Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I am very new to building a Guitar and at this present time I am building a new workshop, and would appreciate some help on buying a new Drill press, I was thinking of a bench type. Any help would be greatly received.

Set yourself a budget and then expect that you'll need to spend more than that.

There are drill presses and there are drill presses. The cheap china ones aren't that great, I bought a elcheapo for around $300-400 ish just to get me started and it was a big waste of money.

Switch failed and I had to replace, the belts will spin when it grips anything harder than cheese. The chuck is crap. Everything about it is crap.

I could've bought a decent second hand quality press for a bit more money which would last a lifetime. This drill press does not get used, it was a bad investment.

Point of the story, you get what you pay for.

I think variable speed is a must, especially if your going to use a safety planner, as you really need to get to at least 2500rpm. Also accurate depth stop adjustment is important. The ones with a couple nuts won't cut it for accurate depth.

Lastly, I know others may disagree, but a keyless chuck is nice

I would like to thank you both for your words of advice, which i will definitely use when I go looking. Thank you again.

Not doubting Alans experience, but i feel a drill press is one of the few tools you can scimp on if need be in a dedicated (acoustic) guitar making workshop.

I have an el cheapo bunnings (ozito) drill press. In my workshop the only time it gets used as a drill is in bridge making and tuner holes, i also use it with drum sanders from time to time.
I make around 10guitars a year in the shop and the press gets probably 20mins use per guitar. Never had an issue. It does what i need it to without fault.

Most important thing for me....a chuck that spins without any wobble.

I have had a pretty basic Ryobi bench drill press, bought at Bunning's. For 10 years it has done everything that I need of it as a hobbyist guitar maker - including operating a Safety Planer. If it died tomorrow I would go out and buy another one. I can't say the same for the el-cheapo Ozito table saw that I got a while back - it died very soon, and just got replaced this weekend with something more appropriate.

I have to ad to this as no one has it mentioned here,the swing. Is there a certain size that is needed for no limit guitar making?

You need to be able to drill the pivot hole in the center of the sound hole that is used to guide the tool that is making the rosette channel (typically a pivoting router). The better the fit of this hole to your tooling, the more accurate and better looking your rosette will be. I drill this hole with the top panel still "in the square", because "square" panels are easier for me to thickness quickly and accurately than are guitar-shaped panels and final thicknessing is done after the rosette is installed. So you need to be able to drill a hole centered ~160mm out from the pillar.