Bench Drills

I was pleased with my Naerok when I bought it about 30 years ago and for light drilling and woodwork it was fine. Heavier drilling in steel exposed its limitations, the table would flex if not drilling over the main support and the quill was not as solid as it ought to be. I gave it to a friend whose demands were not as exacting as mine, we were both pleased, he traded up from a pistol drill and I found a Meddings MF4 on eBay at a good price £174. Once again I took another step up the learning curve, the table is very heavy and the optional lifting rack is near essential for a machine that is used for a new setup every time, of course mine did not have this option. Perusing eBay I came across an MF4 that had a broken foot casting and was quite beaten up but the table was in good nick and had the lusted after lifting rack, my bid of £50 won the machine and the offer to transport it to near Burton on Trent which is somewhat nearer than Liverpool where it was when I won it. A trip to the yard near burton and dimantling it into bite sized parts I loaded it into my car. Fitting the rack and table onto my machine has given me a very solid and usable machine for not too much money, I think they used to sell for about £1500 so I feel it wasn't bad value. 10 speeds from 80 to 4000rpm make it quite a flexible machine with enough power to drill 7/8" in steel. Some spares are still available from Meddings and the Tufnol gears in the gearbox are vulnerable if changing gear is attempted without stopping the machine. I would recommend one of these machines if the price and condition are right. Looking round my local Axminster showroom they have some quite purposeful looking machines but a good solid machine is going to cost a few bob. The posts on this forum show time and time again that buying the absolute cheapest imported machines will often disappoint but spend a bit more and you can get a very satisfactory machine for a very acceptable price or carefully search for an old machine in good nick.

Mike