Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Building a Mag Drill
This summer after building a number of items using I-beams and heavy
plate, I finally figured out that having a mag drill would be very, very nice. After pricing them new and noting that in the used market they seem to retain their value, I have to ask myself "Why not build one?" Considering that we have some very good magnets on the surplus market these days and an Asian morse taper bench drill presses are available, has someone undertaken this task in the past? If so, I would love to see what you did before embarking on the same effort. Does anyone know of a Chinese knockoff of a mag drill? Thanks for whatever suggestions you can offer. TMT |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Too_Many_Tools wrote: This summer after building a number of items using I-beams and heavy plate, I finally figured out that having a mag drill would be very, very nice. After pricing them new and noting that in the used market they seem to retain their value, I have to ask myself "Why not build one?" Considering that we have some very good magnets on the surplus market these days and an Asian morse taper bench drill presses are available, has someone undertaken this task in the past? If so, I would love to see what you did before embarking on the same effort. Does anyone know of a Chinese knockoff of a mag drill? Thanks for whatever suggestions you can offer. TMT Good thread question. I'm in the same boat...just can't seem to get myself to spend the big bucks for a used mag drill and new is way up there for something one doesn't use every day. As an alternative, I did see a couple of mag MILLS at an auction once..Went for $ 800 each but were very nice as they did slots. The motors were a little smaller than the drills because one could make multiple passes instead of just ploughing thrugh the material. That could come in handy. I do have an old D handle drill from the 40's that has a huge amount of torque. Was thinking about some sort of magnet mount and attaching the drill to a sliding post via the side hole where a pipe extension handle attaches. I'd still have to push down like a standard drill but alignment would be easier and the (large rare earth) magnets might help reduce wander. Other ideas would be appreciated. Also, any info on chinese knock-offs (never seen one) might be good. Koz |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
In article . com,
Too_Many_Tools wrote: This summer after building a number of items using I-beams and heavy plate, I finally figured out that having a mag drill would be very, very nice. After pricing them new and noting that in the used market they seem to retain their value, I have to ask myself "Why not build one?" Considering that we have some very good magnets on the surplus market these days and an Asian morse taper bench drill presses are available, has someone undertaken this task in the past? If so, I would love to see what you did before embarking on the same effort. Does anyone know of a Chinese knockoff of a mag drill? Thanks for whatever suggestions you can offer. TMT Mag Drills are cheap if you can deal with BIG ones. The old Black and Decker ones are huge and most shops don't want to use them anymore. I know salvage places that can't dump them at $100. I have one and it is really heavy. Great drill though. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message ups.com... Considering that we have some very good magnets on the surplus market these days and an Asian morse taper bench drill presses are available, has someone undertaken this task in the past? I would be wary of using a drill press. The real mag drills use (basically) handheld corded drills attached to a magnetic base with a mechanism to raise/lower the drill. I would recommend a drill with an electronic speed control. I have a Metabo BE1020 which holds its top speed right up to the maximum load limit. This would be nice on a mag drill as you can get quite a bit of leverage on those handles. Also, these types of drills are nice for taping as larger taps require lots of torque at low speeds. I bet you could get a pretty cheap rack and pinion as a replacement part from a drill press manufacturer (Delta for instance, there are lots of others). I'm not sure about the magnet though. Make sure to let us know how you make out. This sounds like a neat-but-not-too-hard winter project. Regards, Robin |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
there is a guy on ebay selling milwaukee overstock and returns, we bought a
motor and drill base in separate auctions for about 600 total ,items were brand new and had one year warrenty, also got a rotabroach drill for about 400 deal-monger is his seller id |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
On 5 Jan 2005 08:45:59 -0800, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote: This summer after building a number of items using I-beams and heavy plate, I finally figured out that having a mag drill would be very, very nice. After pricing them new and noting that in the used market they seem to retain their value, I have to ask myself "Why not build one?" Considering that we have some very good magnets on the surplus market these days and an Asian morse taper bench drill presses are available, has someone undertaken this task in the past? One problem is the fact that any of the smaller drill presses which are light enough for this type work don't have a low enough speed and the spindle is to small for large drills. I guess if you're only drilling smaller holes that might be alright but the big reason for a mag drill is drilling larger holes (at least for me). Next is the problem of permanent magnets for a base. I actually have a mag drill with a permanent magnet base. It's also got a air motor for the drill head. I believe it is a home made type affair though who ever built it did a very nice job. Even though they used aluminum through out the construction it's still way to heavy for easy use. Also the permanent magnet is no where near strong enough to do the job properly. It looks like a standard plate lifting magnet with a cam for release but even once I manage to clean it and the work piece well it doesn't have 1/4th the strength of my old Milwaukee mag drill I got off ebay. Speaking of cleaning that's another sore spot for permanent magnets. You make a lot of shavings while drilling and with no way of turning off and demagnetizing (yes the base on a proper mag drill goes through a demag cycle when turned off) the base you'll forever be trying to clean the shavings off. Then there's the problem of positioning. It can be hard enough to get a electromagnet base in the right position before energizing. With the permanent magnet this job becomes several times harder. Now I'm not saying that it can't be done but you should keep in mind the pitfalls I've mentioned above. If it was me I'd go another route for cheap portable hole drilling. It turns out that I've also got the method of drilling large holes in a portable situation that came before mag drills. It's in the form of two air drills that I have. I don't think I've got a picture of the larger drill online right now but I do have some pictures of the smaller one. http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/...xtension07.jpg This picture shows my smaller air drill which happens to be a right angle drill. It's got a #2 morse taper socket in the head. What you can't really see in that shot is the jack screw which is on the other end of the head. By turning the jack screw I can force the drill into the work. That's a 5/8" bit in the drill right now and I drilled about 240 holes in that frame with it. Some of them through the extension which when totaled up was 1 1/8" thick. I firmly believe that this method is even easier to use than the heavy mag drill which I now have. Now drills with jack screws aren't real common in this day and age but a similar setup with the screw in the dead man with the proper (read heavy duty) drill would do the same thing. Another method which I've considered in the past before getting my mag drill was to take one of those small lightweight frames that are made to hold a portable drill. If you'll make another base for it which straddles the hole being drilled and use C-clamps to hold in down you could have a easily made portable drill press. You could make different bases for different types of work as well. If you get the right drill to mount in the base you could easily drill larger holes than the average import drill press can handle. In fact I have a friend who used one those drill presses for his larger holes up until recently because his bench top drill press couldn't handle the larger bits. He's just now finished rebuilding and modifying a old bench top drill press I gave him so he can drill larger holes with it. Wow. Hopefully this longer than intended outburst will prove useful to you in some way. Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Mortiser vs. Drill Press | Woodworking | |||
deep hole question | Metalworking | |||
Is Drill Doctor worth the price???? | Metalworking | |||
Grind-It-Yourself Drill bits | UK diy | |||
Tool sharpening in general | Metalworking |