Gunsmithing Drill press recomendation

[rjacobs]

Looking to add a drill press to the shop.

Will be using it for gas block dimpling, gas block pinning, muzzle device pinning and maybe one or two other things.

I have never owned a drill press and I see prices of them ALL over the place.

Was looking at a Grizzly 7945 and adding a G8750 compound slide table to it so I can clamp a barrel into it and instead of moving the barrel I just move the slide table around similar to a mill.

Otherwise it seems you move into a drill/mill for a little under a grand, but I honestly think thats overkill for what I am looking to do with it although it does add some capabilities, I just dont know if I would ever use those capabilities.

Open to other suggestions though obviously.

 

[Wintermute]

Drill presses are a area of tooling where I heavily recommend craigslist and going old instead of new. Look for a Delta DP220 or a Delta 17" from the 40's or earlier. Also, Atlas Model 74s, and Buffalo Forge presses are good.

--Wintermute

 

[bkincaid]

+1 to what wintermute suggested regarding older good iron, and also keep an eye out for a good deal on a used mill if you have the room. I picked up a decent Burke mill a few years ago for rather cheap and retired my drill press to the wood shop.

 

[rjacobs]

Ive been trolling craigslist for a few weeks and nothing really decent shows up.

A local place has a 1970 Rockwell Delta, but its 3 phase.

While I dont think I want to spend a grand+, Grizzly has a few mill/drills that look interesting like the G0704 or the G0758.

I also dont have a ton of room so one of the smaller ones thats bench mount would work best.

I guess I basically just dont want to get a Sears or Harbor Freight or any other shitty one. For what I am going to use it for I think a new one would work out ok. I understand the draw of the older ones though as I know they are built better than the new ones and Made in the USA.

 

[wtopace]

Just a note on the compound tables, I have a cheap one that came on my Rockwell drill press I bought used (very sturdy old piece of American iron). They Chinese compound tables are pretty much trash and don't hold anything well at all. Mine has massive amounts of backlash and wobbles all over when you move it... basically just a gimmicky way to move the piece around. Since I picked up a square column milling machine (you don't want a round) a few years ago, the drill press really hasn't seen much action.

Side note: If you are wanting to indicate barrels to drill with any precision, you'll probably want a mill. Drill presses are great for hand holding wood / plastic / light metals and punching quick non-precision holes though.

Good luck on your search!

 

[rjacobs]

Side note: If you are wanting to indicate barrels to drill with any precision, you'll probably want a mill. Drill presses are great for hand holding wood / plastic / light metals and punching quick non-precision holes though.

Thats kind of the conclusion I am coming to. Just trying to figure out how to justify spending $1000+ on a smaller mill to do jobs I can realistically only charge 10-15 bucks for if anything at all. Everything I am thinking I would use this for are things that when building uppers you just kind of do. I am not imagining myself becoming like an ADCO type of place where people send their barrels/uppers in and I do the work on them and thus have direct cash flow to justify the purchase. It would only get done when I was building the upper. So pinning a gas block realistically adds maybe 10 bucks worth of "value" to the upper so I would have to build 100 uppers to "break even" on the investment. BUT at the same time its things like that(pinned gas blocks, pinned flash hiders, etc...) that set you apart from everybody else that builds custom uppers and can drive sales. Most guys dont care or dont bother to take the extra step(whether its needed or not is another argument for another time and place).

 

[Wintermute]

If you let us know where you are, some of us may be able to point you in the right direction for some old iron to do what you want. I don't necessarily agree with the need to use a mill to drill and pin barrels and that sort of thing. I do that on the drill press all the time...setup a fixture that centers the barrel with two v-blocks and allows you to adjust the barrel back and forth and clamp down on it and it's easy peasy. As for not being able to drill a precision hole with a drill press, that just means you either don't know what you're doing, or you have a crappy drill press. You may also want to check out OWWM.org which has a for sale section where some nice equipment ends up.

--Wintermute

 

[bptactical]

Bridgeport

 

[rjacobs]

I am in St. Louis.

And find me a bridgeport I can get down into my basement shop.

I wish I had more shop space for something like a Bridgeport. Hell I wish I had space for a lathe, paint booth, 5 axis CNC, etc... I could do stuff with all of them.

But as it is right now my shop space is MAXED out and even finding room for a drill press or small mill/drill is going to be tough.

 

[Wintermute]

Well, there are a couple of really nice 17" delta floor units in your area: Delta Floor Model Drill Press 110v

I would say keep looking around on CL and Ebay in your area if you need to find something cheaper or are purely limited to a benchtop for space. What I would look for on CL is a search for "press" and then dig through all the results. It will usually take a couple of weeks for what you're looking for to pop up, but when it does, you need to see it first and respond to the seller first to get it.

--Wintermute

 

[rjacobs]

I did see that one yesterday during my search and I THINK that one is a bit big for the space I have, but looks to be a nice unit. I might drive over there and look at it though its only like 20 minutes from my house.

Im trying to fit an 80 gallon compressor out in my garage and then plumb it into my shop. I dont know if I could find room for that in my garage as well and thats the only place I could get that unit. My garage is tiny.

Ideally by late summer/early fall I will be able to afford the monthly on a dedicated shop with small store front, but I just cant do it right now so I make do with what space I have. Running 2 Dillon 1050's and a Forster Co-Ax on an 8' bench takes up that whole space. My 5' bench on another wall is used for building and working on guns. I have 2 gun safes, my humidor and 2 55 gallon barrels of brass on another wall and the 4th has a shelving unit on it for powder, bullets, and misc. supplies. Something has to give to be able to fit anything else in there. Im only working in a 10x10 dedicated room so things are pretty tight for what I am doing.

 

[Wintermute]

Yeah, that delta 17 is a nice unit (same model I have...very nice accuracte machines). I normally wouldn't suggest this, but something you could do is cut the post shorter so you could run the unit on top of a bench. With those models you can also remove the lower base entirely and use the lower pole flange to bolt the unit directly to the bench if the bench is heavy enough to hold it. The table raising and lowering mechanism can also be switched up to raise/lower the head instead of the table if you wanted it to work that way (say if you setup a dedicated work holding fixture on the bench or base instead of the press table itself. That way you could keep the head at full height for when you're working on the press table, or spin the table off to the side and lower the head to work with the dedicated fixture.

In order to move it into your basement, take the motor off first, then remove the head, and then remove the table. Take each one down separately and you should be able to hand carry each component into the basement and reassemble them there.

--Wintermute

 

[chipsfan]

If you aren't in a rush- look for a Powermatic or delta with the split pulley variable speed drive. You see them sub $500 every now and then. Look for a lever on the front to change speeds- they are well built and easy to use.