Dremel drill press for gunsmithing?

[nannah]

Hi, i wonder if you think a Dremel drill press or a drill press stand can be used effectively for gunsmithing projects?

I am a student so my budget is very tight.

Thanks in advance.

[R3104D3R]

You'd be surprised what you can accomplish with just a steel file and a drill. Although if I told an anti that, they'd want tools banned.

You might want to take this question to a gunsmithing site. I can't imagine a dremel being too useful for casting boolits.

[Nueces]

Nannah has posted his question quite properly in our gunsmithing section. R3104D3R, you'd be surprised how much smithing and tool discussion occurs right here.

Nannah, I've been in your shoes. Were I there again, I believe I'd swallow hard and get a small Horror Fright drill press, then go through it and tune it up. It offers much more stiffness and steadiness than would any stand for use with a Dremel or hand drill. If that is beyond your means, look on Craig's List or ebay for a drill press stand and use it slowly and carefully with as good a power drill as you can acquire.

You can help out a flimsy setup by careful layout and deep punch marks. Good luck, it's a fun journey.

[waksupi]

I have built guns numbering in the hundreds. I see absolutely no use for such a machine. A regular drill press is a necessity for gunsmithing.

[lefty o]

bought one of those little dremel drill press stands many years ago, in a word- worthless. it may work for some craft type stuff, but not worth a dime for anything to do with a gun.

[bangerjim]

Dremel stuff is a weekend handyman's tool that tricks him into thinking it can really do stuff! Total waste of time. The only thing I use one for is sharpening my lawnmower blade ON the mower! Or maybe sloppy cutting off of a 1/8" soft steel bolt?

They are inaccurate, noisy, and unreliable for any kind of precision work. Save your money.......and buy a GOOD drill press with solid no-wobble quill, adjustable table, and 1/2" drill chuck. HF is your VERY LAST choice in that arena, unless you plan on spending lots of time and frustration "tweaking" it. It can be done, but you need BIGGER and BETTER tools to do it right !!!!!!! I did it for a friend and it was a PITA.

banger

[prsman23]

What would be a good recommendation for a decent press. Any of the craftsman stuff ok? 2-300 dollar range.

[paul h]

I've had a grizzly drill press for about a decade and it's been a great tool. All the lower priced stuff is going to be made in Asia. https://www.grizzly.com/products/G7943

It's just beyond the upper end of your range and you'll still need a good vice and I'd recommend replacing the chuck with a quality 1/2" keyless chuck.

I think when you get into smaller drill presses they seem to fall into the category of more toy than tool. You need a certain degree of rigidity in a machine tool to be of any use.

[bangerjim]

Today it is VERY hard to recommend a good inexpensive AND accurate press. Most, as said, are ChiCom made and are a pile of garbage. Older (not the word OLDER!) units from Griz, HF, Enco, even Sears were much higher quality. Today, it is a roll of the dice.

I personally would NOT buy something I could not touch & feel and check out action, quill wobble and slop, and overall mechanical solidity. Hope you live in an area that allows you to do that. For my son, we went thru 3 different floor model presses (at the local store) B4 I got one that was to my standards. Quill wobble is the biggest thing. That and overall quality mechanical movement and action. I paid $495.00 for that one for him for Christmas.

bangerjim

[skeet1]

I have a small Delta drill press the same size as the little Harbor freight drill press and I use it all the time. I think if I was short on funds I would buy the small Harbor Freight as Nueces suggests, I suspect it will be more useful than you might imagine.

Ken

[country gent]

Check in papers, local internet sites, and auction fliers listings. A used drill press in good shape can be a big savings. I have an old chigago industrial drill press inthe garage 5/8" chuck 14" square table on dovetail almost 8" of spindle travel with a 1 hp motor on it. I gave $100.00 for it when I bought it. Its a very solid powerful drill press and has years of life left in it. I also have a very old bench top on A stand that is 3 speeds and flat belt driven. 1/2" chuck with only a 6" round table. Solid machine but a pain to work with. I gave $10.00 for this one as they couldnt get a bid on it. I keep it because it "looks neat". Used equipment can be a big savings if you know what your looking for and what to look at. The other thing to keep in mind is that the actual machine is ussually the cheapest part, its all the tooling and set up equipment that costs the money. Having enough room is another issue.

[DougGuy]

I have a large 1970s or 1980s Taiwan Freddie drill press that was bought used in 1985, with a gifted 3/4" Jacobs chuck that has been great. It's Asian, but not Asian junk. I think I paid $150 for it. I have gotten hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of use out of it. If there is one tool that I own that violates the rule of "you get what you pay for" this drill press would be it.

[JSnover]

Contrary to popular belief, Asians can build precision tools. Even the stuff that literally comes from the same factory can be sorted into three categories: Junk you regret buying. Good enough for most purposes at a reasonable price. Surprisingly good (holds a tighter tolerance than most of us need and lasts several decades without major malfunctions).
That's why you can find virtually identical machines in the same catalogue at different prices; they know which ones are good and tight and they charge accordingly.

[dragon813gt]

The HF drill press is garbage. I took it back immediately. You have to be careful w/ all the low priced ones because they are the same HF drill press w/ a different paint job and maybe some different options. The Skill drill press is the same HF one. But it doesn't have as many speeds, doesn't have all the anti rusting agent all over it and is more finished. Even the packaging is exactly the same. But even that drill press is junk. If I didn't need one that day I wouldn't have bought it.

[bstone5]

I have used the Dremel drill press to drill very small holes. The speed with the dremel tool will be high enough for very small drills.
Some coolant and a little time is required to drill very small holes in steel or stainless steel without braking too many drill bits
The press is not very rugged and some care must be used but for very small hole drilling the machine works.
A regular drill press is used most of the time in most shops.

[bear67]

I follow tools on Craigslist several times a week. There are literally hundreds of drill presses available in the eastern half of Texas and Oklahoma. You can find some fairly good buys and check the runout on the spindles with an indicator.

I need to take pictures of the finished product, but I paid $10 for a Delta/Rockwell made in late 50s. He was asking $50, but this one was being stored in a chicken house--feathers, dirt, birds nests ect. . I cleaned it up, sandblasted, painted and rewired it. Original motor needed bearings, but I had a 1/2 HP #56 frame 1725 motor in my "spare parts repository" and put it on. It was not a full floor model, but has 48" shaft, so I built a metal stand with some storage below. Can rebuild the Delta motor when I need it for something else. Those motors are a "booger" to remove the offside bearing because they are build with a surrounding cage. With paint and new belt, I probably have $28 in this machine. I have drill presses in 4 shop locations and get by with an older Chinese press in the cabinet shop, but it runs dead on. I have a Walker Turner 16 speed press that I bought for $40 back in the sixties. Look around and have some patience. Good tools last a lifetime unless rode hard and put away wet in their lives.

Not knocking what you have and use, but Dremel tools look like tinkertoy tools to me. I use a good Foredom shaft and chuck when I need to get into small spaces and need flexibility. Quality tools last a lifetime and HF type stuff usually just wastes my money and gives me heartburn. My opinion and worth every penny you paid for it, but then I have lots of tools that are older than this old man and still great to work with.

[John Taylor]

Many years ago I had one that is close to this one http://www.grizzly.com/products/5-Sp...ll-Press/G7945 . I looked at the local Cregslist and saw a bench top drill press for $50 that had a vice with it. When I was young I bought a unimat lathe that had a 3" swing and 7" between centers. It was a complete waist of money because it could not do anything useful.

[Jeff Michel]

Check with local machinery dealers, I picked up a 15" Buffalo with an albrecht drill chuck for 100.00. Old, heavy and real accurate. If you go asian, try to find something from Taiwan, the Chi-com stuff is still pretty inconsistent from a quality standpoint. The dremel tool is handy for polishing cylinder flutes and not much else.

[Blanket]

Check the internet auction companies that do industrial plant auctions such as IRSauctions.com and buy a real drill press. I recently brought one back to a guy at our company that was in great shape, solid floor US made model with a Jacobs ball bearing chuck he bought for 75$ Make certain to read the fine print and contact the millwright to understand the shipping costs. By the way machine building was my career for 25 years and now I manage the sale of assets for a very large corp.

[Blue2]

I would suggest that any thing less than a small mill/drill is not worth buying for precision work. If you make a mistake drilling scope base holes and similar you are pooched. Remember you only get one chance to make a first impression. Also --Good tools make you look smart.
You can often fix a mistake but it is a lot better to get it right the first time.And consumes a lot less time in the end.