there are two issues here, namely the suitability of a drill press to press frets, and pressing frets on a neck attached to the body.
now in another, younger life i was also a farrier, and often had to drill shoes for studs and caulks. in the truck i only had an el cheapo harbor freight 8" drill press. as the steel hardened through the forging/quenching process, i had to lean on that press heavily, and it was still going strong after ten years of use.
now my forge is cold and it, my anvil and other shoeing gear sits forlorn and neglected in a back corner of the shed, and my experience pressing frets is limited as i have only ever used the technique with the technique a few times, but i can say that in those instances i never had to put anywhere near the pressure on the handle that i did when drilling shoes.
i think that if you're bending handles, breaking tables, etc., when pressing frets, either you had a woefuly defective machine, or you might want to revise your technique to utiliswe less muscle.
if you are wanting to press after the neck is assembled to the body you would need a very large, and thus very heavy arbor press indeed to fit the assembly under it, and if you were to put the sort of pressure that others have said they use, i.e., sufficient to bend handles, crack tables, etc., what do you think would happen to the body?
i think a drill press will work fine to press frets on unmounted boards, mounted unattached necks, and perhaps mounted necks up to the frets over the neckblock, though given the size of support table that would be necessary to accomplish this i would find this unduly cumbersome, and i have arms like an orang utang.
in no instance would i recommend pressing frets over the body unless you rigged some sort of jack system inside for support.
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