[Closed] Drill press/pillar drill recommendations?

The Titan one is great for the money

Just make sure you get one with spindle travel and chuck capacity to suit. I've got a SIP pillar drill and it has been reliable.

Used Startrite or Ajax from Ebay, even an old abused one will still be better than a rebadged Flying Pigeon.

If you can look for a local second hand Meddings.Fobco,Startright,Kerry then its worth holding out for one, they might need a lick of paint and cleanup but you will get a tool for life and things like a 5" spindle travel that are unobtainable with new drills.
If it has to be now and delivered then look at the sellers willingness to swap out a dud, so Axminster tools, Record Power, for good warranty/spares backup.

Axminster stuff is generally pretty good. Worth a look.

When I was looking some had a pretty small speed range. Some didn't go slow enough for my liking.

Second hand might be difficult at the mo, though I can see the sense in that I have an Axminster table saw which has been a good buy, so I'll look at them. Also looked at machine mart.

Have a look anyway, pretty sure I picked up my Startrite Mercury for that money, did involve a 114 mile round trip mind. One belt later and its running sweet.

i bought a used meddings off Mcmoonter on here.

its been a belter bit of kit. even working with steel plate and batch drilling 20mm holes in.

Ive had the misfortune to use the one that everyone rebadges for about 150 quid and it just feels floppy by comparison.

- FWIW even as a 2 man lift the meddings is a mission. you can throw the generic one about

Used Startrite or Ajax from Ebay

One thing to watch on ebay... what looks in a picture like a bench mounted drill can turn out to be a very robustly proportioned floor-stander when you go to pick it up 🙂

Had a peruse of eBay and most of those that look decent use 3 phase power. I know you can get converters or swap the motor to suit a domestic supply but that seems like a lot of hassle/expense. How did those with Meddings etc get round that?

How did those with Meddings etc get round that?

single phase ones can also be available but get snapped up - 3 phase are harder for sellers to find a home for (so can be a bargain for folk with a 3 phase supply available (waves) but I try and buy single phase anyway in case I move.

Probably less expense /bother to change the motor on a 3 phase than run a converter unless you plan to acquire other 3 phase tools.

I have a Clarke one, old now but looks almost identical to their £85 budget one. It's ok...ish. Main issue is the table can flex slightly with too much pressure. It's fine for softwood and smaller holes in hardwood. If I'm honest I rarely use it though.

3 phase can be a mixed blessing, yes it's more cost but single phase motors are still relatively cheap and they are agricultural so easy to wire up.

If you want to spend more money on an inverter then you get digital speed control which gives it a whole new level of versatility, if you need it, great but if not then I'd stick to a normal motor. More useful on 5 speed machines like mine than the likes of a 10 speed with a step down gearbox.

I saved this from, in all likelihood, being scrapped at work. It is three phase but runs from a VSD system (Mitsibushi inverter and 'pendant' switchgear) I bought from Newton Tesla - wasn't cheap but came with full instructions and largely pre-wired.

That looks the business househusband 👍

I got a s/h Meddings bench top drill for about that sort of budget. It's brilliant, ancient, and very, very heavy. Came with a single phase motor, but otherwise a 3ph converter is pretty easy to set up. Unless spending an awful lot more I would go secondhand - new stuff for £200 will be cheap and nasty.

Depending on what you're using it for you might find a drill guide to be more useful. For my work they certainly are. You use your existing drill but use the guide to get better precision. From a £10 cheapy (which keeps holes perpendicular) to the brilliant £160 UJK Technology Drill Guide with 10mm Chuck from Axminster which lets you drill at angles as well.

My needs sound a bit like the OP's plus quite a lot of (flying) model making. I bought one of these and it's been ace.

It's my birthday shortly and the temptation was to mail order one from Axminster, Machine Mart or similar so I could have it nowish as a lockdown morale booster. However I'm persuaded by the argument that I will get much better value and quality by buying some second hand British engineering. So I will have to wait till the zombie apocalypse is over. Thanks for your input everyone 👍

So I will have to wait till the zombie apocalypse is over.

Once the apocalypse is over the place to look will be industrial auctioneers. Quite a few small businesses will doubtless go under.

Yeah sadly I think you're right. It will feel a bit vulture like doing that in those circumstances, but it isn't going to change anything whether I do or don't, so I might as well.

It will feel a bit vulture like doing that in those circumstances

While its not exactly a feel good exercise at least the creditors see some money - maybe stops it being a chain of bankruptcy's

Avoid machine mart, for what you get they are over priced, their house brand "Clarkes" can be found cheaper elsewhere