Leon wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote in message
...


One thing that the one I purchaed offered and I for got to mention was
the length of bit/wuill travel. Many are under 3" and that can present
problems in some cases. MINE IIRC trables about 5". The Steel City DP
travels 6"

Your comments have left me thinking about "drilling deep holes" and quill
length for a few days.
By deep, I don't mean deeper than about 6". I ran into the concept of a
"drill bit extender".
That left me suspicious. Are any folks using these to compensate for
short quill length
of their DP (with good results)? If they work so well, it sort of means
one doesn't need
to be as concerned about quill lenth, right? I guess it may depend on
one's tolerences...I'd expect
the drill to make a bigger hole coming out than going in (in fact, bigger
than usual).

Bill

If the bit is shorther than the quill travel naturally you would be limited
to the bit length for drilling holes.

Good point.


There are bit extenders but those
typically are of no help on a DP, the extenders are larger in diameter than
the drill bit and will not go inside the hole.

Unless you are using a Forstner bit--which I thought might be typical
for deep holes. Of course, your "pen center" example seems like a
counter-example. I'm not sure of the smallest Forster bit size--I'll
look it up. I assume one could get one with 1/4" shaft (but I haven't
looked yet).

Typically I want a longer quill travel so that I can drill out Pen centers
and have a little excess room to manuver.

Yes, that occurred to me while I have been thinking about this. The
extra quill length buys one convenience in set up!

Thank you!
Bill