Buying a (cheap) bench drill - recommendations ?

I recently bought same-ish one from MachineMart for similar light use -

it's fine, but throw away the crappy eyeguard upon unpacking.

I've got one as well, can't grumble about it either.

There was no need to in my case. The guard broke and fell off.

Richard.

All these cheap pillar drills seem to come from the same maker - just cosmetic differences. So look at B&Q, Wicks etc to save on carriage costs.

My only real complaint about mine bought from B&Q was the maximum distance from table to chuck - not enough for a 2 x 2" lump of wood held in a vice and a 1/2" drill. A bit like a compound mitre bench circular saw - I want one which can chop 12" planks. But we all have our own bench marks for this sort of thing. And that pillar drill was a million times better than a drill mounted in a stand.

I'd check it has enough clearance between table and drill end for this task. Mine hasn't if the wood is thick and you're using a vice.

Hmmm - there's a thought..... (ordered the Clarke drill last night !)

The wood in question is the triangular base for a stained-glass lamp - only about 25 - 30mm thick, and I've tended to do the drilling without the aid of a vice......

Anyway - all ordered - so we'll see what the courier brings. He'll be delighted - apparently it weights 19kg. Just hope they don't do what the did once in Suffolk - shipped me a 100m (wooden) reel of heavy-duty coaxial cable - loose-packed with an assortment of dil ICs and other discrete components. Quite a mess, after the cable reel had bounced around inside the box for a day or so.....

....we'll see.

Thanks Adrian

Yebbut - if you're out in the wilds of south-west Ireland (as we are) it can be a long way to your friendly local B&Q.

In the end, CPC are charging me 15 euro (or about 10 of your earth pounds) to deliver the drill press, plus a laminator, plus some odds & ends that I can't get over here - so I'm not unhappy with that... Saves trailing all the way to Cork or Killarney, which would cost more in petrol anyway....

That's what I needed to hear.

Wonder what's the smallest drill bit that you can grip in the chuck? Some of the diamond drills I use have very fine diameter shanks - so I've bought a 'fine' chuck from CPC as well - and hope to be able to put that in the 'main' chuck if necessary..

Many thanks Adrian

Thinking about how the work is held when (not if) the drill binds is a Good Idea(tm). Even if it's just that it rotates and hits the column, if that is the case start with the work against the column. B-)

The other thing that might be a problem is the quill centre to column face distance but of you've been using a B&D drill stand without trouble that's probably not going to be an issue.

I wouldn't put any money on it. I had a packet a ground glass in with one of my deliveries that also contained a drill vice. The ground glass should have been 5 20A fuses... Hope the laminator survives. B-)

Yes - all understood

No - that won't be a problem The timber in question is a piece of (usually) ash - cut to an equilateral triangle about 4.5" per side. Needs a small hole near each corner and then the big 9.5mm one in the centre.

It's common in the stainaed glass / fused glass world to buy 'scrap' glass (as in other peoples' offcuts). Once had some scrap come from the USA - postie stood there with a parcel which sounded like broken glass ('cos it was) and an expression on his face that said 'he's not going to like this'.....

..was much relieved when i explained that's how it should sound !

I'll let you know whether the drill press gets damaged by the laminator - or the other way round

Adrian

I'm looking for a bench drill that takes Morse Taper bits (I forget exactly which) as well as a normal chuck. Most of the ones I've seen advertised are quite expensive. Are there cheap ones? Are there some not advertised as MT that actually have it?

thanks

dan

Most of them seem to have a morse taper chuck fitting, but as I mentioned in another post, my Ferm drill has a morse taper quill, but it is the wrong sex for use with a drill bit - i.e. the chuck has the female bit. So you will have to check carefully before buying.

Ah - good - far too many people add the electricity to the water instead of the other way round...

Geo

Actually - the 'water & electrickery' thing is the least of my problems right now.

CPC's order status page seems fundamentally broken - so it didn't warn me that there was some danger of the package being delivered yesterday.....

...so UPS tried to deliver, and left one of their famous little notes....

..promising delivery today.

Well - that didn't happen - so phoned UPS, who got the depot to phone me back. Apparently CPC, in their infinite wisdom, popped the 19kg pillar drill in a standard carboard shipping box - so by the time it arrived with me the inner box with the drill in it had broken through the outer box. So they took it back to the depot to perform a 'damage assessment' - which meant that it missed being sent out today - so it'll be coming out again on Monday.

So far, nobody knows what may have happened to the laminator, perspex car sun-visors, electrolytic capacitors, SLA battery & charger and laminating pouches that were also (allegedly!) in the same box......

Anybody care to place bets on which items survived ?? - I'll let you know who's closest to the mark when the remains of the parcel arrive on Monday....

Bloody amateurs !

Adrian

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian saying something like:

I bought the Aldi bench drill a couple of years ago, not expecting it to be up to much, but I was surprised. It's agricultural, sure, but quite useful. When I bought mine there was a stack of them remaining in store, and that was a good week after they'd been out on the floor - I reckon most people who wanted one had their need satisfied the previous time they'd been available.

Since then, I've seen it pop up a couple of times on the Aldi site and Lidl have had it too. If you get a CPC version, it would be worth your while grabbing an Aldi one as a spare.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian saying something like:

Bless'em, warehouse monkeys aren't employed for their brainpower. I had a Northern Tools compresser arrive in a single skin cardboard box. As you can imagine it took a bit of a battering in transit and the plastic air cowl was busted. Useless bastards never replaced it.