Good-cheap drill press: (Nicad, Rogue, Tuna, CoolH, Brad AGD)

[shartley]

Originally posted by gtrsi


Time to go to sears and look around. Looks like the craftsman runs about 320.

I like the laser guided feature. Is this it:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00922925000

Yes, that is the one I have. And I love it.

[CoolHand]

Keep your eye out for the Harbor Frieght brand table top models.

Every so often, they run a special on them for $40.

Not bad a bad press for the money.

Be sure to get some kind of work holding device though (be it a vise, clamps, etc.), as I have seen too many people hurt themselves trying to drill a part they are holding in their hand.

Machine tools are very powerful, and even drill presses can mess you up if they get a hold of you. So don't give it the chance. Saftey first, foo!

Later

[GT]

Originally posted by CoolHand

Machine tools are very powerful, and even drill presses can mess you up if they get a hold of you. So don't give it the chance. Saftey first, foo!

Later

So true,
As long as the table is large enough I plan on clamping both sides of the project.

Ryan,
I found Frieghts webpage. they have a small mill for about 1600. any good for hobbiest type work?

[CoolHand]

I wouldn't spend that much money on a round column machine.

Here is a bench top Mill/Drill made by Rong Fu.

Its a little cheaper, and will be better quality.

Email me, and we can discuss in detail the pros and cons of cheap milling machines, if you like.

A word of caution here though.

Machine tools will make high end paintball markers look like small change (the only thing worse than machine tools is race cars, believe me). And, they are deceptive.

In the past year, I've spent a small fortune on machines. But then thats all you've HAVE to spend right? Wrong.

After having dropped a serious wad on machines, I then turned around, and dropped at least that much again on tooling and work holding equipment, and tool holders, and and and . . . .

You get the idea.

While you need not spend a ton of money, I would say you'd have over $2k in that Rong Fu before you could really do anything with it.

If you are just toying with the idea of a drill press now, spend the hundred bucks, and see if you like metalworking, before you spend a great bunch of money on a milling machine.

Gots to take Baby steps.

Later

[ScatterPlot]

Yeah, all that tooling and all is pretty high. Coolhand, could you take a look over in my other thread in the Workshop about my machine? Or PM me with any advice you have on the mini-mills? I don't have all the tooling and all for mine yet and I wanted to make sure what I was gonna get is what I should get.

[GT]

Originally posted by CoolHand
If you are just toying with the idea of a drill press now, spend the hundred bucks, and see if you like metalworking, before you spend a great bunch of money on a milling machine.

Gots to take Baby steps.

Later

That is kinda the idea. My thought was take a class or 2 at the local Comunity College. Classes are less than 100 bucks an hour, so cheap compared to grad school. I had hoped to jump into a class this summer. Kinda like a fun class or a break from grad school, but it looks like i have a class i can take this summer so o'well.

I figured the investment is simliar to my car fix. 3-4k just isnt going to cut it

In all honesty I have an idea for an AGD product. I could really care less if I sold very many units, however it would be cool to say: "yea, I made that."

jb