I'm a little late to the party but want to put in my two bits worth on drill presses.
I lived with a cheap Asian bench top drill press for a lot of years and can't even count the number of busted knuckless, rips and tears and screwed up jobs. When I had the cash available I went to the store and bought a floor model Jet with 2 HP, a moveable grooved table so that I can tighten a vise or the work down on it and also got a spray accessory to keep the bits cool when cutting. It was pretty spendy but I have yet to have it stall out on me no matter how heavy the work I have asked it to do and it will go slow for good cutting. I agree that a knee mill would be the ideal but a good one would have doubled my already hefty investment and required me to learn a bunch of new skills to take advantage of it. Nothing wrong with learning though. Tip: Check Southern Tool if they are still in business. They have some good prices (and some not too good) Their price on this included free shipping. I took their price to a tool place in Portland OR near where I live and they agreed to match it in order to not loose the business. Can't say they were cheerful about it.
Jerry
