HEC drill press

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I am looking to buy a versatile drill press . Anyone have any experiance with one of these units? I have been to sears, harbor freight, northern, etc...and  they all have the same price/features. Untill  I stumbled upon this unit.. http://www.maxtool.com/products/HEC/PT100341.asp I like the 34 inch slide feature that no one else has but Grizzly and have read horror stories about thier equipment. It is not going to be used commercial but maybe 15/20 times a year.  Drilling a hole in the center of a piece of 2'x2' plate would be so much easier with a press instead of a 3/4 inch hand drill! Thanks for your input!
Reply:Grizzly has some of the best products out there.  I've dealt with their support people to get parts for a bandsaw that wasn't even theirs and they were very helpful.  They have one of the best customer support departments that I have ever dealt with.  If shipping charges weren't so high I would own just Grizzly products.Neil
Reply:I have a similar unit at the factory.Its a very versatile and handy unit but does have draw backs.It only took a few months to burn out the motor but  it was a rather simple operation to bolt a 1  hp motor in its place ...big improvement.I have mine set up on a nylon roller system with a 6.5m feed in and 6.5m feed out its mainly used for drilling 3/16 holes in precise positions in 1/8 aluminium.Becuase its a radial arm drill we can adjust the hole position as we cant move 13m of rollers which is ideal for us.Another advantage is when drilling holes at an angle into long lengths of material. With a normal drill press  you have to tilt the table ,its not all that accurate and with long lengths you often end up hitting the floor.Having said that if your not using long lengths or the swivel head a lot there is little advantage of these units over a drill press with a adjustable vise or a small mill/drill. Infact if your using it as a drill press ...get a drill press.There is a fair bit of play on the horozontal arm also
Reply:First I have to say that what you have heard about Grizzly may or may not be true, jsut realize that the majority of the imported tooling comes from the same factories in China or else where in asia.   Especially the low cost stuff.    The problem with Grizzley and all the vendors fo this imported stuff is that you can not rely on their bottom end stuff being that good.    Even for ocassional home use.   I have some Grizzly stuff (a drill press and tool boxes) and it isn't that bad.    What I did do is look at the stuff on the show room floor first which lead me to buy a larger and more expensive drill press  than first intended.    This after looking at many alternatives.As to the  your specific query with respect to the radial arm drill press.    First don't  expect anymore quality than you can get from Grizzly, unless you inspect each machine before purchase.    Second there are advantages and disadvantages to radial arm drill presses of this type.One disadvantage is that they just aren't as stiff as a good drill press.    This may or may not be a concern for you depending on your usage.Next is the issue of alignment.  Not only do you need to square the table to the spindle but now you have to keep the spindle head square to the table.   So setup and maintenace is a bit of a bear.    Further every time you attempt to adjust the arm you loose your setup.Thoose are two of the negatives.   One positive that has alread been pointed out is the use of the machine with fixed fixturing.To be perfectly honest I would avoid this machine at al cost unless you have a specific application where you can use its features.   The reality is that if you need a drill press get a drill press.     That is one of the conventional design.    Seriously think about a larger machine also.     Agian unless you have a specfic focus where a small crappy drill press will do the job, you will find a larger machine to be more versatile.    One the other hand if you are doing precison small work, most of the low cost imported machines aren't going to cut the mustard there either.   A larger machine will have the horse power and stiffness to be truely versatile.    Without that power and stiffness all you will be doing with the machine is light duty drilling.So in reality I agree with Brett's last statement.  I'm just going to qualify it by saying don't go to small if you want versatile.    What is too small is up to you and your interest, fill in the details here and we might be able to help more.ThanksDave
Reply:I do agree with all that Wizard said wrenchit.They are a handy and chaeap solution to a fixed back guard, the next step up to a true radial arm drill is a big one. The swivel head is handy and the next step up in that direction is a geared head drill or a little mill ...again a big step up.Are they the features your after?The one we have is a different colour and name but probobly out of the same factory in China.It gets used every day and has been going for 2 years now.So its been pretty faithful , but I am under no illusions as to its quality .We would probobly replace it with the same ,the quality isnt there but it perfectly fits a niche we have.But we do have a quality mill/drill so the radial arm drill is being used as just that ... a radial arm drill. Heavy work would kill it pretty quick.Dollar for dollar I would think you could get a bigger or better quality staight drill press.Brett
Reply:I have a lot of Grizzly tools and have been very pleased with them.  Recently I decided to get a serious drill press, considered Grizzly, but bought an Ellis.  The reason for the Ellis was that it was a variable ratio (down to 0 rpm), self powered feed (works for tapping too), a really sweet vise, and has American made electronics.  It was less $ then the top end Grizzly too.
Reply:Thanks for the info guys, I got my negative grizzly stuff off of amazon.com from people that had bought them for vaious uses and not one had anything good to say. Aside from that , I am rethinking now on just getting a larger drill press and do the large stuff (that wont fit in it) by hand as I have been doing all along. Thanks ever so much for the feedback.
Reply:wrenchit;Glad to help!!!As to my Grizzly stuff I have the following form them"1.    A roll around tool box2.    A chest type too box 3     A drill pressNot exactlly a shop full of equipment from Grizzly.    But atleast it covers what you where inquiring about.    The tool boxes I've had for awhile now.    Both are doing find and I find them to be slightly better than the Kennedy's I use at work.    Maybe more than slightly.   The biggest problem is that I need another one.The Grizzly drill press I just purchased about a year ago.    I originally went to Girzzly's Pennslvania store as it is about a good half a days drive away with the intention of getting a smaller drill press.   It did not take long on the shop floor to realize that would have been a mistake.   The biggest problem with the smalelr drill presses was poor toleranceing in the spindle and quils.    You could grab the chuck and it would wobble all over the place getting much worst as the quil extended.    This indicated that the drill press was useless for percision work.   SO I went up the line until I found a model that I thought was well put together and went with that.   It was like more than double what I thought I'd be paying, but haven't had a complaint yet.    I do both metal and wood working and it has done wellNow given all the positives above I still see things where corners where cut that really shouldn't have been for the price of the machine.    The quil stop being one of them.   But the unit does drill fine and there is no wobble in the components.As an aside I went to Harbor Frieght to get my 9x20 lathe.   To this day I'm not sure that was a good thing.   The lathe does work though.   The big attraction was the reduced selling price, frankly I wouln't have one if it wasn't for that.Dave
Reply:I think you'll find the low-end machine tools from Grizzly, Harbor Freight, & Smithy to be virtually identical.  You probably have to spend a lot more money to get something that would be useable.  I've bought some dust collection equipment from Grizzly, along with some mill bits, layout tools, etc.  The only thing I bought from them that was absolute junk was a 'Micro-Adjustable Fly Cutter' (or something like that).  I'm going to send it back, as it is truly unuseable.  It was very poorly made.  Everything else I bought was quite satisfactory.Last edited by steve45; 04-30-2006 at 11:23 PM.
Reply:In adjusting the unit once its moved radially out, is there any science to this , or just a good square to get it true to the base plate. OR are the cheaper machines so far out once moved that a direct angle is impossible no matter what you do? Thanks for any input.
Reply:Originally Posted by wrenchitIn adjusting the unit once its moved radially out, is there any science to this , or just a good square to get it true to the base plate. OR are the cheaper machines so far out once moved that a direct angle is impossible no matter what you do? Thanks for any input.
Reply:It sounds pretty easy to use/ set up then. I am not going to be doing much precision stuff, just things I make and such. My main trouble is that I had a bad accident with a chainsaw last june and still dont have much use of my left hand (very weak grip and no feeling in two fingers) so using my big half inch drill with basically one hand has been a nightmare . Thats why I have been looking for all the versatility I can get at a low price. A standard drill press would meet most my needs, but there have been times that I had to pay some one to drill things for me that would not of fit on a regular drill press . The press looks like the ticket but the 100 shipping is a tough cookie to swallow.. Thanks for the input!
Reply:Hi Wrenchit;Sorry to hear about the accident.    Had to deal with a nasty broken finger last year, not fun.Until you get mobility back in yor hand I'd suggest staying away from the radial drill press.   That simply because adjustments will require wither two hands or some fixturing to align every thing up while you clamp the arm in place.    I don't know specifcally about this unit, but the weight distribution on these drill presses is a bit odd.As to getting to the point where you can actually drill the hole that you want, a radial arm drill may do what you want or it may not.    The issue is you give up a lot of stiffness.    I'm not sure what the reach on the referenced drill press was but some of the larger conventional drill presses do pretty good in that respect.    Yeah more expensive but should be easier to work with.    Do realize I don't have experience with this specfic drill press but I can imagine it having trouble drilling a 1/2" hole through steel fully extended.The other issue I see is that you seem ot think that the radial is more veresatile.    It certainly cna be in some situations but I'm willing to suggest that a conventional drill press can be also.   With a conventional drill press it is possible to use hole saws, circle cutters, sanding drums and a host of other tools that I tend to think would be to demanding for the radial arm drill.   That is my perspective of course.Best of luck no matter which way you go and take care of yourself!ThanksDave