Is a drill press worth buying for DIY?

Accuracy in drilling is almost entirely about holding the bit square and steady, and a person holding a drill cannot do either as well as a cast iron column. That is the whole argument for a drill press. Whether the argument applies to you depends on how often you need a hole to be right rather than merely present.

Safety

Step by step

1. Understand what perpendicular really buys.Dowel joints that close, Forstner holes with flat bottoms, tapped threads that start straight, and holes in round stock that come out the other side where you intended. Handheld, all four are approximations.
2. Value the depth stop.A press has a calibrated stop on the quill. Twenty identical holes stop at exactly the same depth without you watching, which is what makes shelf-pin holes and stopped holes possible.
3. Value the low speeds.Large Forstner bits and hole saws want a few hundred revolutions a minute; steel wants slower still. Most handheld drills cannot go that slow with any torque, and running fast is exactly what burns bits and work.
4. Check the throat and the travel before buying.Throat depth is how far from the column you can reach, which limits the size of panel you can drill. Quill travel is the maximum depth of one plunge. Both are the specifications people wish they had read.
5. Consider a bench model over a floor model.A bench-top press does everything a home workshop needs and can be stored. Floor-standing presses are for long work held vertically, which is rare domestically.
6. Look at the cheaper substitutes honestly.A drill guide — a jig your handheld drill clamps into — gives perpendicularity for a fraction of the price and no bench space. A drill stand does the same with more rigidity. Neither gives you low speed or a proper depth stop.
7. Set it up properly if you buy one.Check the table is square to the chuck with an engineer's square, fit a sacrificial plywood sub-table so the bit does not hit cast iron on breakout, and keep a clamp permanently attached to the table.

Tips

• Speed on most presses is changed by moving a belt between stepped pulleys. It takes thirty seconds and almost nobody does it, which is why so many drill press holes are burnt.
• A machine vice bolted to the table transforms the tool for metalwork, and is much safer than clamping by hand.
• Second-hand drill presses are one of the best used tool buys there is — the castings do not wear out, and a worn belt or a dry quill are cheap fixes.

Alternatives

• Drill guide jig: A small frame your own drill clamps into, giving a perpendicular or angled hole. Cheap, portable, and the right answer for most people who only want square holes.
• Drill stand: A column and base your drill mounts on. More rigid than a jig, with a rough depth stop, but limited by your drill's speed range.
• Self-centring dowel jig: For the specific case of dowel and cabinet holes, a jig gives repeatability without any machine at all.

Questions people ask