Drill Press - Bench Top or Floor Standing?

[rjtjrt]

Probably a stupid question but any reason to prefer a floor mounted drill press over benchtop drill press for RV building, or in general? Obviously bench top takes up bench space, and floor one takes up floor space!, so part of decision depends on whether you have shortage of bench space, or floor space, but any other considerations?
John

 

[jsharkey]

I mounted a bench top one on a small shelf cantivered off one of the wooden support pillars in my basement workshop - so it sort of became floor mounted.
What ever works for you.
Jim Sharkey

 

[N316RV]

Go with a floor model

I have been using a bench mount for years. Bought during my model airplane days. I got a Rigid floor mount from Home Depot at Christmas. It also has life time warranty which is kind of unusual for a power tool. I mounted it on a dolly so it could be rolled around the shop. Larger table is much nicer when you need to securely clamp something down (like when using a fly cutter)

Alan Jackson
RV-9A in work
Hartselle, AL

 

[John Courte]

I love my floor-standing Harbor Freight radial-arm special. The only gripe is, when it's in the way, it's REALLY in the way. But it's nice not needing bench space for it.

 

[Greg Arehart]

I've been using a benchtop and am happy with it. If I really need to do something that requires more throat distance, I just swing it over the edge of my benchtop (it's bolted down, of course). But it's probably just personal preference.

greg

 

[longranger]

My Harbor Freight floor model P.O.S. drill press will drill a 1/4 inch hole with a 1/8 bit. In trying to replace it, I wanted to free up some floor space by going to a bench model, but it's tough to find one that will turn less than 500RPM for using a fly cutter safely. I found this one which is simply the 12-speed floor model with a shorter column. Unfortunately, they are out of stock until August. (Slow boat from China...)

Others have had success running a fly cutter at 500 RPM, so I may end up going the small 5-speed bench-top route, since fly cutting is a relatively rare operation.

 

[rzbill]

Speed and wheels, not height

Probably a stupid question but any reason to prefer a floor mounted drill press over benchtop drill press for RV building.
John

Minimum spindle speed will be your best shopping guide. 500RPM is common on the $100 models. Can use it for fly cutting if you CLAMP YOUR WORK, use light pressure and a backup board under your work. I try to stay away from using it though. I picked up some cheapo Harbor Freight hole saws that I prefer to use on 1/8" stock and above. Grind the "set" off of the outward facing teeth and they make a better hole. Still needs handwork to smooth out the cut edge, but its safer than the fly cutter on heavy stock.

I find the bench top unit to be satisfactory. I have it mounted on a heavy roll around table along with a few other power tools.

Meager photo here: middle of the page and the one at the bottom

http://websites.expercraft.com/rzbill/?q=workshop

 

[robpar]

I have found that bench mount drill presses generally get "mounted" and are attached to the bench. Floor mount drill presses generally do not get mounted and are rather top heavy.

This is of course not the fault of the floor mount but does seem to be the case most of the time. Mounting it to a large piece of plywood helps with the tippiness (if that is actually a word) but I have always preferred the bench mounted drill presses for that reason.

Bob Parry