DELTA DP350 Shopmaster 1/3HP 12-Inch Bench Drill Press

The DP350 is a [mostly] well-designed tool of good quality, and a terrific bargain. This is the only reasonably priced variable-speed bench drill press I could find, so for the time being, Delta appears to have a unique product.

Delta says to tighten the head using the two supplied Allen screws to prevent the drill head from moving on the column. I wanted to be able to move it occasionally, so I installed handles attached to 5/16" x 18 threaded bolts. Now, I can loosen the head, and swing it in place, and re-tighten it, in seconds.

There was no obvious place to store the chuck. I fixed it to a small chain and connected one end to the lower column tightener, so it's handy.

The base is held down to the bench with lag screws or machine bolts. The four corners of the base touch the bench, with the middle of the base 1/8" off the bench. Install spacers directly under the hold-down bolts to keep from flexing the middle of the cast iron base...Read more

Overall impression: A lot of drill press for the money. Decent quality. Pretty heavy construction. Good performance. Everything worked well out of the box.

Head assembly - The motor, spindle and speed control system are solidly fixed to a one-piece cast iron frame. Sheet steel panels complete the remainder of the enclosure. Rubber pieces isolate the top cover. The depth control system has a quick adjust feature. All of these work well.

Constant speed drive system - This is probably the costliest part of the machine for Delta to produce. The variable speed drive system is quite simple, but requires some solid, precision components - and they seem quite well made in this machine. The speed control operated smoothly, and the noise and vibration levels from the drive system were very reasonable. I might try a link belt for fun to see if it's any smoother, but it works pretty good as is. ... I'm real happy getting this good of a variable drive system.

Runout - Without a...Read more

The above rating may not be fair and is likely higher, but I've been waiting for over 10 yrs to obtain an 'inexpensive' drill press with variable speed options, thus eliminating the annoyance of constantly changing belts (my current drill press has 3 belts - what a pain!). When this Delta 12" product appeared on the market, I was anxious to buy - the two reviews here were positive but little has appeared in the literature I read on the quality & reliability of this variable speed engineering by Delta (i.e., watch out for the 'first on the block'). Well, I ordered the drill press which arrived today - assembly took about an hour - when I turned on the motor, a whining noise occurred but the spindle did not turn - I called the Delta 800-number - options: 1) send me a 'new' motor (which I would have to replace!); 2) take the 'heavy' machine to a local repair shop (wait & no guarantee); or 3) ship back to Amazon for a replacement or a refund - I choose the latter. Although I did not...Read more