Accessories

Great Machine
My husband is extremely pleased with the drill press. All of the parts arrived safely and assembly was quite easy.

A good solid drill press
A well built drill press solid enough for accurate work.

The assembly manual states that unless the stand if fastened to the floor, an auxiliary stand of 3/4 plywood is necessary. I made mine about 6 inches to either side, and a couple of feet more in the front for convenience in standing. I put thin strips around part of the edge to slip a dolly under it in case I want to move it. Oh, and if you want to use 230 volts, you need to change the switch.

The laser sight is quite convenient, but the mounting system is not yet well developed. It is tricky to align. All in all, though, a good tool for the price.

Delta Drill Press
I have been wanting a drill press for some time now and just making do without. But, now that I have the delta 17-959L I am really happy with the results. The extra long quil length has come in handy already. I thought the laser would be pretty useless. But, I was wrong take the time to set it up properly and it works really well.

Does the job, but...
I bought this drill press from Amazon. Some time ago I bought into Amazon Prime for free, two-day shipping, and Amazon;s web page for this item says that it is eligible under that plan. However, it is so heavy that it had to be shipped by motor freight (ABF, in my case). It was still free shipping, but it took a week to get here. It arrived a couple of days ago and I just completed assembling it.

My initial view is that it is a very good machine that will do everything that I might ever expect of it. I especially like the laser cross-hair feature, which is very accurate. There are a few annoyances, however. I understand why Delta has its stuff manufactured in Taiwan or China, but in my view, low-cost product need not mean poor documentation, design or quality. Take the documentation, for example. On the "carton contents" page of the instruction manual there is picture of a "drift key" that is one of the dozens of parts that are packaged separately, i.e. not assembled. No where else in the entire manual is there any further reference to this piece of hardware. What the devil am I supposed to do with that?

Also, there were some changes in design that didn't make it into the manual. For example, the manual references two "cord clamps" that are supposed to stick, via self adhesive, to the side of the drill press head and serve as a mechanism to keep the cord for the light out of the way. These have apparently been replaced by a screw-on clamp. This is a much better idea - I suspect the stick-on variety lasted about two days, maximum - but there is no threaded hole anywhere for the screw that is supposed to mount and hold the clamp, and no reference of any kind in the manual! So what do I do with that item?

In addition to document errors or omissions, there are a few design flaws. They're minor, mind you, but annoying nonetheless. Take the lasers: they represent great idea and a VERY useful feature, but the initial setup and adjustment if far from simple or intuitive. I bet that a first-year industrial design student at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) could have easily figured out a way to build in two simple, externally-accessible adjustment screws into each laser unit, one of which would adjust the laser alignment to vertical while the second would adjust the laser line left or right. But instead, Delta's idea of how to accomplish the task is to disassemble each laser housing and futz around inside them. It works, but its a time-consuming pain in the butt. As Doctor Phil says, "what were they thinking?"

Here's a REALLY minor design flaw, but for me the most annoying: there's no place to store the chuck key. How difficult or expensive would it have been to modify the table support with a bump-out in the casting through which a vertical hole could have been drilled to hold the key? I have a Craftsman bench-top drill press that was my father's, purchased, I'd guess, in the '40s. It has just such a provision for storing the chuck key which, for that very reason, has never been lost or misplaced. This proves that the idea is not new. Furthermore, I suspect that had there ever been a patent on the idea, it has long since expired. I fully expect to be spending hours - over the next few years, of course - trying to figure out where I put that key.

All of the above negatives, however, do not deter from the fact that this drill press will do most any job the average home shop might ever require of it, for a very reasonable price.

Oh, by the way, the assembly instructions say to install the drill press head after assembling the column to the base. Specifically, it says simply: "Place the drill press head on the column as far as it will go." Well, if you wanted to lift it up onto the free-standing base and column assembly, it'd require at least three burly guys and two rugged step ladders or a block and tackle arrangement; that head unit is VERY heavy (motor pre-installed at the factory). Instead, I laid the assembled base and column down on the floor and slid the head onto the column there by my lonesome. Then just my 5'0" wife and I were able to lift the fully assembled tool back up to vertical. MUCH easier!!

Great Drill Press
I got this drill press about 2 months ago. So far it has been nothing but a pleasure to use. It has been a very worth while upgrade from my prior Delta bench top model. The assembly of the machine was relatively easy, although part of the table support appeared to be installed backwards within the packaging (it was easy to reverse the piece). Once assembeled the machine feel very sturdy and well built. The table is great and easy to adjust. While the machine does vibrate slightly when in operation, there is virtually no runnout on my unit at any speed. The laser is a nice feature but not altogether necessary. It took about 10 minutes to adjust it properly, but in practice I have not used it that much. Really the only trouble that I have had was trying to convince/bribe a friend to help me to put it together (definitely do not try to do this yourself). I would definitely recommend this purchase to others. Its a great unit that can be had a reasonable price (I managed to find one for $450 shipped).