New to Me Steel City 17" Drill Press

3180 Views 19 Replies 15 Participants Last post by gdonham1, Feb 4, 2019

gdonham1

Discussion Starter · Jan 14, 2019

2

Yesterday I found a Steel City 17" Drill Press (DP) on craigslist. I went and looked at and it looked brand new. The DP was bought in Feb 2015 and was probably made in 2014. I got it home and did a little maintenance. I oiled and greased the drive pulleys to make sure they run smoothly. A dry shaft on a Reeves Drive is the kiss of death. The DP is a variable speed which means it has a Reeves drive. The Reeves Drive is using pulleys that change size to increase or decrease speed. The Shopsmith is a classic example of a Reeves drive. The previous owner had a table but it was small and poorly made. I made a big table and fence today. The thing about this DP is it has a 6" throw.

That is pretty good for woodworking.

My old DP is a benchtop Ryobi. That DP has served me well but it has a 2.5 or 3" throw and was just not enough. Earlier before Christmas I bought some Wrangler Pens from Craft Supply. The pen blanks were about 5" long. My little Ryobi could not get all the way through. I tried to very gently turn the blanks over but several were not properly centered. That problem is now solved. I can make the hole in one go with the Steel City.

Steel City products had good reviews but sadly they went out of business in March 2015. If you build a better mouse trap sometimes the world just does not beat a path to your door.

Now my only issue with this DP is full size floor standing DP is not really good on wheels and I need to find a permanent home somewhere in my shop. Purposely every tool in my shop is on wheels. I stash most stuff in the side of the shop and move what I need out and use it. Sadly I have too much stuff to give everything a permanent home.

Please do not shed any tears for me because I have too much stuff.

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difalkner

· #2 · Jan 14, 2019

Great score on the drill press, Guy! Is the chuck a good one?

I would love to have one like that, especially with the Reeves drive. I don't change speeds often on my 15" Boice Crane and one of the reasons is I don't want to mess with the belt. And I often have to drill to the center of a 16" Longworth chuck so a 17" drill press would be perfect.

David

Multiwood

· #3 · Jan 14, 2019

I’m sure you will get many years to good use out of it Guy.

Nickp

· #4 · Jan 14, 2019

Congratulations on your new DP...but...having a hard time understanding "too much stuff"...

Over time, you will see that your brothers/sisters here on RF will help you to realize you don't have "too much stuff"...and will help you spend your money on more. >

Good luck with your DP...

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sreilly

· #5 · Jan 14, 2019

Too much stuff is like too much fun. It's impossible to have too much stuff. Now you mat have too little room, that's a real possibility! He who dies with the most stuff wins!
Just saying.......I heard that somewhere and I believe it to be Gospel. At least I think so. Anyway that's what the sales clerk told me.

Reactions: 2

DaninVan

· #6 · Jan 14, 2019

"Too much stuff" ? You must be referring to the Mrs.' boxes of stored 'collectibles'...

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Danman1957

· #7 · Jan 14, 2019

Guy,
That's a nice DP. I have a General but your post is confusing to me. Could you or someone please shed some light on me as to the Steel City company being purchased by a Canadian firm ? A local Quebec firm (Normand Woodworking machinery, a distributor with 3 locations) is actively selling Steel City products and I recently bought an aluminum router plate with the Steel City logo and filters for my General air filter that they also sell a Steel City version ???

Nice upgrade from the table top model !

Cheers,
Dan

rwl7532

· #8 · Jan 14, 2019

Price?

honesttjohn

· #9 · Jan 14, 2019

You can never have "have too much stuff"!!!

Cherryville Chuck

· #10 · Jan 14, 2019

DaninVan said:
"Too much stuff" ? You must be referring to the Mrs.' boxes of stored 'collectibles'...

Those are probably Christmas ornaments. Tote after tote of them. I built a shed so I could get some of my spare parts organized. She filled it with Christmas ornaments.

Steel City was supposed to be making some decent tools. They have started manufacturing again, at least someone is under that name, but not the total lineup that they had before as of yet. I wouldn't try moving it around unless it sits on a wide platform. They are very top heavy and also very heavy at somewhere between 250 and 300 lbs for the Delta 16 1/2" I have which is comparable.

DesertRatTom

· #11 · Jan 14, 2019

I thought they went out of business. They were good tools before that, who know what the buyer will do with the brand. Very good deal. Scary tool to move, so top heavy it won't take much to tip it over, and few drill presses survive a fall damage free. I have a 12 inch WEN with the Reeves drive, and it is really convenient.

Barry747

· #12 · Jan 14, 2019

Isn't the purpose in life to acquire "stuff"? Don't confuse me. Good find on the DP. I have a Delta Bench top that serves me well but bigger would be better.

Speaking of "stuff", I have a junk drawer under my work table that holds all sorts of small "stuff". If I can't fit it into my apron it goes into that drawer and I use stuff from that drawer every day. I had some great finds at a garage sale a couple of months ago. Some of it went into the junk drawer. Well, I was working on three projects today and I couldn't find something I needed in the junk drawer. It finally pushed me over the edge. I pulled the drawer out and dumped everything on the floor. I vacuumed out the drawer and put it back. I then got an empty box that had held two bottles of wine from someone who visited. I figured, why not get a second use out of the box. The first use was gooooood. Anyway, I've heard about people doing this but I just could never bring myself to do it until today. I picked up something from the floor like my speed square and said "have you used this in the last 6 months"? Of course the answer was yes so it went back in the drawer. The next thing I pick up was a set of french curves. Same question but with a different answer so they went into the wine box. And so on for the 50 some items that I had in the drawer. When I was done, I had about a dozen items in the, now, neatly arranged drawer and the rest in the box that sits on the shelf right under the drawer. If I have to go into the box for anything it'll go back in the drawer. I laughingly have made this into a New Years resolution. Now, if I could only do that to the rest of the shop I'd be in good shape.

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gdonham1

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jan 15, 2019

I did not know that Steel City was still around. I found press releases stating that they were shut down as of March 2015. Maybe someone started the business back up again. Maytag washing machines were made in the midwest until they went out of business, then a Chinese company bought the name and started making Maytag again. Maybe this is what happened with Steel City. The original Steel City was formed by a bunch of former Delta employees. They had a goal to make each of their machines the best in their class. They mostly did that with good quality and a good price point.

Well I will look and see if Steel City is around here in the USA. Sometimes things are only sold in Canada and not in the US. How Aboout that. Time for a Molson.

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gdonham1

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jan 15, 2019

I did find find www.steelcitymachines.ca but the page came up in French. So maybe they are selling in Canada but I cannot find anything about them selling in the US currently.

If you can read French maybe you can figure out what is up with Steel City.

Mycrossover

· #15 · Jan 15, 2019

gdonham1 said:
I did not know that Steel City was still around. I found press releases stating that they were shut down as of March 2015. Maybe someone started the business back up again. Maytag washing machines were made in the midwest until they went out of business, then a Chinese company bought the name and started making Maytag again. Maybe this is what happened with Steel City. The original Steel City was formed by a bunch of former Delta employees. They had a goal to make each of their machines the best in their class. They mostly did that with good quality and a good price point.

Well I will look and see if Steel City is around here in the USA. Sometimes things are only sold in Canada and not in the US. How Aboout that. Time for a Molson.

Maytag was bought by Whirlpool Corp. The stuff is still made in USA but at a different location. I read recently that Steel City's inventory and spares were bought by a Canadian company. Whether they are making or importing anything, I cannot say. Cutech is importing planers from the same Chinese factory that made them for Steel City so they can supply some parts. The head of Cutech was a rep. for Steel City.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Danman1957

· #16 · Jan 21, 2019

So the site claims that Nordis Distribution who was the Canadian distributor for Steel City, bought the inventory and the brand name, and are continuing to produce the brand in Taiwan, same place as Steel City was producing. The site also shows Normand Ins. as the only distributor and only in Quebec and Ontario.

MoHawk

· #17 · Jan 21, 2019

Great find on the Steel City DP. I have a SC 3hp 12" Cabinet saw I bought new and have used for 10 years with no problems. If your DP has the same quality as my TS, you will not be disappointed!

Cherryville Chuck

· #18 · Jan 21, 2019

$2900 for a saw the equivalent of my Unisaw. That's not bad. I think the Uni is up to about $3400 but I haven't checked lately. For anyone in the northern states that might be interested keep in mind that the $2900 Canadian price is only about $2200 U.S.

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CharleyL

· #19 · Jan 23, 2019

And then there's the transportation and border crossing costs to be added on. Nice to know that they still exist though.

Charley

gdonham1

Discussion Starter · #20 · Feb 4, 2019

4

i added a Rockler dust port to the fence I made for this Steel City Drill Press. The drill press has always been one of the worst offenders in the shop for making a mess. I bought the dust port for $8.00 US and got free shipping with a catalog code.

The Drill Press Dust Port worked pretty well. There was still a little bit of a mess but not near as much as there usually is. Most of the chips were sucked up right away. I was drilling close to the fence with a forestner bit and there was not much left over to clean up.

The inlet for the dust port is offset for the column of the drill press. The bottom of the port is open so I used CA and glued a piece of 1/4" plywood to the bottom of the port. The hole in my fence for the chuck is the prefect place for the suction and it worked.

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