Dake vs Ellis vs JET drill presses

I’ve been using Practical Machinist for a while now lurking and searching for info. Great info! I’ve been in the market for a drill press and have been doing tons of research, and quite honestly, there’s not that much out there about higher end modern drill presses. Seems like it’s either low-end stuff like JET or HF, or vintage presses that guys are fixing up.

Anyway, I had purchased a JET JDP-20MF that I ended up returning (thankfully purchased through my local Home Depot). The table grind was terrible and had some damage. JET sent me a replacement table that was missing the angle gauge and had an off-center drilled mounting hole that made it useless. I decided to return it before they sent me a third table. The chuck wasn’t smooth and needed the key to turn it even with no drill mounted. And the pulley RPM chart stuck to the machine was incorrect (JET offered to send the correct one, but it would take 2 months). The redeeming fact was that it did indeed have very little runout, but I couldn’t get over the other quality issues.

Long story short, I ended settling between Dake and Ellis. The Ellis 9400 looks like a great drill press. I couldn’t find much on it, but what little I could find was positive. It is Trick-Tools best-selling drill press apparently and they talk it up highly, despite not having any info on why it’s better than anything else. Several online shops also incorrectly list the Ellis as being Made in America. It is not. I called Ellis Mfg. directly and they confirmed that ALL parts, including their castings, motor, VFD, etc. are all from overseas (the castings and motor are from China). The parts are shipped and assembled here in the US.

The same goes for Dake with their drill presses. Except their parts and castings come from Taiwan and their VFD is actually made in the US. They assemble, wire, and test their presses at their factory in Grand Haven, MI. I talked to a tech from Dake for quite a while about the differences between their SB-32V, SB-250V and the Ellis 9400. Here’s a run down:

• All three use a 2HP 120V motor with VFD
• The Dake 250V is their answer to the Ellis 9400, and it has VERY similar features, including the Hi/Lo external pulley lever
• The Dake 250V has a slightly higher max RPM than Ellis (1380 vs 1200)
• The Dake 32V has a standard pulley system but with VFD. This gives a much wider range of 46-3473 RPM and you can stay in one pulley setup and adjust the speed up and down with the VFD.
• The VFD that Dake uses on the 32V and 250V is US-made and has less parasitic loss than the Ellis. Dake estimates that while they use a 2HP motor, only about 1.5HP is effectively output by the motor. Ellis’ Mitsubishi VFD has higher parasitic loss and only manages about 1HP actual output from the 2HP motor.
• The Dake 32V is MT4, whereas the 250V and the Ellis are MT3
• The Ellis and Dake 250V have power down feed, whereas the Dake 32V is manual
• The Dake tech told me their drill presses have a max tolerance runout of 0.001" and he also told me that in the last year they had 0 warranty issues for mechanical or breakage. The most common issue is electrical problems related to people plugging the machines into the wrong voltage circuit in their shop. Doh!
• Dake told me they stock all parts here in the US, including for vintage machines, and that if you ever needed something and they didn’t have it, they would pull off of a sub-assembly or another machine to get you up and running ASAP.
• FWIW, the Ellis rep that I talked to was less than helpful and couldn’t wait to get off the phone with me. All he managed to say was that the parts are made overseas, but that they haven’t had any big issues with the machine in 8 years.
• The Ellis drill press does NOT come with a chuck, so factor in that extra $170 into your budget.

Anyway, I thought that might be helpful for anyone researching new drill presses. In case you’re curious, I ended up with the Dake 32V, if nothing else because it was over $600 less expensive than the Ellis, and for general purpose use, I could use the wider RPM range more than the power down feed. I will update this post with photos and a review of the Dake once I get it and have a chance to use it.

What is the min RPM of the Ellis and the 250V?

CarlBoyd

Ellis says 0 RPM for the 9400. No word on whether something super low like 5 or 10 RPM is actually smooth or has usable torque. Dake says 68 RPM for the 250V. I think it must have slightly taller pulley ratios than Ellis, since it’s top range is also higher (1380 vs 1200 RPM). The Dake 32V has a 46 RPM minimum, but that must be because of the larger pulley + VFD range.

get one with power downfeed. the stuff about vfds sounds strange. parasitic losses? never heard that before. dont worry too much about runout on a drill press. the chuck will have a lot of it anyway.

ok, you got it already, i missed that.

Yeah, I’m just a hobbyist user that likes durability and simplicity. I decided the power down feed was just something I probably wouldn’t use very much and is just one more thing to maintain and possibly fix later on.

As for the parasitic loss, it was related to these machines all being 110v. I forget exactly how he explained it, but it’s a loss in HP because of a voltage conversion somewhere in the process.

Were I in the market, I would definitely be looking at the models with a power downfeed.

It doesn't sound like the tech you spoke to was very familiar with the operation of a VFD. There is a loss of efficiency in the conversion, but this just results in a slightly higher electrical load overall. Unless the VFD is a complete piece of junk or improperly sized, it will supply the current required to run the motor at its full rated HP.

I guess I didn’t fully understand what he was saying, but that was the gist of it. They apparently analyzed the VFDs on the Dake and Ellis and for some reason or another the Ellis VFD is undersized or different and thus doesn’t allow full 2HP use. I can call him back if I knew exactly what to ask.

Why so set on power down feed? I can it’s uses for a production environment (over and over again) or frequent large holes, but for general project use, I just don’t see it. It would be another $400ish for me to move to the 250V with power down feed.

its not so much about time saving, but rather about doing it right. i was quite surprised how much my downfeed by feel differed from what the manufacturer suggests. running a 3mm carbide endmill at 4000 rpm your going to burn or breake it for sure feeding manually.

dian said:

running a 3mm carbide endmill at 4000 rpm your going to burn or breake it for sure feeding manually.

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It's a drill press

Thanks JMV for sharing all your review and insights here.

I have been in the same tangle and ran into your thread and it is highly appreciated.

The speed limits are shifting my focus to the Dake 32V. If I need a power down feed, I have a nice mill in the corner for that.

How about giving us an update on your 32V.

Check Alzmetall drill presses. German made, amazing quality, priced accordingly.

metalmagpie

H&A said:

How about giving us an update on your 32V.

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Well, the long of the short is that I ended up sending my Dake 32V back to Dake. The machine wasn’t really ready for primetime, and had several quality issues. I wasn’t going to write a negative review because the Dake rep did a wonderful job of taking care of me, but since you asked, I feel I should be honest.

Let me preface, that for $2,900, I had high expectations of the SB-32V. Too high? I’m not sure. This was 3x the cost of the JET 20MF, which has similar specs (sans VFD). Here’s a run down of my issues.

1. The table on my SB-32V appeared to be the table from the 250V (which has 4 slots in a cross + position). The table shown on their website for the 32V (and what I was expecting), has a table with 3 parallel slots. After speaking with Dake, they said they needed to get their website photos updated, and the table was correct.
2. The table has a surface defect that looks like it was filled or repaired incorrectly. It's very conspicuous and is not smooth/flush with the rest of the table and was not completely filled.
3. The table t-slots also seem to be inconsistently sized. I can only get a t-nut in one of the slots, and even in that slot, I had to hammer it in past about 1/2 way. Another slot wouldn't accept the t-nut at all (it doesn't help that the distance between the opening of the t-slot and the outer rim edge is very tight). Another slot will accept the t-nut but it won't slide in the slot more than an inch. It turns out that my t-slots (another Asian import) were slightly oversized for the 1/2" spec, which didn’t help, but the Dake slots were not uniform either. I also discovered that the slot shoulders are all different shapes and widths, one is very rounded off, not evening make a "t" at all. The paint was all chipping away and the general rough edges and inconsistent chamfer on the top of the slots.
4. The underside of the table is not finished at all (no paint, no oil/grease), and was delivered with it already starting to rust.
5. In the user manual, the photos of the drill press shows the table as having marking plates showing the tilt angle of the table. My table and mounting arm have no such measurement plates. Turns out that this is another case of obsolete photos, combined with Dake’s uncertainty about why/when their Asian manufacturer stopped installing the gauges on their drill presses (i.e., Dake has little involvement in day-to-day manufacturing specs/features).
6. The Golden Goose chuck that was included has quite a bit of runout. I measured it just over 0.003" runout just under the chuck jaws, and about 0.01" at around 5" from the chuck. In fairness, this could have been easily replaced.
7. The table is not totally squared to a chucked drill, meaning that I'll have to pull the locating pin to manually adjust the table and won't be able to use the pin in the future to keep the table locked at 90-degrees. This was only off by a very small amount, and could honestly have been caused by the chuck’s runout.
8. One of the motor tightening wing bolts was bent/damaged. One of the table column height clamp bolts had a hinge pin that kept falling out (thus the handle falls off).
9. The pulley configuration / RPM spindle sticker that is inside the pulley cabinet had the wrong table for the 32V. The spindle speeds for the sticker show the SB-16, SB-25 and SB-32 machines, which are of no relevance to the 32V with a VFD.
10. The manual has several inaccuracies in it, including another incorrect pulley configuration / RPM chart (it shows an SB-25V chart) an incorrect specification table, and old/inaccurate photos.


Several of these issues stem from the fact that Dake imports the drill press from another manufacturer, with the drill completed and assembled overseas. In the case of the SB-32V, they install the VFD here in the US, that’s it. The grease protectant on the castings isn’t even disturbed when Dake receives the import (hence they do very little QC on the machines. The import situation is also very clear when you notice that the head of the press has two serial number plaques on it. One is riveted to the head, and bears no brand name on it, and the incorrect voltage and model number (it was marked SB-32 and 220v). Then Dake has stuck a second serial number plaque on their with double-stick tape and their logo on it. It’s obvious the second one is stuck on after importing the generic machine.

On the upside, the Dake rep was very understanding, apologetic, and helpful. He immediately offered to ship out another machine to me. I wasn’t sure about that because it took me a solid day+ to uncrate the original machine, get it off the palette and into my shop and all the shipping material cut up and disposed. The thought of doing that all over again, plus getting the old machine back on a palette for pickup seemed like way too much work. In the end, Dake offered to just take my machine back and offer a refund. They did go above and beyond and helped compensate me for the time I spent re-loading and re-crating the machine. They also paid and arranged the return freight.

I was disappointed in the overall quality, and the tiny issues just added up too much for me. Dake was very helpful and kind, and so I’d keep them in mind in the future, but not for a drill press. The rep did tell me that my issues helped bring to light several things they were unaware of and are working to correct/improve. YMMV.

Thanks for the update! I would have been sorely disappointed with the machine as well. This is a ~$3k machine and the issues you suffered are over the top for a machine of this cost.

Thanks for the feedback - it is much appreciated.

Aren't most Jet gear head drill presses made in Sweden?

What did u expect buying a new pos throw away machine for 10x the price of a good used American built drill that would outlive you.

And your surprised??? That's par for the course on new junk.

In this case u did not get what u paid for, let this be a lesson in new machine tools.

Any drill press that uses standard bearings and lots of cast iron should be capable of lasting many lifetimes. Where it's made is only relevant to the cost and availability of replacement parts, but any solid drill press should last long enough for the spare parts to become unavailable anyway. Ball bearings are standardized and will be available for a hundred years probably, motors can be rewound or replaced.
Anyone spending time in a forum like this should have enough savvy to be able to maintain a drill press, unless they are convinced it is crap, in which case it soon will be in the scrap pile because of erroneous thinking unrelated to it's innate abilities as a drill press.

According to the mfg's specs the Ellis is 200 lbs. heavier than the Dake. Hard to believe...

I've been kicking around getting one of the Jet GHD-20's, but wouldn't mind coming across a decent used Wilton or Powermatic.

I am not an expert on drill presses, but I have to wonder, are Drake and Ellis considered good US brands? From the prices you talk about, $3000 and several hundred more, I would expect a lot better quality.

Both can apparently claim to be made in the US because they are partially or completely ASSEMBLED here. Does that get us around the ban on discussing import/hobby level equipment here?

Are there any genuinely, US made drill presses in this price range. Any that qualify as true professional grade, whatever that is?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought all Jet products were made in China. Are their gear head DPs different? Or am I completely wrong? Many of their products do bear a very strong resemblance to the Chinese models. The only real differences that I see are the paint job and the price, which is usually about double what the other imports cost.

partsproduction said:

Aren't most Jet gear head drill presses made in Sweden?

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EPAIII said:

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought all Jet products were made in China. Are their gear head DPs different?

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The Arboga series are made in Sweden and branded as Jet Arboga. The GHD series are made in Taiwan.

Both look to be fairly robust drill presses.