Laser guide add-on for drill press?

[merrill77]

My searches turned up mixed reviews for the Peachtree and Wood River accesories. The Steel City model got good reviews, but is now discontinued (according to Amazon).
Does anyone have one that they would recommend?

 

[Weekendworrior]

My drill press came with the laser guide. I took the time to set the lasers up so the crosshair is point accurate regardless of table height. Once the drill bit gets close enough the piece to be drilled, the bit interferes with the laser beams and the crosshair disappears. At that point I'm still left eyeballing the crosshair or dot I marked on the piece or the dimple I made with the spring loaded punch. I don't think I've used the laser guide but about half a dozen times in a year and a half and hundreds of holes.

 

[nn4jw]

+1 one everything Bill said. Never use mine. The laser lines were also too wide and the spot where they crossed too blurred and coarse to be of any practical use.

 

[BWhitney]

I use an aftermarket guide on a small Delta. It gets me in the ball park, but I still check to make sure the bit is going where I marked.

 

[KenOfCary]

Most of the ones I'm aware of wrap around the center post of the drill press. Not sure how that would work with your SSS with two parallel rails. But I haven't researched much. Mine came with my Delta press and works fairly well.

 

[DaveD]

They make one (for us metal working guys) that is just a pinpoint beam. It can be chucked up in the drill chuck or one of those R8 'thingies'.

Personally I've used my drill press to literally drill thousands of holes over the years in just about everything imaginable and have done 95% of them just by eyeballing the drill point down to the work surface.

 

[merrill77]

Sounds like the consensus is that these are nothing more than marketing gimicks. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

 

[ehpoole]

Sounds like the consensus is that these are nothing more than marketing gimicks. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

It really depends upon the task and how well the user has setup the lasers. I don't use my aftermarket laser guide for holes where alignment is critical, but I do use them frequently when I have less critical alignment so that I can quickly align the bit to my marks without having to eyeball the alignment. In my case the lasers are within +/- 1/32" of dead center over a fairly wide range of travel, so for holes where that is acceptable they can be a time saver. But for higher accuracy I will still need to lower the bit to the work to see where the bit lines up -- or for more accurate work still I may have to chuck in a centering bit first, then lock everything down and chuck in the bit.

If I really wanted to I could get their accuracy a good deal better, but it would require a longer alignment dowel than the kit provided for an alignment guide.

It really all depends upon what you are expecting the laser guides to do for you. Properly setup they can be a time saver for holes that just have to be very close to your marks -- provided absolute precision is not required.

 

[rick7938]

I use the one on mine for realigning the hole in the middle of the table, but nothing else. I would take mine off, but it is also used to mount the depth stop.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Sounds like the consensus is that these are nothing more than marketing gimicks. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Whole heartedly agree. I move my table quite a bit and each time the laser has to be realigned, therefore, I just don't use it anymore. A laser is useful on the chopsaw though.

 

[ehpoole]

Whole heartedly agree. I move my table quite a bit and each time the laser has to be realigned, therefore, I just don't use it anymore. A laser is useful on the chopsaw though.

Guy,

If you need to adjust the laser every time you move the table then your laser has never been properly setup to begin with. When setup properly it will not matter what you do with the table (raise lower, move left or right, launch it to the moon, etc.) as the point at which the beams cross will *always* be aligned with the point at which the bit will make first contact with the object you are drilling.

They work as two lasers, each projected in a vertical plane that is aligned with the shaft of the drill bit over a continous length that pretty much extends from a few inches below the lasers all the way to floor level. When those two vertical planes are properly aligned to the bit the two planes will then *always* cross at the center point below the bit.

Your drill press or aftermarket laser guide should have included an alignment dowel specifically for aligning the two lasers to your bit to simplify setting up the lasers. It will be a dowel with a score that runs down its length. The idea is to align each laser so that the vertical score is angled towards each laser and that corresponding laser is then aligned so that it casts a verticle beam that aligns from the top of the alignment dowel to the bottom without deviation. You then repeat this for the other laser and when you are done you will have an "X" that comes within a tiny fraction of an inches of being perfectly aligned with the bit's center point.