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Benchtop Drill Press - Skil or Ryobi?


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I seriously considering getting a benchtop drill press. I can see it being useful for a variety of purposes.

 

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These two are quite similar in most respects. Price-wise they are the same, roughly $130.

 

Which would you choose and why?

 

ADD: Well I may have answered my own question here. I settled on these two because they are both in stock at Home Depot and Lowes respectively. It occurred to me to check Sears. And yes, Sears has a 10" Craftsman for almost exactly the same price. Feature-wise it has 5 speeds and the RPM range is nearly the same as the other two but, BUT the motor is 6 amps, 2/3 horsepower as opposed to roughly 3 amps, 1/4 horsepower for the other two. IMO "Craftsman" doesn't mean what it used to but as a name brand it still holds up to the others. I think a beefier motor is a definite advantage.

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Edited by Squishy
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Ha, Habor Freight...I have the shittiest luck with them. I kept buying stuff from them and it would be broken before I took it out of the box. So I swore I'd never by ANYTHING from them. I needed a 4-way lug wrench so I said, "No moving parts, made of steel, what can go wrong?" The first time I tried to use it the socket wrung off the thing like it was made of Play-Doh.... Good for you if your HF stuff works, I'm cursed with them.

Edited by Squishy
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I have the Skil, it's pretty good but I would like a built in light so I like that feature on the Ryobi. I just looked at specs and price favoring price, don't think you will be wrong with any of the 3.

 

Off subject, what movie is your avatar pic from? Love those Guns.

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It's from the latest Resident Evil movie. Those are movie guns I guess I've never seen them before. Milla could be holding a couple of squirrel carcases and I'd still be likin it.

 

post-41803-0-34100000-1348537936_thumb.jpg

 

Those are TDI Vectors without foregrips and stocks. I forgot there's a movie gun database;

 

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Resident_Evil:_Retribution

 

Oh, by the way, I bought the Craftsman, there's no replacement for displacement.

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personally, I wouldn't spend a cent buying chinese junk tools, which all of them are now, yes even CRAFTSMAN. I picked up a drill press made by CRAFTSMAN in 1978 for 50 bucks. it beats every one of these crap chinese tools even though it's old, it's far better quality.

 

 

fact is I replaced all the crap chinese junk that broke on me, with stuff from the 60s and 70s I find at garage sales. that includes drill bits, router bits etc I find old hack saw blades still in the package that was made here in the US, that the teeth don't wear wear off after just a few strokes.

 

it's a crying shame that in order to get quality tools now a days you have to hunt and look for the old stuff.

Edited by Matthew Hopkins
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personally, I wouldn't spend a cent buying chinese junk tools, which all of them are now, yes even CRAFTSMAN. I picked up a drill press made by CRAFTSMAN in 1978 for 50 bucks. it beats every one of these crap chinese tools even though it's old, it's far better quality.

 

 

fact is I replaced all the crap chinese junk that broke on me, with stuff from the 60s and 70s I find at garage sales. that includes drill bits, router bits etc I find old hack saw blades still in the package that was made here in the US, that the teeth don't wear wear off after just a few strokes.

 

it's a crying shame that in order to get quality tools now a days you have to hunt and look for the old stuff.

 

Just a note: Most "USA made" tools of the 60s and 70s used imported parts and castings. Current standards require a set volume to be made here to declare your product Made in USA. Some stuff is still made like the good old days, you just have to pay for it.

 

OP:

I understand you've already ordered. However I highly recommend book marking use-enco.com they have a decent selection of light to medium industrial tooling. And they are happy to sell in small volumes with decent shipping.

 

Craigslist can be great for used machines. Rockwell used to make a nice bench top drill press that I see everywhere, they are sadly very heavy (like 400 lbs). I've seen them for less then $100 with enough life in them to last another couple decades of heavy use.. If I had a need for a drill press that is what I'd buy.

 

And you want slow speed for metal. I want to say we normally drill with 150rpm or less.

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To be honest my main intention is not drilling metal. But having said this I'll say I've drilled many holes in mild steel, carbon steel with a hand drill and never paid any attention to RPM. In my ignorance I'd usually drill using as high an RPM as I could, much higher than 500 RPM I'm guessing. By posing the question "Which is best drill A or drill B?", I assumed incorrectly that the input would be centered around which of the two I showed and gave specs for was better. If my question had been "Who makes a good benchtop drill press?" or "What should I look for in a benchtop drill press?" I'd expect a wide range of suggestions. And, this tool will not be part of a shop setup or used for production, high volume purposes.

 

So in retrospect I see that I should have explained that for my purposes the two tools shown would both work and I was seeking input about the quality of each. This was my bad.

 

I checked use-enco.com and the least expensive benchtop drill press I could find there is $642.08, way more than I can, need or want to spend.

 

I appreciate all the input that's been given in this thread.

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It's from the latest Resident Evil movie. Those are movie guns I guess I've never seen them before. Milla could be holding a couple of squirrel carcases and I'd still be likin it.

 

post-41803-0-34100000-1348537936_thumb.jpg

 

Those are TDI Vectors without foregrips and stocks. I forgot there's a movie gun database;

 

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Resident_Evil:_Retribution

 

Oh, by the way, I bought the Craftsman, there's no replacement for displacement.

 

Yeah, even in that pic where she is trying to be sexy she still looks like she is planning to destroy something. She was great in the new Musketeers movie, that was better than expected. Gotta see the new RE movie now.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I do have a Ryobi bench top that my brother gave me, but I only use it for deburring. These are ALL made in China or Taiwan, an old American made one would be better. But if you want a new one I would choose one made in Taiwan over China any day. Like Banshee said none of those run slow enough for drilling in steel. The harder the material the slower you need the speed to be. I have seen people try to drill in steel at high speed and it heated up so hot that it hardened the steel. After that it just burnt up drill bits. Another thing to consider these small drills only have a 1/4 HP motor so you really need that gear reduction to get some torque. If you have to drill in steel with one of these take your time use lots of oil, pull down hard and let off repeatedly this is called peck drilling. If it starts to get hot and smoke stop and let it cool off!

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Actually the Craftsman has 2/3 HP which is the main reason I went with it as opposed to the others. And yes the peck drilling thing is something I've done but I never knew the proper name. Since this thread started I've used the DP for many things...it's amazing sometimes how useful something like this becomes when you have it on hand and do things "hands free" by raising the table. But it's still just what I'd call a household tool as opposed to a shop tool.

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Years ago that is all I had a little bench top drill press, a belt sander, and a bench grinder all from Big Lots! Along with a wire welder and hand tools I made all sorts of things from a tube frame sand rail to gun parts. I even notched DOM steel roll cage tubing with a hole saw in that little drill press. Good luck with your drill press, if you make something cool with it post some pictures!

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  • 4 years later...

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