Powermatic 20-Inch Floor Drill Press, Variable Speed, 1 HP, 120V 1Ph (Model PM2820EVS)

Like another owner said the table won’t lock at 0°. You have to tighten the bolt so tight to keep it from moving, which then prevents easily tilting the table. Kind of sad that a really cheap drill can do this right but not the new PM. Also it was a beast getting the head onto the column because the head is notA perfect circle. Poor fit and finish. Paint flaking off in many parts of the Drill.

Great Drill

I’ve had the Powermatic PM2820EVS Drill Press for about two years and eight months. The longer I own it, the unhappier I am with it. I have over fifty years of experience in the woodworking industry, including working as a machinery technician in years past.1. IT’S VERY LOUD. Powermatic rates it 80 dB at 20” from the machine. I find this very disingenuous. Who works at a drill press standing twenty inches away from the controls? Usually, one's body is only a few inches from the drill press. I have a decibel meter, and at higher speeds, it reaches between 90 to 92 dB. Plan on investing in excellent ear protection.2. THERE’S NO WAY TO LOCK THE SPINDLE. This is so egregious boarding on criminal. Though they have a very slick depth adjustment system on the right side of the machine, THERE IS NO WAY TO LOCK THE SPINDLE. This makes it extremely difficult to set up jigs and fixtures.3. FORGET SETTING THE TABLE AT ZERO. As many others pointed out, it’s next to impossible to get the table to stay in the 0-position. I won’t go into detail since others already have.4. DRAMATICALLY UNDERPOWERED. It has a puny 1 HP motor. I called tech, and they informed me that since it is gear-driven, there isn’t a need for a more powerful motor. Maybe so if you only drill one-inch holes in soft maple or mahogany. Forget drilling a 3” or 4” hole in ash or white oak, which is what I need it to do. It just doesn’t have the mechanical guts.5. CHUCK DROPS OUT OF THE SPINDLE: The chuck kept dropping out of the spindle head when I first got it. I immaculately cleaned the chuck's morse taper and the spindle head interior. It would just drop out as I was drilling. Tech sent me a new one, and that resolved the problem.6. STUBBORN LEVER: The lever on the left side of the head can be stubborn when changing from high to low RPM and back. TECH will gladly email you six pages of instructions to fix this issue. Please see the attached 6 jpegs that make up the manual.I bought this when it was $1800.00 and it was sort of worth it at that price, but it’s not worth it at $2340. Nope! No way!I DO NOT RECOMMEND THE POWERMATIC PM2820EVS DRILL PRESS.You’re better off buying an old Powermatic Model 1200 on the used market and rebuilding it if necessary. Now, this was a drill press worth its weight in gold. The closest Powermatic can now get to this quality machine is painting their Taiwanese crap gold. And even then, the paint job will often chip off.Powermatic, Turning Mediocrity into The New Standard of Excellence! Ooh Rah!

I bought this at Woodcraft a few months back. It is a solid tool and mostly really well built. The speed adjustment is excellent. It has plenty of power. The setup was straightforward. My only complaint - which I think is fairly significant - is that the table will not lock in the 0-degree position tightly. At the 0-degree position, there is a hole for the locking mechanism to fit into to ensure that it is exactly at 0 degrees. This is a fine idea, except they didn't make the pin the precise size. As a result, the tabletop wobbles about 1 degree no matter what I do. I went back to Woodcraft to see their unit and it does the exact same thing. I find this to be extremely disappointing in a $2000 tool. I emailed Powermatic support but after waiting weeks for a response I was told this was within design spec.