Drill presses

Can anyone recommend a table top drill press for safety wiring? I know these things can get expensive but I am looking for a cheaper one as safety wire holes will pretty much be the only thing I use it for. Thanks

 

Look on CL or face book fir old Delta or the like. Way better than new Chinese crap and if it breaks its fixable.

 

I got one from Harbor Freight. It works fine for homeowner level use.

 

Yes, spend your money on decent cobalt drill bits instead and a safety-wire drill jig. My cheap benchtop craftsman has been going strong for 15 years. It gets a ton of abuse. Maybe one day it will die.

 

Mainly this, I just picked up some Chinese ones that were supposed to be good but they are beyond CRAP.

 

Just buy your bolts from Probolt, and spend your time drilling the girl(s) in your life.

 

^good bits are definitely key.

 

Borrow something from Metalhead.

 

There’s a drill press stand for Dremel. Costs about $60, I think.

 

I’ve had my harbor freight drill press for over 10 years and it works fine for the odd jobs I do.

+1 for the good bits and jig

 

If you don't need super precision and just doing home use, any of the cheap ones from the regular home stores or Harbor Freight will do you just fine. Been using a cheapo black & decker drill press for 13 years. Drills just fine for basic automotive needs.

For safety-wire holes, I just be the jobber 10-packs of 1/16" of Irwin cobalt bits on Amazon. They break regularly, but they're sharp and cheap. Go through about 2 of them on a typical bike... probably most due to my lack of patience and putting too much pressure.

 

I’ll give the harbour freight one a shot. I originally was shying away from it because in the reviews it said it didn’t make much torque. I think there’s a coupon which makes it 49 bucks. Thanks everyone

 

I've used one of the HF standing one's before, made plenty of torque for drilling. Plenty to snap a 1/16" drill bit easily.

 

Harbor freight, decent bits and some oil. Mine is more that 20 years old, still works fine. Once I got the hang of drilling bolts I could usually do most of the bike with one bit.

 

I have one of these and it doesn't seem to work at all for safety wire drilling, even with a cobalt bit. No torque with a Dremel and a lot of rpm means it either gets stuck and breaks a bit or dulls the mess out of them immediately.

 

Dremels are too fast for drilling steel properly. I wouldn't waste the money.

 

Dont use harbor freight bits, a lot of times they have non-spec run-out, and are also very brittle, break easily, then waste time trying to get the broken bit out of the bolt. Buy good/spec bits.

I have like a million drill bits cataloged, and I once bought a HF set (fraction/A-Z/Wire-ga) and dumped all the brand new bits in the trash, I just needed the HB metal box to fill w good jobbers, as a spare.

 

If you are near STL, I can wire you up with a Bridgeport/Tooling.....you buy me GOOD lunch