Interior drill holes

[antifoul2020]

Do the percentage of scrollers use a pillar drill or a hand held battery one
For all of the interior drill holes I have a dremel and was thinking about purchasing a
Dremel drill stand

 

[scrimper]

Do the percentage of scrollers use a pillar drill or a hand held battery one
For all of the interior drill holes I have a dremel and was thinking about purchasing a
Dremel drill stand

I normally use a pin chuck in a normal cordless drill, if the work is really delicate and needs a very small hole i use a mini drill (like a dremel).

 

[Eric L]

I use the mini pillar drill from Proxxon after trying the Dremel drill stand which was not well built and repeatedly taking the Dremel out and putting it back in caused excessive wear and tear.
Hope this helps,
Eric

 

[antifoul2020]

Thank you both
Scrimper do you hand hold the dremel
Or do you have it mounted

 

[scrimper]

Thank you both
Scrimper do you hand hold the dremel
Or do you have it mounted

I just hold it freehand.

 

[antifoul2020]

Appreciate the advice
Regards

 

[Jaco]

I use a drill press which can take down to 1mm bits.

 

[antifoul2020]

Do you have the name of that drill press
Or brand Jaco
Regards

 

[Fergie 307]

I have just got one of these mini ones from Aim Tools in Luton.
Saves me going in the shed as it's about a foot high, small enough to sit on my desk.
Mine is supposedly a refurbished return and was half price, £36! But came wrapped in the box with all the bits and pieces like new.
High speed for small bits, three belt positions giving up to 8500rpm and variable speed via a pot on the side.
The chuck is good for bits down to 0.3mm and is a taper fit so should be able to get a collet chuck to fit if necessary.
And it is cast iron, not alloy.
Only has one inch of quill travel, but the whole assembly can be moved up and down the pillar, so max distance from chuck to table is about 7 inches.
Very pleased with it, especially at that price.
It's Katsu, well made and very accurate.
To be honest I would say it is still good value at the full price.
Why returned? One story is that because it looks like a "proper" pillar drill people order one thinking what a bargain at 70 odd quid, not realising it is actually tiny.
Bit like the people who buy a set of garden furniture at a bargain price, not realising it is actually for a dolls house!

 

[Jaco]

Do you have the name of that drill press
Or brand Jaco
Regards

It is an Eurasia (marketed in SA, not sure of rest of world.)
Bought in year 2000 for ZAR350.00
Induction motor and 3 speeds belt-on-pulleys.
Probably one of the best purchases for a workshop when drilling wood or metal.
Made an adjustable table from ply with 2 fences that also adjust, great for repeat drilling.
The light is not mounted on the drill, stands on own.
Drilling longer work, then the drill is moved to the workbench.

 

[Stigmorgan]

My scrollsaw has a rotary drill attachment for drilling the internal holes

 

[antifoul2020]

What make of saw is that

 

[Fergie 307]

You need to bear in mind that the smaller the bit the faster it needs to be run to cut properly. If you intend to drill very small holes you need a fast machine. The general purpose benchtop ones generally only get up to around 2000 rpm. They will do small holes, but the difference if you use one that runs at 2 or three times that speed is like chalk and cheese. The faster machine will cut very clean holes with minimal tearout, simply because the bit is running nearer it's optimal speed.
So if you regularly want to drill holes less than maybe 2mm a high speed machine is preferable. Only problem is they tend to be very small with little capacity, so they are very good at what they do, but they don't do anything else.

 

[Pieter9]

I use a Proxxon micromot 40 with the Proxxon mb200. Drill bits 05 to 4 mm.

 

[stuart little]

Do the percentage of scrollers use a pillar drill or a hand held battery one
For all of the interior drill holes I have a dremel and was thinking about purchasing a
Dremel drill stand

I would NOT recommend the Dremel stand - too much movement, not enough clamping power. Put your money on a Proxxon bench drill.

 

[Fergie 307]

Got to say, having used both, the Katsu one is pretty much identical to the basic Proxxon, and a lot cheaper. The more expensive Proxxon one has the mitre slot table and vice option, although I think the actual drill is the same?
Their stuff is good, but massively overpriced IMO.

 

[antifoul2020]

Went with the Katsu
Excellent piece of machinery
Thanks to all for advice

 

[Fergie 307]

Went with the Katsu
Excellent piece of machinery
Thanks to all for advice

Have fun

 

[ajs]

Went with the Katsu
Excellent piece of machinery
Thanks to all for advice

For the money it is provided of course you respect its limitations.

Three issues I noted: table is nowhere near level. I spent a good few hours hand scraping it, now true to about 0.1mm, was more like 1mm when I started. If doing it again I'd simply fit a false table on top from MDF or similar.

The power switch failed on mine after perhaps 18 months of light use, was able to source a near enough identical replacement switch pot on eBay or Amazon for perhaps a fiver. I may have simply been unlucky or it may be a side effect of using it with a foot switch. No problem since though.

Something I would do right away: put some thread lock of some sort on the lever ball handle. Mine kept working loose and I was automatically retightening until it was screwed in enough to fracture the ball it's just solid bakelite with no metal insert. Easy enough to replace but disproportionately expensive on a quantity 1 basis. I replaced mine with a solid aluminium type, obviously an upgrade but it was cheaper than buying ten plastic ones of which I'll have no use for nine.

 

[Fergie 307]

Have to say my experience has been very different.
On my one the table is very flat, not actually measured it but not a fag paper width of gap past a straight edge in any direction. Only criticism I would have is that the finish on the table is a little coarse. When I get time I may well attend to that, but not an issue really. M&W engineers square and 321 block shows the pillar to be vertical and square to the table. Again not actually measured it but spot on by eye so any error is going to be very small.
With you on the handle, I put some medium threadlock on it straight away to avoid that issue.
I use mine for clock and watch work, so needs to be good. But only typically drilling through very thin material. The OP is intending to use it for woodwork, so I can't see him having an issue with the accuracy.
As to balls, when I restored my Harrison lathe I couldn't find replacement white balls, other than at a ridiculous price.
I ended up using ones that are sold as replacements for gaming joysticks. Wide variety of sizes and colours. Not sure what the material actually is but a very hard thermoplastic.
They are seamless and come with brass inserts, either M6 or M8 can't remember. The lathe is 3/8BSW. I found the easiest way to get the inserts out was to screw a bolt into them and heat the opposite end. Once hot enough you can just pull the ball off as the plastic around the insert softens with the heat. Simple matter to then drill and tap them.
I was concerned how they would fare with oil and coolant etc. Four years later they are still as good as new.