Official Luthiers Forum!

I finally broke down and bought a new drill press to replace my old 9" benchtop model piece of junk. I know others here may be contemplating new tools with all that Christmas spending money, so here is how I decided on the Delta 17-965.

First, I was considering Jet, Delta, Ridgid, Grizzly, and just about anything else in the $300-450 range. The Jet and Delta both had 3/4 hp motors and a swing of 16+ inches. The Delta quill stroke was 4 7/8 while the Jet was 4 3/8. The kicker was that the Delta was the ONLY drill press in this price range where you can lock the quill down at any height. This is a huge advantage to me since I know I'll be using the Wagner Safe-T planer and Gilbert sanding disk a lot and it's much easier to lock the quill down than to keep raising the table up in small increments.

This will be my first Delta tool but it seems most people are happy with the quality of them. The runout on the press is only .002 with the quill fully extended. I'll write a follow-up with my impressions once the tool arrives.

As a final point, I feel a little guilty I didn't buy the drill press through the OLF tool shed, but the price through Amazon was over $225 more than the average price everywhere else. That's just a little too much of a difference. Amazon seems hit and miss on many of their prices.

Cheers!

John John Elshaw39086.9392824074

Wow, John
That thing is going to seem like a monster after using a 9" one. Good for you.

I have the Delta 12" bench model. Used it for five years and it really works well, as a drill, spindle sander, and a fret press. Had to put a new pulley belt on it this year and couldn't find anything locally that would fit. Had to order it directly from Delta. That 16" swing will be great.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I have the Delta 16.5 John.I like it very much,and use it a lot with no complaints.I've had it about 3 years.It works well with the Wagner.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755