I am in need of a drill press for light duty non production hobby gun work. It appears the Jet 17" sixteen speed is the cream of the Asian crop of such tools. I understand you need to upgrade the belts to get a smooth run. Anybody have any experience or comments? I know I should buy a one thousand dollar real machine shop drill press, but that kind of money is out of the question.

I don't know what that drill press looks like but small milling machines like the Clausing will drill holes and mill too!

Check with a used machinery dealer.

I don't like to make generalizations, but drill presses are more of a bargain than say a lathe or mill, where there is a big difference in accuracy between high end and low end. Of course there are always the guys that buy a $1600 drill press then use chinese drill bits for precision work...

I haven't noticed much of a problem with OE belts on asian stuff, but it sure wouldn't hurt to change it if you feel like doing so. Do you need the extra height of a floor mounted drill press? If not maybe a bench top will work fine for you. If you aren't using it all the time for many different materials changing the belt on the pulleys isn't a big deal. Oh, one thing though no matter which model you get replace the plastic headed wing-bolts with either all metal ones or just regular bolts and use a wrench on them. The plastic ones are always a problem!

You might want to go to metalworking.com and browse around over there, they have lots of info.

Charger, I don't have a Jet drill press, but do have three other Jet machines. I have been very pleased with them. They seem to be of better quality than Grizzly and Asian Delta products. My drill press is a K&B - Tiawanese no name. It's been in service for almost ten years and has done fine. I'd buy Jet again.

I have had one for 4yrs. Yes, they are the best of a bad bunch.The motor is totaly enclosed and fan cooled.It uses industrial standard " A" size belts.The depth stop works much better than the ones on the handle.My quill is tight,but check the one you buy.The floor base flexs so that's why it flops around.Both General and Delta make ones like it.Jet does quality control in Tiawan better than other two.It was the best I could afford.

One trick I forgot to mention about pretty much any asian floor model drill press, is that the rack and pinion assembly that moves the table up and down is always loose due to the design. When you are putting it together if you epoxy the rack to the column it makes it MUCH smoother to operate, and makes the table much steadier too.

I bought a used Jet drill press 25 years ago [they were made in Japan then] and it is still serving me well.

NOw that I have a milling machine, the drill press does not get used as often.