Camaroholic

iTrader: (1)

I'm shopping for a drill press.

I'd really like a new one, made in USA, for $750 or less.

I cannot find any.

At all.

Delta is not American made any more, they're China. Nor is JET, Wilton, Palmgren, Grizzly, etc.

Right now the leading candidate is a Palmgren 17" at $529 from Amazon.com, but I'd spend more for made in USA.

Does anyone know of an American made drill press in this price range? Or has our soul been sold?

BADD SS

iTrader: (4)

Buy an old Buffalo or something off ebay....

I bought a 3phase buffalo at a tag sale for $10, since I was the only one able to haul it away with a 3/4 ton truck. Threw a 2 hp single phase motor on it, and it is the beefiest, most heavy duty awesome thing ever. Turns at like 200 rpm... LOVE it.

Seriously, old stuff is just made way better anyways....

Drew04GTO

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I'm with BADD SS on this, find an old something American made and convert it all do a newer electric motor with decent motor controls. I'd look for an old Rockwell or something. When I was still in the machine shop at work we had an ancient (60+ years old) Rockwell lathe that still had the original hydrostatic clutch, gearset and every bearing in the spindle head had been in there since new. It was a seriously stout machine that I don't think can be rivaled by anything new. I know you're not looking at a lathe but just judging by the quality of it I wouldn't hesitate to buy a drill press from the same era. This, however might turn out a bit expensive, some of these older machines hold their value quite well.

Enco has actually stepped up to the plate here recently. Yeah they're chineese made but they still are quite decent quality, product support seems to be quite good with the company. I broke a shift lever on the other day on my Enco at work when I let someone unexperianced use it and they shifted under power. Enco had parts overnighted for free (still under warranty) the following morning and had it back up and running by the end of the week.

Camaroholic

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I'd love to find an old USA made, but Waco isn't really known for having a lot of machine shops selling used equipment around here... and hitting Houston/Dallas really isn't an option right now (especially with gas prices the way they are). The few drill presses I've seen locally have been rusted out or flat worn out looking. Attached is one example of a used local drill press...

I went ahead and ordered a Steel City 17" drill press. It's an import (there are no domestic drill presses in the sub-$1k range). It gets much love on woodworking forums though. 6" of quill travel, quill lock, and a number of other features.

I saw that the Delta 17-959L press is on sale at Amazon today for $549 shipped, which looks like a pretty good deal... except I see so much "hate" for newer Delta machines because of the lack of quality control. Didn't want to roll the dice there. Steel City was formed by people that used to work for Delta...

I have yet to see 1 bad review on the Steel City drill press (and there are comments all over woodworking forums about them). The others all seem neutral or mixed. And the Palmgren that I was considering - went from $529 last week to $699 this week. It got nixed.

$555 shipped for the Steel City.

TT632

iTrader: (3)

Dam, You would think someone would take advantage of this. At least it could be made on this Continent instead of our money going 1/2 way around the world to a country that doesn't buy from us unless we make the product there.

95 droptopz

Not much of anything made here anymore. Everybody is cutting cost and only care bout making more money so they have it made over seas for next to nothing and then still try to sell it her for same price it was when made in the USA.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Yep, its sad. Almost impossible for the average hobbiest to buy new made in the US tools....and a lot of the imports are just junk. I am prettymuch just finding used ancient made in the USA stuff and rebuilding it or just building it from scratch.

A couple weeks ago I needed a press to get the receiver out of a trailer hitch...I have been planning to build one, but haven`t got around to it. My friend has a 12 ton import....so we put the trailer hitch into it and put some pressure on it. we kept increasing the pressure and it started to move.....except that the receiver was not pushing out, the press was bending. I couldn`t believe it, they didn`t even build the press sturdy enough to hold the bottle jack that they put in it. That just reassures me that building my own press is a good idea....now for the hard part...finding a US made bottle jack.

Camaroholic

iTrader: (1)

Yep. It's truly sad.

Supposedly Steel City actually owns the factory in China where their tools are made... at least they're not like other manufacturers and just outsource to whoever is low bid for manufacturing.

As for the jack, I know the import 12 ton well... that's an A frame model, right? Those suck. Hard. I have the Harbor Freight 20 ton model, and it has done everything I've ever asked of it (and I use it a lot). Gears, axle bearings, control arm bushings, T56 rebuilds, you name it. My only complaint about the 20 ton model is that it's built with a lot of left-right slop (probably 3/16"-1/4" or so), so it's possible that as the ram comes down and starts to meet with the part under tension, the ram part begins to twist and shift a little. Most of the time this doesn't have any impact on actions, but sometimes it "looks" a little questionable. I blame it on sloppy construction. The press is basically angle and channel iron welded together. I bought it never used for $100. At that price it was worth it, even if it's sloppy at times. I wouldn't use it for precision work, but not much I do is very "precise".

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

The press is actually a H frame, IIRC it was from jegs.

I am only considering making one myself because I have a bunch of 3/8" 6x3" C channel laying around.

I try my best to stay away from the harbor freight stuff, but its just so hard. Most of the stuff that I buy there is just the disposable crap(paintbrushes, tools that will be "modded" to fit what I need etc) The only big tool that I bought from them was a 220V wire feed welder. So far it has been good, only thing is sometimes the main power switch doesn`t want to turn on But for $175 out the door with an extended warranty I couldn`t pass it up, no way to buy a miller or any of the US brands for anywhere close to that...even used

Of course theres the other side, like the holesaws I bought. I figured its just for cutting wood, they should be able to hack it. Those things wobble all over the place, I would have a better chance of burning a round hole through the wood with a torch Waste of the 3.99 I spent.

yankee617

There is a website that will help you find things made in USA. Try www.madebyyankees.net or www.madebyyankees.com

Jakes Dad

In place of E-Bay - I would look at Used Equipment Dealers.

Jakes Dad

Camaroholic

iTrader: (1)

Well the new drill press just got here (delivered to my work)... in the back of my Suburban now.

Guess I'm gonna have to take it out of the box piece by piece. They won't let me borrow the forklift... (shipping weight was listed as 210 lbs)

I plan to use my engine hoist to move the head around.