Bench Drills

Like many others, my first bench drill was a 'noname' model. I truly detested it for its runout, quill slop, and general shoddiness, but it served during the '80s and into the '90's. Then I bought at auction (A$300) an ancient lump of steel with a nameplate that read 'Ajax of Halifax Machine Tool Co. Ltd'. Model number TS13. This drill is built like the proverbial brick sh***house, and runs as sweetly as a Roller. I eventually tracked down Ajax in 1994(?) and they said it was built in ~1954. I installed new bearings in ~2000, and made some measurements just now - spindle nose runout is just under 0.001" and the end of the quill (extended to its max, 4" ) with all the side load that I can put on it, moves 0.0015. Not bad for a machine that is only 10 years younger than me! Old iron, lovely....

Roger

Edited By Roger Head on 08/12/2015 01:02:30

Roger

Lucky you. I am very envious. You might say its a "Close order drill". Even the pillar flexes miserably on the new one that I own. I think the makers are using melted down old Ladas for material. There are good quality older machines occasionally available from Canadian Government surplus assets on line auctions **LINK** but most items are a few thousand Km away; too far to scoot over for a view.

Cheers

Bill

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I originally had a small "Nutool" drill, it was absolute rubbish. Someone then gave me a Wickes branded machine that looked identical but ran so much better. I don't know if it was the luck of the draw or if the machine was internally different but it was quieter with much less play in the quill. Only problem was it had a really low power motor in it and was not a lot of use for drilling steel at anything over about 8mm diameter. I now have one of the very large Clarke machines that I picked up at a car boot for £40. It came with 2 chucks, key and a decent 3/4hp motor. I suspect that the quality on the smaller units varies greatly from one to another and suspect that quality control is not a priority when they are selling them so cheaply. I also suspect that they are made in numerous different factories, each having their own view on what is and is not acceptable.

I purchased one of the Chinese cheapies from Focus when they shut down. £15 and the choice of four. I must have the only decent one they ever made! Quill is still a good fit and apart from the Mickey Mouse depth scale. The only real snag is the table. It is dead square to the axis of the quill, until you start to drill serious holes and then it deflects. Right now I use a scissor jack to keep it square. If only I could fix this problem with a bit more elegance, it would be the best £15 I have ever spent. I use it in preference to my Fobco Star as I would rather wear it out than the Fobco,

I should have purchased all four, a cheap source of pulleys, electric motors and NV release switches, amongst other things.

Andrew

My bench drill comprises of a Stanley Bridges electric drill ( 4 speed model...) mounted in their heavy duty drill stand...Good enough fir genetal drilling jobs...if I need better accuracy or something deserving heavy duty wise then the job goes on the VMC mill

That's a workshop activity I haven't explored yet

There's a time for everything

Hmm.. Obviously my typing skills and the forum spell checker are in question here....

My post should have read 'Good enough for general drilling jobs'......

But then you know that....☹️

John

Never let the facts get in the way of a good leg pull!

Made a blunder and bought a NuTool branded DP16/12 in 92 thicker column than smaller ones, havent used since. Probably had 2hrs running.

My 'import' drill press is far superior to the cheapies in rigidity (rock solid) and features (work light, MT spindle, 16 speeds, rotating table, cranked height adjustment, dial depth gauge) and only costs about three times as much.

All imported drill presses seem to be judged by the cheapest, lowest specced model, which isn't fair.

Neil

Years ago there was an article in Model engineer on improving a cheap bench top drilling machine. One was to remove the quill down feed bushes and make two replacement eccentric bushes, one for each side of the machine as replacements for the sloppy original pair. I made a pair carefully fitted them, the wife held them in position after I had painted them with Loctite and pushed them home. A job well done. The other mod was to stop the table flexing. Mill a flat in front of the table, do the same to the base, both to be accurately in line, drill and tap the movable table twice, say 5mm. Mount a length of quality steel with 5mm clearance holes and bolt the steel to the table. At the base fix a piece of steel such that the other piece of steel will pass through a tight sliding fit, on the base piece should be a bolt to clamp down the sliding piece . Once that is done the table is rock steady. The only down side is the machine has to be at front of the bench. I hope that is some help. One mod that the ME didn't suggest, at the evening class (remember them) I made a new column completely, the original was a piece of rolled sheet steel welded up. That stud me in good stead for at least twenty years, then a Fobco turned up cheap so I let the Alpine go. John.

Neil quite similar to my Nutool DP16/12 except my column is a lot larger dia and came with an English 3/4hp motor that set it apart from similarly others. Graham Engineering Wolvo.

Cant fault Fobcos even small ones.

Taiwanese clone purchased NEW in 1983. Typical 16mm removable chuck, 2MT quill, 12 speed 1 HP thing.

Used in a professional enviroment between 89 and 03, drilled 1000's of holes. Drilled all the security grill windows in the workshop (all 5/8" in 1/4" steel = 100's).

Still going strong today. Replaced NOTHING except the chuck itself. Original motor, original cap start, original brgs.

Never been dismantled.

Used daily till 03, now probably weekly.

Beat that!

Like Thor and JasonB,I bought my Nu Tool 16 speed floor standing drill many moons ago,1983,to be exact. It has a 16mm chuck but is well able to handle 1" drills. There is some play in the quill but not enough to worry me. It handles most of my needs and if I need anything better,I use the mill,but not too often do I need to.

The quality of the castings on all machines from that part of the world is not great as I found when I needed to drill a few small holes in the back of my lathe to mount a stop arrangement. The material was quite soft and sandy,nothing like old cast iron.

As regards price,I think I paid around 300 pounds at that time,but it has never given any trouble and the motor is still going strong,with the same belts ! Looking at the way prices have gone over the years,I might even be able to buy it cheaper now.

After buying a Wolf 9 speed 500W bench drill last year, sending it back within two days of purchase, and being without a bench drill before then and since, I'm encouraged by that recommendation. I see there's a slightly bigger counterpart as well sold by Machinemart.

I've got a few newbie questions about bench drills if people can bear to hear them.

I'd assumed until now that a good milling machine of comparable capacity to any given bench drill would be able to perform the task of drilling as well as or better than a bench drill. Am I wrong about this? Put another way, if someone has a fairly big milling machine already, and space is at a bit of a premium, is buying a bench drill still a good idea for certain tasks?

Secondly, I notice that the standard chucks on the bigger bench drills tend to be 3-16mm capacity, whereas smaller bench drills often have chucks whose capacity starts at 1 or 1.5mm, or even less. Can I assume that if I bought a bench drill with a 3-16mm chuck it would be a very straightforward matter to substitute a chuck that can accommodate smaller bits?

Lastly, and a long shot this one, does anyone know of a manufacturer who sells a bench drill that has the handle for raising and lowering the column on the left hand side as opposed to the right hand side? I ask because a permanent injury to my right arm in a road accident many years ago means I have to use my left arm for pulling down on levers, whether they're on the left or right, and when the lever is on the right, the position I have to adopt relative to the machine when pulling down isn't exactly optimal from the point of view of either visibility or safety.

1 I would be lost without separate mill and drill!

2 Get one with an MT2 socket in the quill, I usually heve a small chuck fitted but can easily swap in a big one, or even a tiny one.

3 Look carefully, you may find one where the spindle passes right through and could be extended on the left side to move the lever across..

Thanks! I did wonder about that possibility, but had the feeling the straight through type might be as rare as hens' teeth.

ETA: Where I said "column" in my earlier post, I meant quill.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 04/06/2018 18:45:25

Edited By Bill Phinn on 04/06/2018 18:45:50

When Bill P mentioned 'column' above, I twitched. In prep for moving house in the next couple of months, today dismantled my old 'Progress' pillar drill. after unbolting from floor, two of us wiggle-walked it out and lowered to the ground. Took head assy off with a grunt, then the column and table together. Was reminded of an earlier post about tricking apprentices when I described being sent to the stores for a 'long weight'. the column is solid steel 46ins long by 2.75ins dia. Everything else save the spindle is cast iron 0.3 to 0.4ins thick. It was already ancient when bought in '70s but still going strong.
DaveD

Yes, my Progress No 1 has a solid steel column as well. They bought a Jet bench drill at work and the column was steel tube with a wall thickness of about 3-4mm... The finish on the table looked like it had been fly cut - badly.