JET 17-Inch Floor Drill Press (JDP-17MF)

I'm not a machinist, I'm just a regular guy, homeowner, woodworker, also I work with metal sometimes. Buy from Jet if you're a guy like me; also if you're a handy gal for that matter.I wanted a nice heavy-duty drill press that'll drill through 4 inches. I often want to drill sideways through a 2x4 or 4x4 and most drill presses just don't do that, I don't know why. This seems like a very common thing to need. Drilling twice from opposite sides is a bad solution as you know if you've tried it. Raising the table-mid-drilling is another bad solution.I decided to buy the Jet JDP 17 and I am glad I did, for two reasons. First is the drill press itself - a great big beast of a thing, and it drills well over 4" - plenty of room to spare.Second reason and this is more important - Jet has great customer service/technical support. This is why I chose the Jet brand - Amazon reviews said that Jet's staff were very helpful. That is true!I started out drilling wood and it all worked fine, but I noticed that the tips of the drills were off a little. I learned the term "runout" from YouTube and proceeded to diagnose. I'll skip the details, just say that Jet's tech support folks were a great help. Before calling them I tried using more than one drill bit - I had a whole set of DeWalt brand-new never-used nice black anodized wood bits. Every one had a little bit of wobble at the tip - about 2 mm. Since these were brand new drill bits I figured, they can't all be off by the same amount - must be the drill press. For wood working it didn't matter but when I get into drilling through big metal pieces with big bits, it will.Jet was patient with me, teaching me how to use my own drill press. After doing some measuring with a dial meter (I bought the dial meter from Harbor Freight) and doing some measuring, taking the measurements that Jet's (excellent) customer service folks explained to me, I found that the drill press is perfect. Chuck, spindle, quill, arbor - all of it, perfectly machined to within about 1/1000th of an inch. In other words, less than 1/8th the wobble I'd noticed.I tried using another set of drill bits (Harbor Freight actually) and they are perfectly straight, no wobble, no runout.Now, a machinist wouldn't have made the dumb mistake I did. I thought by trying 4 different drill bits, all DeWalt brand, that was a good enough test. Not so - I should have tried more/other drill bits before calling Jet. Also, if I were a machinist, I'd probably have a precisely milled straight rod on hand - clamp it in the chuck, use the dial meter to measure the runout.I'm not a machinist, I'm a "regular guy" like I said. So Jet was and is the perfect company for me. I recommend buying from Jet if you're the kind of person who knows where he/she wants to get but is no expert, at least not yet. Jet can help you get there. And, the tool, the drill press, is great.

Since there is no 4.75 star choice available, I'll round the Jet 17MF up to 5 stars. While it has some issues, overall I like it a lot! I got tired of patching up my old Dunlap drill press, so I figured I would treat myself to a newer & larger unit. I did a lot of research, focusing on the Delta, Shop Fox, Grizzly, & Powermatic floor units in the 17" range. I was able to download the manual for all of them, and judging by the exploded diagrams and parts list, they all seem to be clones, with slight differences (i.e. type of depth stop, pulley cover, style of on/off switch, etc.).My usage will be 80% metal fabrication, & 20% wood.The drill press was delivered in one package, about 5 feet long, 2.5 feet wide, 16" high & 210+ pounds. Large, but not unmanageable for most people. There is a top and bottom block of Styrofoam, each molded to house the parts securely. All parts were complete & undamaged. Assembly took less than half an hour. As mentioned in other reviews, the head piece is quite heavy, so get help sliding it onto the column. Once assembled, the drill press is very stable on the floor. I cleaned the chuck, arbor, and spindle with alcohol, and there was no problem with the chuck falling out as others described.Evidently, Jet has listened to the complaints of others, because it now includes a plastic holder for the chuck key which is mounted near the spindle return spring, and works well. The light is an excellent feature, and is operated via a separate switch that glows when in the on position. The separate switch lets you illuminate your work during setup without the chuck spinning. I used a ceiling fan bulb since they have a stronger filament and is less sensitive to vibration. I saw no problem with the socket as others described.Now the issues. While runout on the spindle was less than .0005" ( barely measurable on my dial indicator with .001" resolution), runout on the shaft of a drill bit (tried several) was about .003". I'll be getting in touch with Jet to get a replacement chuck/arbor, but I don't consider .003" terrible. I didn't try it with my Albrecht chuck & arbor yet.I do seem to get a small amount of vibration at some speeds. The motor and idler pulleys look like they are standing still when running, but it looks like the spindle pulley may be running untrue. My third complaint is that the table lifting rack has no support in the middle, and tends to bow out a bit there. Not a big deal, but should have been thought out better. Despite this the table goes up and down just fine.More good: The table itself is machined flat & level...nice job. The spindle is plumb to the table. The motor is quiet and powerful, overall fit & finish is very good, and the tool seems very beefy. I like the threaded rod style depth stop which is easy to read & whose graduations are right on the money. In my opinion, the external type is more consistent than the type mounted of the feed shaft. I also like the separate, large on/off buttons.I've used several drill presses over the years, most of which were fairly expensive machine shop grade units, so I may be picking nits with some of my "issues". From what I hear, Jets customer service is top notch, and they give a 2 year warranty on the 17MF. I would have no problem recommending this tool to anyone, and feel that it's a good value for the money.

They didn’t last an hour. Jet used to make good stuff now it’s junk