To echo wp34, I absolutely love my drill press. I use it all the time. I only have one I bought on clearance for $40, but it drills anything I throw at it like a champ. As he pointed out, unless you have a huge drill press, you are gonna be "pressed" to get a hole in the center of your control panel. (Sorry about the pun, I couldn't resist.)
On a side note, I have been toying with the idea of making a custom base to my drill press. I was thinking a making a shorter base with an open slot to slide in a control panel. Then I can just unclamp my drill press when needed from the standard base, and reclamp it on to my custom base for control panels. I'm thinking chain link pipe might fit the base collar on my drill press and would be perfect to use.