It was basically an impulse buy. I saw it at Ace for $50, and thought, "Where can I get a drill press for $50 that has a chance of being better than something from Harbor Freight?"
The last power tool I bought from Ace was a 6" bench grinder. It was $40 as I recall, and I've used it a lot since then. I bolted it to the bench with lag bolts. Originally I bought it to clean up valves for the '86 Fiero engine, but I knew there would be approximately 540,000 other things it would end up getting used for.
Since then I've used it to do a ton of other things. Clean spark plugs, sharpen things, clean things, modify things, etc, etc. The wire wheel is getting a bit elderly but otherwise it's a fair dinkum tool to have around the shop.
The drill press--I didn't really buy it for a reason; that is to say, I don't have a specific idea in mind of what I need it for. But the nice thing about having a tool is that if you have it, you'll find uses for it. And, c'mon, it was fifty bucks. It's not like I bought a freaking lathe/drill/mill machine.
I did have the inchoate thought in mind that I've got to drill out some broken exhaust bolts from the '86 Fiero cylinder heads--but it's likely that when I find a machine shop to do the valve job they need, I can just have them extract the bolts too.
Anyway, it's been sitting in the living room since the 20th or so. Thursday night I was feeling kind of low, so I opened the box and put the thing together...and that cheered me right up.
I'm simpleminded.