$ item and that's what i recieved. All this tool needs is a little tlc and some home made hardware. I do use this product alot and it is a very nice drill for the home or garage only drawback i encountered was the table.In my eyes it is build very cheaply but i'm used to being around 5000$ clausings. But for all the wood and metal i drilled so far i haven't stalled it lol. I think on all these types of tools they scimp on the hardware.Overall it really does the job.
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