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

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

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.

"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

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

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