SKIL 6.2 Amp 10 In. 5-Speed Benchtop Drill Press with Laser Alignment & Work Light – DP9505-00

Love it
Wish I had bought sooner. I don’t have the space or the money for a big ol’ Powermatic, this will have to do for now.Set up was easy. The table wanders all over during adjustment, so the laser is handy for lining that back up if for nothing else. Laser was way off when I got it, but nudging the little doohickey with my thumb brought it back. I get a touch of travel out of the chuck, it wobbles slightly left. Also, when I power down something in the motor sounds a playing card in your bike spokes. Those things would tick me off in 1600 dollar machine, for this price you have to expect a little funkiness I figure. If it blows up I’ll come back and update.Incidentally, the way I dial in the laser is to mount a bradpoint or forstner, poke a little hole in some clamped scrap wood and mess with the laser until it lines up. I have to do this every couple of weeks or so, it doesn’t wander too far.UPDATE a year later: The press still works great; the only thing I have noticed is that in addition to a slight wobble left, when I bring the press all the way down, the bit ticks off to the left about a 1/16 of an inch. This would be horrible for accuracy, but at that point the bit is usually buried in the piece and the hole keeps it in line.Also, I added the Rockler drill press table, which is meant for full size drill presses and doesn’t really work with this one, but I got it to fit with some diy adjustments. The down side is that the table blocks the use of the adjustment crank, so I have to use a wrench to adjust the table up or down. Also I can’t use the vacuum port. Other than that it’s a nice addition for repeat cuts.

High quality and lots of features at a good price
This is a well built, versatile bench-top drill press with a host of good features. I bought it for the size, motor HP, 1/2″ chuck, and laser alignment. It has five motor speeds which are selected by moving the drive belt to different pulleys. The laser alignment works perfectly. The table tilts up to 45 degrees, though you need a wrench to make adjustments. The table also swivels around the main post.When mine arrived, the plastic collar holding the drill depth stop was broken. I registered with Skil online (that gets you a three-year warranty) and called them to ask for the part. They sent it out right away, free of charge, and it arrived in less than a week.

Better than I expected it to be, and a steal for the price
I had been eyeballing this one for a while, because I wanted a little more power than the similarly priced WEN (also I kinda hate the orange color scheme, but that’s not really a reason to purchase one over another)Reading the reviews, you’d think this thing were a wobbly piece of plastic slapped together by underpaid monkeys. Either I got lucky, or a lot of the other reviews are simply a matter of user error. Putting it together took me about 30 minutes, intentionally going slow so as not to make a mistake. I would have liked a more robust center column, and the worm drive rack can be a little finicky until you lock it down correctly (the instructions on this part I didn’t find sufficient)The laser was dead on perfect out of the box. I haven’t used it in anything but daylight so I can’t be sure how helpful the light is yet. I didn’t have the bolts to lock it down to my bench yet, but I experience no wobble whatsoever, it’s as perfectly balanced as any drill press I’ve used in the past. I’ll probably try to get a replacement chuck because the one that comes with it isn’t ideal, but there’s nothing terribly wrong with it, either.To anyone considering buying one, I’d just say, the collar that holds the rack against the center column — you want it to be able to glide in an arc around the column but it shouldn’t move up or down. Also, even though the rack comes out of the box attached to the column, when attaching the support base you’ll want to remove it and run it through the support base and *then* slide it onto the column. That was the only headache I experienced in the process, and it’s not even a case of the instructions being unclear, just a tad ambiguous.My use case will be primarily working with wood, but a bit of metal here and there, and it seems more than adequate for those jobs. Should something go horribly wrong, I’ll update my review.

Genial