I was in the market for a drill press like this and got this one on your recommendation. It's been pretty good to me so far with wood and aluminum. A little cheap feeling but for the price I can't complain. Still extraordinarily happy with with it. Thanks for the update video.

I have the small central machinery bench top one from them. I bought it second hand and first guy bought it around 2002. The depth stop broke but she's still drilling 😂. I mostly work with wood but it's drilled it's share of metal. Definitely got my money worth 5x over.

Yeah, I agree $30 is not worth the hassle of trying to get that warrantied

I have a drill press from Harbor Freight that was built circa 1981. I bought it at an estate sale a few years ago and it's been great! They may have been built a little better back in the day, but it is likely you encountered a factory defect.

You removed and replaced the table without loosening the swivel bolt. It was not necessary to loosen the swivel - just slide the whole assembly off of the top of the column as you showed in your video. When you slide it back on, tighten the pinch bolt on the rear of the table casting.

Not your fault at all. Defective part. Inspect the broken surfaces with a magnifier and intense light, see if you can find factory paint in the crack face, or a change of color (different shade of silver). Either one would mean a pre existing crack. And no, it cannot be "just welded" because it is cast iron, and also welding will distort the bore and the part won't fit.

How has it been with drilling steel? Have you tried it with any larger holes on something thicker, 1/2" or larger thickness?

I bought a Wen which is also a cheap brand, I can hang my weight on it drilling 3/8" holes in 3/4" steel . Definitely a defective part on yours .

some things need to be told 💖

You are correct, I would argue not ur fault at all. That's a manufacturing default.

Odds are its a material defect. With import cast iron it can get very iffy. Sure we could calculate how much force you were really putting on that but in reality some of that wall looked way too thin and probably had porosity or something in it. Not sure where you bought the replacement but its probably better quality haha.

You can use a regular 🔧

Should have pursued warranty, that should not have broken.

What if the bit had gone into YOUR soft bits? I'm glad it was just the metal that was injured!

Probably a bad casting. I used to work at a foundry and it's really easy to have a few problematic casts, and everything depends on having a good QC (quality control) process that grabs the rejects and throws them to be melted with scrap on the next batch. It's obviously cheaper to not have people on the line doing QC, and charge customers for an at cost replacement. $30 for a replacement part is cheap considering what a customer service call costs a company. Still, pretty lousy way to run a business. I'd want bigger walls on the casting, control the cooling time better for better grain size (easier to do with thicker parts), and have QC check every part. I think that making the parts of a drill in a USA factory that does all of what I suggest would easily 5x if not 10x the price. and I'll be honest, my budget is more like $200-$300 not $2k.

I somehow think YOU caused this.

Vintage Craftsman drill press for $50 on craigslist.

You forgot to put the key back.

Low cost should not mean low quality

"Lower end" Looking for a midrange. But the price jumps from $300 to $1000, no matter the brand.

Cheap pot metal slag

yeah... most of us would have just welded it back together stronger than before

Dude just weld the metal back together. Not that difficult.