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Unless you are going to spend $4000 on an Arboga or Clausing press, go down to HF and take your pick. The Delta, Jet, Wilton, Powermatic, Grizzly, Enco, MSC, Birmingham, whatever... is the same Chinese made machine in different colors with different paint. If you do not believe me, go compare them for yourself. I recently learned this the hard way when I bought an $1100 Wilton that turned out to be identical to the red $700 HF model. HF was actually nicer and had more features. Bad points on Chinese presses... Belts usually go within a month. Chinese chucks are terrible, they will ruin your drill shanks as they will spin easily. Arbors on these chucks are usually not very accurate, either. Motors are very suspect (brand new Wilton starter hangs up in run position). Columns are pretty small and flexible if you ge into large holes. Worst part is probably the rack for raising the table. These are so flimsy and of such lousy material that they bow out from the column even without a vise on the table. They usually also bind up when trying to rotate the table around the column with any weight on it. T-slots are usually 1/2".. makes your Bridgeport clamp kit useless. Good points on Chinese presses. They are cheap. That's about it. Given the choice, I would wait until a good quality American press comes up used for $200-300 and invest in new bearings. You will end up with a little less in the press and it will outlive you. As for speeds, 1/2" drill bit should turn about 500rpm in mild steel. If the press has less than about 1hp, it will probably not pull a 1/2" bit this fast without stalling. Bench or floor, Bench model will be a little stiffer as the column will be shorter. Less room under the spindle of the bench model and it takes up bench space. I bought an old $10 yard-sale special heavy metal office desk to use with my bench model DP.
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