Dremel Drill Press

My advice?  Buy a real drill press.  I have one of those in the closet.

I bought a small drill press on sale at Harbor Freight for $30, it's a real drill press and has served me well for several years.

As usual John is correct. Look for a real drill press. Look on Craigslist. I just looked in my area and they were several under $50.00.

I had the older version made for the first generation dremels. It worked well for drills 1/8" down to #96. The older version raised the table rather than lowered the drill and made it harder to break drills due to lack of mechanical advantage. I much preferred it for small bits within its capacity.

This drill press will actually outperform most larger ones priced under $500 for tiny drills. The bit is held in a collet and has minimal runout. Put a #80 drill in a pin vise and then into a typical imported drill chuck and the runout will exceed the diameter of the drill. You can add precision chucks but then the $$$$ will add up.

Pete

I have an old version of a Dremel drill press. It is probably the same one Norton has, the table moves, not the Dremel. I never use it.

I also have both a tabletop drill press, and a Minicraft miniature drill press. The full sized tabletop drill press works well for 99 percent of my uses. I last used the Minicraft drill press to drill some small holes in a reproduction pilot assembly for an American Flyer 0-8-0 switcher. The holes were for the handrails and coupler mounting screw.

I think both presses have their place.

Past tense on mine CW. I had to send my original dremel in for repairs a few years ago and Dremel returned the new version which made that drill press obsolete. There are a few of the older presses on ebay now. They won't work with the newer tools.

Pete

Thanks guys

I will look on Craigslist for an inexpensive table top drill press.  I will aslo check the Harbor Freight by my house.  

Lots of good used real drill presses out there.

I've got this little one that's fully variable that I use regularly.

If you are going to buy a drill press, you might want to keep your eyes open for a small bench top milling machine.  You will find the X-Y table very useful.

It's a bit pricey compared to the Dremel, but if you want straight holes I highly recommend this one from Micro-Mark:

http://www.micromark.com/micro...rill-press,7797.html

I've had mine a bit over 10 years (was a little cheaper back then) and it's still going strong. Got the X-Y table and small vice for my birthday the next year.

The small cast iron drill press from Harbor Freight is the one.  Wait for a sale.

i have one in each hangar, one in the kitchen, and one converted to a rivet-embossing tool.  Some stuff at HF is junk, but not these things.  Gunrunnerjon is correct.

rivet machine.  But you can see how substantial this $35 press is.

opinion.