Hi Dan I have a Mastercraft 16 speed floor drill press.
It has a three quarter horse powered motor. With a half inch chuck which you can remove and has a mores tapered bore which you can use mores tapered drills in. My advice is do not get carried away with the speeds, you tend to find the one that works best for you and leave it there. Buy yourself a proper drill vice and keep it bolted onto your table. I read with interest that people are using a drill press without one, a really good way of injuring yourself with a flying job being propelled at you or others nearby. Buy yourself a really good set of drills and not buy cheap crap. If you want to drill large diameter holes buy yourself some mores tapered drills up to the maximum your drill spindle will take. I read with interest about the drill stops, the one I have has a collar right near the handle for raising the drill up and down, when you have it at the desired depth rotate it to this spot and lock it off . So you can see from many messages that we all have different views on the best one. It all depends what you intend to use it for. I mainly use mine for drilling steel that is why it is important to have a really good drill press vice. I have seen too many hands ripped up when the job being drilled jammed and it started to rotate at the speed of the drill. '?Regards Ray From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan Rossi Sent: Thursday, 8 January 2009 1:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Drill press advice. Sorry, I sent the previous message before I was done. I am comparing two Grizzly presses. The Grizzly G7944 Motor: 3/4 H.P., single-phase, 110V Overall height: 64" Spindle travel: 3-1/4" Number of speeds: 12 Drill chuck: 1/8"-5/8" Spindle taper: MT #2 Range of speeds: 140, 260, 320, 380, 480, 540, 980, 1160, 1510, 1650, 2180, 3050 RPM Swing: 14" Drilling capacity: 3/4" steel Table: Precision ground cast iron Table size: 11-3/8" sq. Table swing: 360 Table tilts: 90 in both directions Approx. shipping weight: 172 lbs. Grizzly G7947 Motor size: 1 H.P., Single-Phase, 110V/220V Overall height: 64-1/2" Swing: 17" Spindle travel: 4-3/4" Number of speeds: 12 Drill chuck: 5/8" Spindle taper: MT #3 Range of speeds: 210, 310, 400, 440, 630, 670, 1260, 1430, 1650, 2050, 2350, 3300 RPM Drilling capacity: 1" steel Table: Precision ground cast iron Table size: 13-5/8" sq. Table tilts: 90 in both directions Approx. shipping weight: 275 lbs. Am I just being Tim the Tool Man Taylor by looking at the larger drill press? Do I really need that much machine? The one thing that really makes me like it is the additional spindle travel, 3 and a quarter verses 4 and 3 quarters. Plus some additional throat depth and a little more power. But will I really need that? -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] <mailto:dr25%40andrew.cmu.edu> Tel: (412) 268-9081 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
