Carbatec radial drill press

[Prle77]

http://www.carbatec.com.au/carba-tec-hp-5-speed-radial-arm-drill-press_c900


Pros
Deep throat.. so was able to do holes for shelves on a panel without the need of turning the panel around
Able to do angles
Actually it has more than 5 speed
Magnetic switch

Cons
if higher pressure applied, the head tends to start turning unless the head is fully tightened..
No light provision
1/2 hp definitely not strong enough for drilling larger holes.. it really needs at least 1hp
due to the length of the head higher pressure tends to list the drill head a bit thus changing the angle


Conclusion
Versatile drill with lots of features, but greatly under powered for more serious jobs...
With the addition of the drill press table, it is nice and stable and easy to use
Highly recommend bolting it onto a bigger piece of plywood panel as the base is too small for the size of the drill head

Again.. no connection to carbatec.. just a happy customer

[BobL]

Another disadvantage of those drill presses is their 200 mm deeper footprint than a comparable size DP. This means they cannot be placed up against a wall as closely as a conventional DP.

The other problem is that the lowest speed of 500 RPM is too fast for larger hole saw, multi spur and larger Forstner bits, and also counter sink bits in metal. In terms of the larger hole saw, multi spur and larger Forstner bits it doesn't have the power to drive those all that well either.

I'd be interested to know how you get more than 5 speeds out of them?

[Prle77]

Hi Bob
lets say its hmmm slight misuse.. :wink:
Due to the long belt length you can actually go at the slight angle...Such as bottom one at the motor end and the one up from the drill end

I say misuse as this configuration will increase wear of the belt.. but doing it that way gives you slightly more grunt when needed :2tsup:

[doug3030]

I'm trying to work out how you would mount the LASER?

[Optimark]

Another disadvantage of those drill presses is their 200 mm deeper footprint than a comparable size DP. This means they cannot be placed up against a wall as closely as a conventional DP.

The other problem is that the lowest speed of 500 RPM is too fast for larger hole saw, multi spur and larger Forstner bits, and also counter sink bits in metal. In terms of the larger hole saw, multi spur and larger Forstner bits it doesn't have the power to drive those all that well either.

I'd be interested to know how you get more than 5 speeds out of them?

I do agree that the press is required to be stood further away from a wall or shelving, but by the same token this can be and is an advantage when requiring something drilled a fair distance from the column.

My men's shed has one of these, it's surprisingly good for our purposes, nothing flash, but a boon for drilling wide pieces of material.

I remember seeing something like this in Western Australia about 25 years ago, green or yellowish coloured I think. I thought they were a good idea, still do. However it certainly isn't slow enough for drilling large holes in timber, that is my personal experience in our men's shed. We had one job requiring some 50mm holes and we were burning the wood, so we went to our other drill which is in the metal workshop part and used that at it's minimum speed, like chalk and cheese, but it was still a hard bit of drilling.

The double angled table holder set-up, can also be interesting and versatile with a multitude of angles including compound holes of great trickiness, when used with the angled head.

I would not say no to one of these in my own workshop.

Adding a light is easy, just wait until Aldi have their LED magnetic work light on special again.

Bob, you should drop into an Aldi store if you haven't seen one before, while you are over here that is! :U

Mick.

[BobL]

. . . . Bob, you should drop into an Aldi store if you haven't seen one before, while you are over here that is! .

I've been to many an Aldi store in several different Europe countries when we live there in 2002.