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Took about an hour. It was well packed with no damage and assembly was easy including lining up the laser. I probably would buy a bigger model to get more reach but this is a great machine and the price is right. I am just setting up my Father's woodworking equipment in my shop and needed a drill press to make game boards. The box was demolished but I had read the reviews and was not dismayed because I had been warned. Works great.
Upon opening, nothing looked damaged and all the broken foam stayed in place.Assembly:I've never seen a tool more covered in grease. This was confirmed when trying to reinsert the spindle as it wouldn't go back in. That's an expensive lesson in my book.Conclusion:I've only heard good things about Delta products. The Problem:The chuck has a tapered hole that you're supposed to just mallet into the tapered end of the spindle. To make sure it stayed on, I pulled down on the chuck and the WHOLE SPINDLE FELL OUT. Much of the cast parts had a sticky residue, most likely cutting fluid during the last machining operation. Everything went together as expected until I got to the final step, attaching the chuck. I live in CA and Summit Racing is in NV.
A thin cardboard box was all that separated many of the cast iron parts from the world. Upon examining the spindle, there looked to be a groove around the bottom of the splines for a snap ring. A call to a repair center confirmed that I needed to remove the drive pulley from the top in order to get to the snap ring, still lodged inside. To ship the unit back one state ground cost me $65. I've spent $65 on a $200 press that I never even turned on. They advised me to use an impact wrench since there was no way to hold the pulley still while wrenching off the retaining nut.
Parts seemed to fit rather sloppily and hose clamping the tool table behind the table height rack seemed like an afterthought in design. Norm Abram on the New Yankee Workshop seems to swear by them for decades and I've never a problem with any of their sister brands such as Dewalt or Porter Cable. The first time, it fell back out so I obviously didn't hit it hard enough. The styrofoam inside was all but disintegrated and there was only one piece of tape top and bottom and 3 straps holding it altogether (86 lbs mind you). Everything was oily, including the bag the manual was in and all the hardware bags.
I made sure there was no grease or particles in the taper and tried again. Given the poor reviews for their other model, the DP350 along with my first hand experience, I would NOT recommend ANY Delta drill presses until something significant changes in both their design and manufacturing abilities.Best of luck on your search. This purchase has been a grave disappointment that will cause much hesitation when considering another Delta product in the future. The Box:I purchased this item from Summit Racing and it arrived in disarray. There were bits of what looked like sand from the casting process in the table mount clamp.
Following their instructions, the top of the stud came off with the nut and the pulley still wouldn't come off.After Delta tech support returned my call, they confirmed that the repair procedure was accurate and that the best course of action would simply be to return the unit and swap it out with another one.
I recommend purchasing this drill from a local retailer so you can deal with them versus amazon or delta.As for the drill press itself, putting it together was semi-challenging due to the poorly written instructions. SawStop thanks you Delta. After making the rough adjustments, because that's all you're able to do, you screw the cap back on and you end up trying to twist the module in the base to get the center.
What really stunk is adjusting the dual laser to hit the center. If you're lucky you'll get it close enough to give yourself a ROUGH idea of the drill center,,, TIP - don't get greedy and thinking you can get it dead-on you'll end up screwing it up and cursing the darn thing. The box was beaten up and I realized that the chuck key was missing. For my adjustment I know the drill center is a smidge back from the crosshair intersection. I've purchased a few power tools on amazon and I don't remember any package showing up clean. I don't know who to blame, Amazon or Delta.
I wrote Amazon and they told me to contact Delta or send the drill back for a complete replacement. The good out of this is Delta helped me make a decision on what table saw to purchase. It's nearly impossible to do this due to the design of the adjustment levers (located inside the individual modules). After all of this the max score that this drill press could achieve is 3 stars because the drill itself is outstanding; minus 1 for lack of customer service, minus 1 for the frustration factor (missing chuck key, dual-laser calibration instructions/design). There is no better benchtop drill press but the Delta customer service couldn't get any worse. Delta didn't respond and I wasn't about to send the drill back and risk having something worse happen to the replacement.
The instructions tell you to remove the cap from each laser module but when you do this, the module wants to fall out of the base.
The laser beams themselves are fairly wide, so the precision of the center point is hard to determine. THe laser housings will go up and down in the holders making it hard to adjust them and lock them down. It is not as true and accurate as I was led to believe from the reviews. The lasers are a pain to adjust. The adjusters are sticky, the lock down screws are fussy. The attachment of the chuck to the shaft (pounding it with a hammer and a piece of wood) is stupid.
I have no idea whether the shipper or the warehouse is to blame. Once it was set, it stayed set for all 512 holes. However, the drill table and drill base are solid metal, the motor is strong and smooth, the drill accurate, and the speed is easily adjusted. The only damage was the speed belt housing cover clip which was bent. Once set, it was good.While I was assembling the drill press the movement of the quill was sticky and would not fully reset until after I turned the machine on. Plus the laser guide is a nice addition. I then proceeded to drill 512 1/8" holes in pine and it recessed properly every time.
Assembling the drill was straight forward and the instructions were clear. However, several other reviewers have stated the same thing. I was able to bend it back out. This was not the first time I have ordered from Amazon and had the product arrive in a damaged box. The cheap feeling parts are what keeps the drill under $200, and have little bearing on its operation. But it cannot be overstated how bad the shipping box's condition was when it arrived. I got a lot of use out of it and it worked well. So for money, it is a good value.
The shipping issue needs to be addressed and it cost the drill a star. The laser alignment was a little tricky and I ended up adjusting it by hand rather than using the method described in the manual. As I drilled the holes I noticed there was a grinding sound emanating from the gear box as mentioned in another review, but it did not affect the drill's operation.The drill's operation was smooth, but the depth stop is cheap and difficult to set.
The box was shredded and the foam packing core was crushed. You saved me time, money, and frustration. And thanks to the reviewers that wrote about the Delta 20-619 6-Inch Drill Press Vise not fitting the DP300L, despite Amazon's advice to the contrary.
This is my first drill press and for a sub $200 drill press it appears to be the best in breed in terms of features and quality. The external parts do seem a little light weigh like the handles, the depth stop, the table crank, and the annoying grinding sound in the gear box. Hopefully Amazon is looking into this issue.All in all I am happy with the drill.
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