JET JDP-17MF/354169 Drill Press
by JET
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List Price: Our Price: $549.99 You Save: $30.01 (5%) Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 2 days Buy Used: from $520.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of JET JDP-17MF/354169 Drill Press
Customer Review: Excellent value for the $$$
Summary: 5 Stars
I've used a variety of pressess over the years and the benchmark was a circa 70's Delta. Only presses I felt came close were far more expensive and were so large, it didn't make economical sense to spend upwards of $1,200.Here is the Jet. Positive depth stop and a good balance of build quality to price. At street prices of $450, it leaves Delta, Powermatic and a host of other generic imports behind.
Assembly was smooth and following I examined the casting and other parts which comprised this new toy. Good quality and well made...exactly as I had heard over the years.
The belts run reasonbly true except for the vibration at the highest speed. Since I don't drill at this RPM, I have no complaints. For ultimate smoothness a segnemted V belt would be recco'd. I did get some vibration noise from the belt cover and a piece of foam insulation took care of that.
Measured run-out at the taper was less than my dial could measure so better than .001". I didn't use the supplied chuck or arbor but replaced it with a keyless Jacobs chuck and Albrecht arbor.
I feel that for a majority of drilling needs, this press is excellent. For ultimate accuracy, there are some tweaks but then you'd likely be considering a much higher line press anyhow. At a price to performance ratio, this 17" Jet is hard to not consider. Their customer service is very good and other companies could follow their example.
Customer Review: Great Drill Press
Summary: 4 Stars
The drill press is great. It set up in about five minutes. Plenty of power , and changes speeds very easily. I checked out the Delta model , it was not very well made, it seemed like they tried to copy Jets model but used every ..part they could find. The only problem I could find was that the mortising attachment was garbage for the work I do. Thats alright I'll just buy Jet's mortising machine, which is more suted for my work.Customer Review: Woodworking Beginner
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered the Jet JDP-17MF from Amazon/Toolcrib, and I'm very pleased with both the order and the machine. The drill press arrived in one week after ordering, and the package was in good shape; it was shipped through FedEd-Freight.The drill press was easy to assemble and everything worked pretty good from the start. I didn't get the vibration and noise that others have reported. I can stand on the table a 1/4 x 4" bolt on its feet, and it shakes, but doesn't fall at 1800 RPM. In any case I'll substitute the belts in the future with the link v-belt types to further reduce vibration.
The only minor thing I found is that the table had a little bit of a bow towards the center. By laying a straight edge across the table, I measured a 0.029" gap, which resulted in a 0.24-degree deviation from square between the drill bit and the table. If I laid a piece of plywood on the table, then the bow effect was cancelled, and the drill bit was square to the plywood. I decided this was not a major problem, since I plan to put a plywood or MDF table with a fence later. However, I called Jet, and they promptly sent me another table which is right on the mark...! Great service.
On the mortising attachment included as a freebie, there are a couple of problems with the plastic fence included; 1) the side of the fence facing the material is not square to the table; it must be 5-10 degrees off; and 2) you can't center the mortise on "thin" material, 3/4" or less; the reason for this is that screws fasten the fence to the table through the radial slots of the table, which end a little too far from its center, and the screw slots in the fence are too close to the material edge, and then the hold-down bracket/assembly gets in the way... it's a little complicated to explain :-(
Well, the mortise attachement is a freebie so I won't complain, but fortunately there's an easy solution: redo the fence in hard wood. I plan to change the design a little bit; rather than using screws to fasten both the fence and the hold-down bracket at the same time, I plan to fasten the fence to the table with one method, and the hold-down bracket to the fence with another method. Perhaps the hold-down bracket to the fence with carriage bolts and wing nuts on slots running along the width of the fence, and the fence to an MDF or plywood base fastened farther out of the way with bolts on T-tracks running front to back.
All in all, it's a good machine at a very good price. I've tried a variety of holes and plugs, and it works great.
Customer Review: Solid, Easy to use
Summary: 4 Stars
Putting this together was easy and quick. Instructions were thorough. It is heavy and a solid machine and takes no time at all to change the speeds, and the drilling is sure and true. But it does shake and rattle a bit more than I would like, and I couldn't get the depth stop to be perfectly lined up with the scale (which means if I want to drill 2" I have to set the depth stop to 1 7/8" to compensate). The beefyness, and accuracy of the drilling make this a good buy for sure.Customer Review: Noise Vibration and Harshness
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the first press I've owned, but used several over the years. The machine arrived in OK condition, the instruction manual was clear, and it assembled quickly. Finish flaws were minimal. Though everything worked properly, I eventually noticed that moving the spindle through its travel range caused noise and some vibration at 200 RPM. I rechecked adjustments and tightened what I could to little avail. Seems that if the spindle was against a depth stop (top or bottom) or fully retracted, the NVH was lessened. Setting the speed to 3,600 was worse, and the intermediate speeds felt bad as well. It was enough that I thought one of the spindle bearings was shot and was considering returning it. After experimentation it seems the bulk of the noise emanates from the belts, pulley and motor adjustment mechanism. Running the belts "loose" improves the problem to a large degree. I think the root cause is a slightly warped motor pulley, distorted by an overtightend set screw for the pulley key (the JET pulleys are aluminum). Anyhow, I should be able to leave material on the table without it vibrating off. Machinery shouldn't make grinding, ticking, buzzing, chattering noises like this.