Car boot - drill stand

[thick_mike]

Hi Andy , a bit off-piste , but are you perhaps referencing "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" with your fancy beer can shims?

That’s exactly what I thought when I read the comment too!

 

[Jack_the_Lad]

I then measured the diameter of the drill collar. About 44mm. I then measured the mounting boss of my modern Bosch drill. 43mm.

A quick google confirms that 43mm is standard.

More careful measurement shows the stand collar to be 44.2mm.

I assume this was a non-standard Black and Decker "standard".

It was a Wolf standard (1-3/4in) and was the norm here until about 1978 or so. Wolf at one time offered replacement gearbox casings (free fitting, too) to people who'd bought various of the Sapphire drills. B&D used a 2-prong mounting, Stanley-Bridges and Arcoy had a smaller collar on their drills

Comment included for completeness.

I'll now have to go and measure various drills and report back on the sizes

 

[Bedrock]

I have had a Wolf drill stand similar to BB's, for many years, and until recently, it has worked fine, including with a small B&D router, for o/h routing. The main difference is that there is no top clamp to hold the drill in place, and relies on the collar, die cast, to grip. It now has a problem, in that the drill, currently a fairly meaty Bosch, slips up out of the collar, particularly when drilling with a Forstner bit, despite winding up the clamp.

I am reluctant to chuck it, after years of good service. Any thoughts on a remedy?

 

[AndyT]

Bedrock, you could try putting some double sided tape around the collar of the drill before tightening the clamp, or a piece of fine abrasive paper folded in half, rough side out.
Or a bit of wire or cable to hook around the drill. Or a couple of cable ties.

 

[ED65]

Bedrock, you probably would have noticed this but worth checking if a bit of muck or a flake or two of wood are in between the two surfaces of the clamp that come together. A surprisingly tiny amount of material can be enough to prevent something like this cinching up fully.

Assuming it's all clean you just need to pack out the inside of the clamp to reduce its inside diameter (or increase the diameter of that part of the drill if you prefer, same difference). Aluminium shim as discussed above in the thread will do the necessary, but a strip of abrasive paper as recommended above by Andy can also work well.

To come at it a different way, if you can fully withdraw the threaded rod and you have a file slim enough to slip in between the open ends of the clamp you can file away a bit of material there so the clamp can close up tighter.

 

[Racers]

A hacksaw with two blades will work.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

A hacksaw with two blades will work.

Pete

Brilliant! Obvious when you know it, but it had never occurred to me. Tip now "filed away" until needed.

 

[Bedrock]

Thank you all for your suggested remedies. Will take them in order and see what works. I had to replace the original cross clamping bolt, which stripped some time ago, and replaced with a cap head bolt. With hindsight, that probably indicated the start of the current problem.

Mike

 

[ED65]

You can also wrap abrasive around a single hacksaw blade if a suitably slim needle file or warding file isn't available. Increase the number of wraps for greater width if needed.

I think of this as an extension of a common engineer/fitter's dodge that must go way back, of wrapping files in abrasive for final smoothing after draw-file work. This is again <smacks head> obvious, after you've been shown it!