Browse our complete collection of benchtop drill press reviews, floor drill guides, chuck & vise setups, and maintenance tips.
Nova, made by Teknatool, took a look at the drill press, a tool whose basic design had not changed in a century, and rebuilt it around a computer-controlled direct-drive motor. No belts, no pulleys, just a dial that changes speed instantly and a m...
Before you pull the chuck off a Delta 11-990, it is worth asking why, because a fair number of chuck removals are really chasing a wobble that the chuck was never causing. An unseated taper, a bit of grit, or a worn arbor can all look like a bad c...
A pulley that has spun on the same spindle for twenty years does not want to leave, and that is the whole challenge here: not the method, which is simple, but the corrosion and set screws quietly fighting you. Removing the pulley from a drill pres...
Harbor Freight presses are where a lot of woodworkers start, so it is natural to ask whether a mortising attachment will turn one into a square-hole machine. It can, sometimes, but the honest answer hinges on one thing people skip: mortising attac...
There's a gap in most buying guides between "benchtop hobbyist" and "full industrial floor press," and the 3/4 HP drill press motor lives squarely in that gap. It's the motor class you reach for when a 1/3 HP machine has stalled on you one too man...
Walk through enough garages built in the 1980s and 1990s and you will keep meeting the same machine: a sturdy Craftsman drill press, bought at Sears, still running decades later. The "3/4 HP" label is one people search for constantly, and it sits ...
The Craftsman 150 series drill press is a common find, and getting a pulley off one is the gateway to nearly every drive repair: a cracked pulley, a worn belt path, or reaching the spindle bearings. On these presses the pulley can be more stubborn...
The first time you stand in front of a drill press, it looks like it should be obvious. Pull the handle, hole appears. Then the workpiece spins out of your hand, or the bit screams and turns blue, or the hole comes out shallow on one side, and you...
Whether you are selling a press gathering dust or eyeing one from a listing, the same question comes up: what is it actually worth? The honest answer is that a used drill press has no single value, it swings widely based on brand, condition, and w...
The single most useful thing you can tape inside your drill press cover is a metal speed chart, because metal is unforgiving about speed in a way wood is not. Run a bit too fast in steel and the edge overheats and dulls in seconds; run it right an...
The thickness of the steel changes everything, and almost no one tells beginners that. The speed that drills a clean hole in thin 1/8-inch flat bar will cook a bit halfway through a 1/2-inch block, because the thicker the steel, the longer the bit...
A friend once showed up at my shop with a bandage on his hand and a story he was not proud of. He had set a small steel plate on his drill press table, held it with his fingers, and let the bit grab. The plate spun, the corner caught him, and he l...
