Customer Reviews

Drill Press Laser Guide

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I've been using this laser guide for a couple days now, and it's much better than others that I've tried.

A common design is like the one that comes with the "DELTA DP300L 12-Inch TwinLaser Crosshair Drill Press"; it has an all-plastic case with a split-ring clamping system that clamps to the post (i.e., the case is a circle, split into two half-circles, that then bolt back together around the drill press' post). This mechanism is very unstable and is easily moved by bumping, and the plastic case on mine broke apart after a very short time. I've seen other units with a similar design, too. Avoid these! Also, the lasers on these competing units like the Delta are TERRIBLY difficult to set up accurately, because the lasers move when the retaining rings are tightened, and they can't be adjusted in tiny increments because the plastic "sticks" and binds, requiring a lot of force to overcome the binding, and then when the part finally un-sticks, it jumps a large amount, wrecking the alignment that I was trying to tweak. Very frustrating.

This Steel City unit has a 1-part METAL case, that attaches VERY securely to the post with a good old-fashioned stainless steel hose clamp. This simple system is excellent!

The lasers are real easy to align perfectly, too! Give yourself about 20 minutes to really dial them in for perfect registration.

The laser lines are very fine at normal drilling distance, too, which provides for VERY precise positioning and alignment.

Also, the unit comes with an A/C wall adapter so that I don't have to worry about the batteries running down, AND the unit runs on AA batteries (which are cheap and everyone has lying around all over the place), vs. the Delta unit that runs on 9v batteries, which are expensive and never seem to be handy. This is all very important, because it's REALLY EASY to walk away from the press and forget to turn off the laser, running down the batteries quickly.

So far I'm very impressed with this little gadget.

The laser guide was a snap to setup, then to use the laser to pinpoint the location of the hole and drill is on the money.