Out of the box the Ryobi drill press requires some assembly. The motor and drill head are preassembled. What needs to be assembled is the base and drill table. Attach the support column to the base. Attach the table and table adjustment to the support column. Finally mount the drill head to the support column. All of the machined parts, drill press table, support column, drill press table gear are coated in machine shop oil. It is a good idea to have a cotton rag handy to wipe off the excess machine oil from the parts and your hands. It took about twenty minutes to assemble the drill.
Fit and Finish
The base and drill press table are cast iron. The cast iron base provides a solid support for the drill press. The drill press table is machined smooth. Check out my previous post on how to prevent a cast iron table from rusting and marking your wood. The drill press table moves up and down via a hand crank. The movement is easy and smooth. On the opposite side of the hand crank is the locking handle. With a few quick turns the table is locked into place.
On the left hand side of the drill head there is a clip to hold the key to the drill chuck. It comes in handy to keep the chuck key with the drill press, especially when moving it around the work shop.
Most benchtop drill presses in the 10 inch category have one belt tensioner. The Ryobi comes with two! It makes changing the drill press speed much easier.
The slotted drill press table and base make it easy to attach clamps and drill press vises to it. A nice feature is that in the base the slots run length wise.
Power and Performance
The motor is plenty powerful for the drill press. It is rated at 5.9 amps or about 1/4 hp under load. The motor is very quite even under load.
The ‘run out’ is not noticeable upon visual inspection. The spindle has a generous 2 3/4 inch travel.
The depth gauge is a dial stop. Once set it is exact, no accidental drill through. Setting the stopping depth is a little odd. To set it:
- Loosen the dial lock lever.
- Set the dial to zero.
- Lower the spindle to the desired depth.
- Tighten the dial lock.
Conclusion
The Ryobi DP100 benchtop drill press is an excellent 10 inch drill press. It will meet the needs of most home woodworkers. Especially if your tight on workshop space.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I love my 10″ ryobi drill press,bought it 3 years ago,home depot,use it a lot works perfect every time,enough power to even drill steel with a big bit as long as you use a quality drill bit needless to say.I give it 5 stars and the price was right.