I recently brought home a large Millport mill and I'm wondering If I should keep my drill press? My drill press is the largest one they sold at HF. It's an alright press but I'm not sure if I should hang on to it or not? Do you all use both or just try to stick with 1?

Thx

Funny I was thinking the same thing. I have the largest drill press and the next one down.

I was thinking about keeping one of them for tube notching and taking the other somewhere else.


What are the specs on your new machine?

If your drill press is like mine (simple open/adjustable height table on freestanding upright column), I'd keep it around. I purchased a verticle mill about a year ago and I use it for all my drilling needs, however, there are times when the old press is better suited for the job. If I have an odd size or oversize piece that I cannot fit into the vise clamp on the mill, and I do not want to take the time to remove the vise clamp, I simply clamp the piece to my old drill press as the table is open underneith and allows clamping with a bar clamp or visegrip clamps.

Even more important however, is I use my old press for all my tube notching and I leave my notching jig attached most of the time. It's much easier to fit a bent hoop or odd shaped piece of tubing into the old bench press than onto the mill.

That's my Hole opinion.

I'd keep the DP and keep it setup for either hole notching or keep a counter sink in it to clean up holes.

If you have the space, keep it.

What are the specs on your new machine?

Millport Machine, 80rpm up to something fast(technical measurement :D) 9x46" table or whatever the common size is. Still in good shape. 3Phase motor. Gonna run it off my RPC. Best part is the guy gave me all his tooling and collets with it.

My notcher is the Notch Master from JD2 so I can't use it in the press but I will keep it around for a while to see what special gap it fills.. I have a small cheapo Drill press for the small bits that I use occasionally.

I did build a nice dolly to move the mill on. (It weighs 2400 lbs) 4 700lb casters on custom brackets with a 1.5"x.25" wall sq tube frame. Sits about .75" off the ground. I think i'm gonna build a similar setup for my lathe so its easier to move in the shop.

I asked the same thing when I got my mill. The concensus is keep a drill press in the shop; mills run out of Z space rather quickly.

Keep it! If you have your Mill set up for something and don't want to break it down just to poke a hole in a bracket just use the drill press.

Let me ask you this.... is it ever wise to get rid of any tool? :laughing:

Keep it! Drill presses have their advantages over milling machines in certain conditions. :)

Another vote for keeping it..

I have 2 vert mills, and 3 drill presses ranging in size from benchtop up to a 3k lb railroad sized Colburn with a 1" chuck. I have no regrets keeping them all.

Trying to buy another old walker turner drill press tomorrow too :D

Keep it for sure. What if you are working on a close tolerance project, that needs to stay in the mill for a day or so, and can't be moved? At the same time, you might have to just drill a simple hole in something else? This is what you will run into. Keep it man.

keep it. 3 mills, 1 big drill press and two bench top. just used the big on last weekend for the first time in about 5 years. the top of it is steel so its good storage for my magnetic dial indicators.