Dowel drill Collars

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I need a new set of drill dowel collars. Looked on Amazon but a lot of negatives about the collar internal diameters being oversize and the related problems..
Has anyone any recommendations please?
 
Commercial collars are generally bad, oversize so they fit on cheap oversize drill bits and they are too short so they don't bear against enough of the drill and so they fit at an angle usually.

For rough work, they do ok, but for important work I make my own from brass on the lathe. If you want to be super accurate you fit the collar to the drill and then face it on the lathe so it is perfectly perpendicular to the drill bit. It's a bit of a faff but on my special purpose carbide drills it's worth the effort as the drills last me for years.
 
To save yourself the small cost of buying those depth stop collars, which I find are generally not too clever, you could invest in a couple of worm drive hose clamps ("Jubilee Clips"). They will tighten quite well on to a range of drill sizes and be pretty good in the vertical to the drill axis. They can be used several times on several different drill dias, especially if you carefully bend the free end back out of the way a bit.

How accurate they are depends entirely on how careful you are measuring/fitting in the first place, but once that's done if you're careful & light handed as the drill breaks through you won't damage the face you're drilling down against to any great extent.

But Rorschach's right, if you want dead reliable and dead accurate and repeatability then you really need to make your own from suitable bar or thick-walled tube off cuts - brass is good but steel's OK too. You'll probably need only 2 or 3 for most dowelling uses and if you've got a lathe they're easy n quick to make.
 
This might be a silly question - but is this done (Can it be done?) on a woodturning lathe, or do you also have a metal turning one?

If you are really skilled on a wood lathe you probably could make them with brass or aluminium but really it's a job best done on a metal lathe (which I have).
 
My solution is to make long spacers from 12 or 15mm wooden dowel rod by drilling through the centre and cutting to the required length so as to produce a (say) 21mm hole for a 40mm x 8mm dowel. These can be pushed onto the bit and are stopped from riding up by fixing the collar to the solid part above the flute. (don't know what it's called)
Several of these can be produced for very little cost, clearly marked by just writing on them. Odd sizes as well, when perhaps joining differing sizes of stock requiring 15/25mm holes.
 
flh801978

They look the business....Ill keep them in mind.
Ive just ordered just before your post the Wolfcraft drill stops they have the split in the collar, which seem to clip round the drill and secure at the side rather than the center of the drill.
Thanks for the help
 
I see they have a plastic inner collar. Does that cause any movement on the drill flutes?
 
flh801978

They look the business....Ill keep them in mind.
Ive just ordered just before your post the Wolfcraft drill stops they have the split in the collar, which seem to clip round the drill and secure at the side rather than the center of the drill.
Thanks for the help
I realise this is an old thread but I needed a new set for some doweling I need to do, so also bought these. They clamp very easily and clamp the whole drill as they don't use a set screw like my old ones did, so also clamp square. They are chunkier than the set screw type but hopefully more durable.
 

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I realise this is an old thread but I needed a new set for some doweling I need to do, so also bought these. They clamp very easily and clamp the whole drill as they don't use a set screw like my old ones did, so also clamp square. They are chunkier than the set screw type but hopefully more durable.

I bought a set and they are really good. They lock in place well too better than the screw locating on the drill flute.
 

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