I've been looking at getting one for a while now but I am not sure what machine to go for or what to stay away from. What do you guys have or recommend?

 

all our small machinery is either Jet or Dayton...the water jet is Flow and the cnc machines are Haas. Dayton has some of the best customer service and grainger is a large distributor for them so that makes misc parts easily accesible. We got the Jet stuff at a decent price so went ahead and got some of their tools.

 

It really depends on the amount of use and what your doing.

Personally, I have a small drill press I bought at a yard sale because I really don't use it that often. If I buy anything in the future I will be saving for an endmill to use as a drill press as well-the stability of the chuck is a huge one and having the x-y fixturing table will help with odd shaped objects. BUT they are more expensive (way more)

 

Ill second Dayton as a good manufacturer that stands behind their products.

 

another option is to buy an older used piece from a reputable company, stay away from the chinese, indian manufacturers. their stuff is just not going to last. i bought a clausing variable speed industrial machine for 100 bucks. all i had to do is clean it up, it does everything i need, and the head, if it needed new bearings is rebuildable.
regards
dave

 

I'll third the Dayton. We have an older one at our shop and parts are very easy to get when you need them. We use it very little, but it's one of those things that when you need it, it's damn nice to have. Also have a porter cable drill press at my home shop and it gets the job done but I definitely prefer the older Dayton at our main shop. It's just flat out built better.

 

I have a 1/2 hp full stand Craftsman at home. Doesn't do any serious duty and it works just fine. Got it used off craigslist.

 

Dayton is owned by Grainger. I am not a fan of Dayton but we have a dayton drill press at work and it works well. I would buy a delta.

 

We've got an older Bridgeport endmill at our shop and it's the beez neez!
Personally I have a bench top craftsman that works just fine for my needs, I've drilled out .750 holes in .375 stock aluminum with ease but than again I only use the good drill bits, HSS bits made in the US.

 

Honestly IMO a drill press is a waste of money if you're looking for any type of precision. The amount of time you'll spend fixturing a part is far too long, and then you have to worry about the amount of wander on the drill head. Even if you have a machinest vice for the drill press, you just dropped another 200-300 into a tool that isnt precise. The crappiest mill will kick a drill press' ***, and they can definitely be found for cheap if you look.