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Any hands-on experience with the Laguna DP:20 which those here may care to convey? It is on the list of potential drill press purchases, along with the Nova Voyager and the Powermatic PM2820EVS. I've been making do with one of the boy's old bench-top drill presses, and it seems like time for an upgrade to a larger 18"-20" swing and speed-select functionality.

And yes - I am already familiar with Laguna's notoriously bad customer service, although at least anecdotally that seems to be changing of late. I have their bench grinder and while no old-school Baldor, it is a respectable tool for my sharpening bench.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I have the Voyager drill press and I love it. It’s quiet, infinitely adjustable and has worked perfectly since I got it a few years ago. The only issue is the table deflects a little when I press frets.

I bought the Laguna 12-16 midi lathe a few years ago. It could have been a great tool. It was advertised to turn 16” on the outside for which I bought it. The index pin is next to the shaft on the outside preventing the mounting of a chuck. The extender provided has .009” runout. I’ve been unable to procure an extender without runout. The tool came with the shaft and the tail piece misaligned. The alignment allen screws are undocumented and located inside the pulley housing where they are almost impossible to reach. I probably will never buy another Laguna tool no matter how inviting it looks.

Good luck in your quest.

Keep in mind that laguna has the worst customer service, so if you need tech support and or parts your up sheet creek. I wouldn't buy anything from Laguna unless it's their Italian Industrial tools. Which are not made in China.

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I was pretty interested in the Laguna drill press until I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvHNlOsu7bI

Re: the review videos, I did view both the contributor's original and follow-up video. While I agree that a panic button seen on a number of tools is a good idea, a kick plate power cut-off seems like a better idea if the primary hazard anticipated is as seen in the video. Getting close enough to the head unit cutoff switch seems problematic, while kicking a foot-level plate for power cutoff seems like it might be lower risk when dodging flying clamps and work pieces.

The safety issue highlighted in the first scene of the follow-up video appears to be more of mental and tool use error on the part of the gentleman 'testing' the tool than any fault with the drill press. Use of a single, light-weight clamp to secure a relatively small work-piece against very large rotational forces seems like a good recipe for the sort of mishap depicted. Further, having the clamp's moving foot and excess shaft above the table runs the risk of potentially trapping the operator's arm and spindle handle against the tool if anything shifts. Finally, multiple clamps distributed as a minimum on both sides of the desired hole location should be used for securing work to the press table where the work will be subject to high rotational forces. Having a piece of tool steel (the bar of the clamp as employed by the video author) whirling about at eye level seems to be the most egregious mental error in the video, and the one most easily addressed. 'If everything goes perfectly, I should be able to make this cut' is not what I want going through my mind before hitting the 'on' switch.

To the best of my knowledge, Taiwan seems to be the location of primary manufacture for the Nova, Powermatic, and Laguna presses (at least based on motor badging) under consideration, although regionally distributed manufacturing is pretty common in that area of the world, with electronics, motors, and mechanical components sourced from around the First Island chain and mainland China. The good news for those of us that would prefer not to bankroll one or more of the global bad actors in that area is that the economic consequences of basing one's economy on IP theft, child labor, and low and mid-tech manufacturing/low-cost final assembly for global export has come home to roost for at least one of the major players in the region with skyrocketing labor costs and endemic recession. Absent large investments in sunk infrastructure by large multinationals, we should be seeing a growing number of choices for sourcing of manufactured goods over the next decade. While I doubt we see a new/old Powermatic foundry in Tennessee, we may well see one in Mexico or Columbia as we re-shore. Coming in the door with this realignment of trade and re-shoring is global competition for capital, so we should expect interest rates to remain higher than what we might wish.

In the meantime, it seems like we have relatively limited choices, so really Laguna and Nova for 'smart' presses and Powermatic for EVS 'old school' presses. Not wild about touch-screen tech, but seems like that is the direction of march for machines. In years past, even a 100 year old machine could be made as new with a little work; not sure how we will replace fragile displays or aging PCBs 20 or so years from now.

_________________
A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

A bit sideways to your question but I have been using a Jet drill press (JDP-13) for years and have found it excellent. It is not a floor mount but has plenty of vertical travel. It is fairly old fashioned with cast iron and multiple pulleys for speed change.

Assuming Jet is available in the US I would recommend a look at them.

Cheers Dave

Love my Nova Voyager. It replaced a large Rigid machine.

I can't be too specific to your question but offer some general comments.

I had a Delta (early 1990's) when they first started to off shore and it was junk. There was so much slop in the quill that the Morse taper chuck would fall out regularly from vibration. Gave it away.

Replaced it around 2005 with a Powermatic 2800. Mechanical variable speed adjust. It's an OK drill press but I'd call it medium to light duty. There was too much runout in the chuck so I replaced it with a Jacob's and it helped with precision. Powermatic stresses "woodworking" with only a mention of "other materials". If you are only drilling wood and occasional metal they are OK.

What I like about most older machines is the split quill housing that allows you to lock the quill or adjust fit of the housing to the quill. If there is one thing I would look for in a drill press it is that adjustment. Most recent drill presses only have a crude screw that is supposed to snug up the quill/housing fit and IMO they aren't worth playing with, all they do is add friction to the quill and make it appear more snug, they don't change bore dia at all.

I've been looking at the Nova which looks like it has a split quill housing to lock the quill or snug it up properly. And it has a ton of handy features and gets great reviews. Their ads mention drilling a variety of metals in addition to wood. That's where I'm putting my money at the next change up.

Lots of good deals on older machines if you can live w/o the electronic features. Just look for an adjustable quill housing, with no wobble in the bearings and take a piece of 1/2" drill rod and a dial indicator to check them out.

Let us know what you buy and how you like it.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED