Hope i'm in the right category. Generally speaking going no larger than 4 ft. arm what are considered the better american made radial arm drills say between post world war 2 and 1975 or 80 thank you for reading, Clyde
"No larger than 4 ft" you will probably find a Taiwanese knock-off that is sixty years newer the better deal.
All three radials 3', 5', 8', I used in the early 1960's were built between First and Second World wars.
More powerful portables, mag base especially, ELSE BIG mills, portal, gantry, bridge, etc. that could do far more operations, far faster, than ignorant 90-degree to axis holes began consuming most of the radial DP "new" market by around the Korean War period. Then came NC/CNC...
The "classical" all-manual radial DP can still earn a crust on suitable work, but fewer places actually NEED them enough to dedicate even the space and power budget if the DP itself was "free".
As some ARE. Nasty machines to remove, rig, transport, and re-install, larger sizes about as tough a rig as machine-tools generally get for their tipsy mass.
Disclaimer: Much as I
loved radials, I have an Alzmetall AB5/S 7 HP "column" drill. Fixed throat depth, but mass and height aside, it needs less floorspace than a BirdPort mill and not a Hell of a lot more space than say "one and a half" tiny Walker-Turners.
Radials, OTOH, need ROOM, often most of it for the
work, not just their own selves. Think drilling into the middle of the side of a mining car body. Hole isn't large. Mining car IS. Without lots of bring-to, position favourably, and take-away space a decent radial is crippled. Enter high-end mag-base or chained-on portables.
And then.. water jet, laser, etc. holes made BEFORE a plate even becomes a part of a larger structure.
2CW