delta vs walker turner vs Craftsman

[norm_ahram]

Hi,
  I'm forced to sell at least one of my 3 drill presses.   Which one should I sell first?   And if you can only keep one, which one would you keep?

delta homecraft - 11", 3.5" quill travel, 8"x9.5" table,  Hoover 1/4HP, 5.2A motor, made in the 40s I think
walker turner - 15", 4" quill travel, 10"x12.5" table, GE 1/3HP, 5.6A motor, made in the 40s I think
sears craftsman (model 113.24540) - 15", 6" quill travel, 10"x12.75" table, Craftsman 1/2HP 7.4A motor, has built-in light, made in 1969

[Rick_B]

Hi,
  I'm forced to sell at least one of my 3 drill presses.   Which one should I sell first?   And if you can only keep one, which one would you keep?

delta homecraft - 11", 3.5" quill travel, 8"x9.5" table,  Hoover 1/4HP, 5.2A motor, made in the 40s I think
walker turner - 15", 4" quill travel, 10"x12.5" table, GE 1/3HP, 5.6A motor, made in the 40s I think
sears craftsman (model 113.24540) - 15", 6" quill travel, 10"x12.75" table, Craftsman 1/2HP 7.4A motor, has built-in light, made in 1969

Me - I'd sell the Delta first - smallest table , motor and quill travel.  If I only could keep one - it would be hard.  I really like WT stuff but the Craftsman has the largest table, motor and quill travel.  I'd probably find a way to keep both of them.

[Wild Turkey]

Which one do you use most?

Which one has most speeds?

I'd lean towards keeping the Craftsman as mentioned above.

Thinning the herd is always a pain

[TDKPE]

I have the radial arm version of the Delta.  It's nice, but light with short quill travel.  And it has a special bearing in the quill that may be difficult to replace.  Check that - found a thread or two about it on owwm.com.  Bearing is readily available.

The W-T is heavier, with a little more quill travel.  And was made in Plainfield, NJ, I believe.  We have a larger one with power feed in one of our maintenance buildings (in NJ, one town over
), and those gorillas just can't seem to kill it. 

I'd probably go with the Craftsman for the long quill travel and large table.  It doesn't have the old 'arn sexiness of the others, but for a daily driver, I'd go for functionality over form, even with the 1970's styling.  


That's how it looks from way over here, at least.

[med-one]

I'd go with the Walker Turner.

[EvilTwin]

I'd stick with the WT.  The homecraft is the smallest of the three so would be the most limiting.  I just cant get past the funky styling on the Craftsman plus there is no guard in the front.  The Craftsman also probably has the highest quotient of pot metal of the bunch, since it is the newest and was sold as a homeowner machine, aka, cheap.

[mdhills]

I'd go with the Walker Turner.

Agree with this, unless the operating condition was significantly worse than the others or you really need the extra capacity of the sears in the near-term.
(is the return spring intact, etc.)


Of course, the common pattern I've seen among owwm'ers is:  buy an old drill press, buy 2 more drill presses, dabble (or restore?) some, sell 1 or 2, buy some other ones with the proceeds, rinse and repeat.  You'll end up with a herd of buffalo and atlas presses in no time.

Matt

[stav]

I'd need some hands on time with them to make a final call. Things like robustness, ease of use, setting retention, ease of finding parts, etc would all needed to be taken into account. First thoughts are to swap the motors on the Craftsman and WT and keep the WT.

[Rick_B]

I'd need some hands on time with them to make a final call. Things like robustness, ease of use, setting retention, ease of finding parts, etc would all needed to be taken into account. First thoughts are to swap the motors on the Craftsman and WT and keep the WT.

I forgot tov mention, currently having a 15" and 20" WT - the beariungs were special in both.  There are work arounds and the bearings are available but the ain't cheap.  The pther question woulbe be condition of the spindle and runout.

Rick

[norm_ahram]

I got all 3 separately a year ago on CL, and haven't used any of them but just turned them on without a drill bit.    The Craftsman has almost no vibration and is very quiet, the delta is just a little noisier.   The WT doesn't have a powercord connection yet, so I have no idea how well it runs.   I have not checked runout on any of them, but when the quill is all the way down, you can't move it left and right like on my 8" HF which I sold recently.   The Craftsman does seem to have more pot metal parts compared to the others (like the quill lock).    The return spring doesn't appear to work that well on both the Craftsman and WT.   On the Craftsman the return spring is not the usual ones you see on drill presses, but a real spring inside the head casting.    All 3 have 4 speeds.   The WT appears to be the heaviest, followed closely by the Craftsman.    Both the WT and Craftsman are missing the chuck key.    In 12 years of woodworking, I've only used the drill press on 1 project, and the material was 2" thick, so I don't think I need the longer quill travel of the Craftsman.      

2 voted to keep the WT, 2 for the Craftsman.   Breaking the tie is the fact that the Craftsman is a lot more dangerous due to lack of the front pulley guard, so I'll sell the Craftsman first.

Thanks for all the advice.