How loud is a drill press?
A drill press runs from 75 to 90 dB on the five comparable maker figures, each taken 39 or 40 in. (1 m) from the machine while the spindle turned with no bit cutting.
- JET JDP-15B: 75dB at 39 in. (1 m), without load
- JET JDP-15F: 75dB at 39 in. (1 m), without load
- JET JDP-17: 80dB at 39 in. (1 m), without load
- JET JDP-20S: 80dB at 39 in. (1 m), without load
- Powermatic PM2800B: 90 dB at 40 in. (1 m), without load
JET and Powermatic are sister brands under JPW Industries, and their manuals word the line identically: a sound emission entry in the motor table, measured at 1 m with the spindle free. That shared format is the reason these five figures sit in one group.
The manuals print whole numbers in steps of five and state no tolerance. A 5 dB gap between the JDP-15 pair and the JDP-17 is a clear step on paper, but none of these numbers says how the machines compare while a Forstner bit works through oak.
Is a benchtop drill press quieter than a floor drill press?
No, not on JET's figures: the benchtop JDP-15B and the floor-standing JDP-15F both declare 75dB at 39 in. (1 m) without load, printed side by side in one manual.
Both use the 3/4 HP induction motor, 16 belt speeds from 210 to 3500 RPM, the 15 in. swing and the 3-1/8 in. quill. Only the column and base change, which lifts the head higher and adds 18 lb.
The bigger heads carry the higher numbers. JET's JDP-17, with a 5 in. quill and a 16-7/8 in. swing on the same 3/4 HP rating, declares 80. Powermatic's 18 in. PM2800B, with a 1 HP motor and 6 in. of quill travel, declares 90.
Is a brushless or variable speed drill press quieter?
No, not in JET's manuals. The JDP-20S, whose brushless motor turns the spindle directly with no belts, declares 80dB at 39 in. (1 m) without load, the same as the belt driven JDP-17.
The JDP-20S is the larger machine, with a 1.5 HP motor, a 20 in. swing and 6 in. of quill travel, so the two are not a like for like swap. Even so, removing the belts and pulleys did not bring JET's printed figure under the step pulley press.
Powermatic's PM2800B is variable speed too, from 250 to 3000 RPM through a belt, and declares 90 at 40 in. Neither maker says what spindle speed was set when its figure was taken.
Without load means the drill press ran with its spindle turning freely and no bit in the work, so the figure covers motor, belt and bearing sound rather than drilling.
That makes machines easier to compare, since no wood, bit or feed pressure changes between them. It also leaves out the loudest moments of real use: a spade bit grabbing in pine, a hole saw ringing in sheet steel, or a dull twist bit squealing as it heats.
JET's footnote says the figures are emission levels and not necessarily safe operating levels. Use them to sort machines before buying, not to predict what a garage or basement shop will sound like on a Saturday.
Which JET and Powermatic drill presses fall outside the ranking?
Two figures from these makers fall outside the ranking because each was taken at another distance: Powermatic's PM2820EVS at 20 in. from the headstock, and JET's J-2500 series metalworking presses at 3 ft.
The PM2820EVS, a 20 in. gear driven press with a brushed DC motor, is rated 80 dB at half the distance used for every ranked figure, and its manual does not say whether a bit was cutting. Powermatic's store listed it as out of stock on October 21, 2026.
JET's manual for its J-2500, J-2530 and J-2550 gives one range, 82 to 84 dB at 3 ft., for all three. A range at 3 ft. cannot be placed against a single value at 1 m, so the J-2530 benchtop model sits in the also considered list.
Several of the two brands' presses print nothing at all. JET's JWDP-10, JWDP-12, JDP-17MF and JDP-20MF manuals and Powermatic's PM2815BT and PM2815FS manuals have no sound line.
Grizzly, WEN, Rikon, Laguna and Teknatool's Nova range print no drill press noise figure in the manuals we read, and Bosch lists no drill press on its US site.
Grizzly's manuals for the G7942 through G7948, the T33959 to T33961 and the G0794 insert carry a general hearing warning and no number. WEN's eleven drill press manuals, from the 8 in. 4206T to the 4227T floor model and the 4233 radial press, have none either.
Rikon's manuals for its 30-100, 30-120, 30-140, 30-212VS, 30-217, 30-230, 30-240 and 30-251 give no figure, nor does Laguna's manual for the DP|20 and DX|20. Teknatool's Nova Voyager manual mentions decibels only to ask for ear muffs rated to 103 DBA.
