Vertical Drilling Machines vs. Lathes

It is usually easier to place the object to be drilled on a horizontal table with vertical drill, rather than clamp it in a vertical position and drill horizontally. Compare these two methods in a machine shop--Eureka!

I'd tell teacher it isn't!
But only for certain operations...
Like if you want to drill down the centre of some thing round.
Del

The simple answer is that you haven't invested in modern machine tools. I, and some others, have a lot of trouble telling the difference between a drilling machine, a milling machine, and a lathe anymore with the multi-axis, multi-spindle tools available.

I always prefer to use a drilling machine but that's more from experience and a hatred of my Turning lecturer lol. Can you not use a vertical/universal miller to do the drilling?

All may not be as it seems

All....or most.....of the answers are all very well, if appropriate machinery is available.

Try being at sea..........600 miles from land..........you will then know how valuable a lathe can be (if that is all you have at your disposal).........and what you can do on it...........improvisation is the name of the game..........particularlly when a lathe is the only machine tool you have.

If you have a drilling machine.......try drilling a tapered bore in a flange coupling.......that must, of course be concentric to within 0,0005".

It therefore depends on the work required as well.

Therefore I consider that the answer to this question is not as straight forward as it seems............anyhow this is my perspective of the answer to the question.

Give me the lathe any day.........I can do a much greater variety of jobs with that, than a drilling machine........even drilling!!!!!..........you can clamp jobs on the cross slide or on the saddle and mount the drill in the headstock of the lathe..........if you must you can now get lathes with a vertical milling attachment.

Each machine has its place. Spend a little time in a machine shop using these machines and you will understand why a small jobber machine shop might have 20-30 different machines, each with advantages and disadvantages. For drilling a hole concentric to within .01 mm of the outside of a cylinder, a lathe cannot be beaten: setup is essentially instant, vs tedious with a vertical drilling machine. But for drilling a series of holes with x-y coordinates in an oddly shaped piece, a lathe can range from very difficult to impossible.