Pillar drill buying advice

[Thrashsmith]

Hi folks,
I'm long overdue a drill upgrade from the small hand-me-down Naerok bench drill I've been making do with for the last couple years. I'm looking for a new single phase floor standing pillar drill and I noticed a solid looking Draper £300 machine in my local tool shop the other day. Can anyone offer me a second opinion on this and whether it's sounds any good? It will be in regular use for small/medium sized blacksmithing and fabrication work.

Here's some spec highlights:
Model No.: 42639
16 speed belt driven, 210-3340 r/min
16mm chuck capacity
550W motor
160mm throat
Tiltling table, 260mm x 260mm
Height 1620mm
Weight 98kg

Any general buying advice would also be appreciated or if you know any other machines that are worth a look in. Cheers

 

[optima21]

if its going to get heavy usage,you might find that its not that precise and may flex a bit,although the one you are looking at weights 98 kgs, but alot of that weight will be in the lower half of the column and base. opinion onhere may indicate that if you can wait you might be better off trying to find a 2nd hand industrial machine, as it may be more rigid.

one feature of machine that you missed off was that it has a 2 morse taper socket, which means that its easy to change the chuck. I recently got a new Clarke bench drill with a 16mm chuck, but that will only hold drills larger than 3mm, so I ended up using using a 0 to 13mm chuck from my previous drill and I've also got a 0 to 6.5mm chuck for fine work. the 16mm one is on the left in this picture, and was removed from the machine as soon as I got it, and the other two are over 20 years old

 

[Kent]

I think mine is the bigger brother to this. Its a good buy for the money but better functioning can be had in the old British ones, downside is cost, repairs and finding one. The fact the table tilts is of very limited use, its cheap enough to pay you back quick though and new enough so you can get parts.
BTW mine says MT4 but all my MT4 drills will drop out frequently so I guess the tolerances aint there, the belt tensioner is a poor design to lock up

 

[atomant48]

Another feature I wish I had every time I use mine is a handle to change the table height.

 

[Kent]

Another feature I wish I had every time I use mine is a handle to change the table height.

Something that's more than handy if you working with supports on the far end off table as in longer bars

 

[lotus_esprit_s1]

I think you'd be better off spending £300 or less in a second hand 1970's Elliot Progress, Boxford, meddings etc which will be of far higher quality and more useable if you buy one with a backgear.

 

[Thrashsmith]

Thanks for the advice folks. The theme of what you're saying tally's with other advice I've had.

 

[Wallace]

I've had one of these Clarke pillar drills for 15 years, a bit underpowered if you are used to industrial machines and fitting a decent keyless chuck improved accuracy. Has a fairly big tiltable table with a coolant tray and MT2 spindle so I can swap tooling with my lathe. Not bad value for money if bought on a vat free day but certainly not in the same league as the Elliot Progress, Boxford, Meddings mentioned above.