Pillar Drill

[Teejay]

Hello there, I have some projects coming up and I am fed up of inaccurate results due to movement whilst drilling freehand.

The next big project will be a log store which needs lots of perfectly aligned holes between posts for bolts and the lumber is pretty thick so any variation will impact on the results.

I am not looking for something new. My requirements are that is has a decent variation in speed, preferably with a gearbox rather than pulleys for ease and a large chuck which accepts bits that are at least 1cm, preferably larger as well. It needs to be able to work on household mains as well. I't not really looking for another project to work on so it should be in reasonable condition with no play in the quill.

I am in the West Midlands so anything in that area is preferable and sub £150.00 if possible.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[MikeJhn]

I don't think you have any chance of getting a multi speed pillar drill with a gearbox on that budget, there is nothing wrong with the pulley system for ease of use, most pillar drills have a 16mm chuck so that is not a problem, but you may have to change your requirements some what on the pulley issue, I have a Sealey floor standing pillar drill, picked up second hand for £125.00 off e-bay, whilst its not the best in the world it does the job.

Mike

 

[Teejay]

Thank you for your reply. I would be willing to reconsider pulleys if it made a massive difference to price.

Does the sealey have any slop in the quill? It could be just what I am after if it has a massive variation in speed from slow to fast and reasonable torque.

 

[MikeJhn]

It has twelve speed settings, but does have a small amount of play in the quill, if you extend it fully and grab hold of the quill and give it a good shove, which is how most seem to judge the runout of a quill, but then I am only drilling timber and the play makes no difference if the workpiece is close to the chuck when starting the hole, once the drill is into the workpiece it is guided by the already drilled hole and does not widen as it goes through the workpiece.

Mike

 

[Teejay]

That could be an option, what do others think about it and/or other possible options?

 

[Robbo3]

Lidl have a pillar drill on offer from tomorrow, Thursday 8th, for £60
- https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/Non-Food-Offers.htm?id=525

 

[MikeJhn]

Found this link on the Lidl drill: topic108121.html

 

[Teejay]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have a few jobs in mind which will require a pillar drill which is floor standing due to the size of the parts/orientation of the holes.

 

[chaoticbob]

I agree with Mike that your chance of getting a decent gear-head machine at that sort of price are close to zero. I wonder though if you really need one though? My floor standing belt-driven JET has 16 speeds ranging from 170-3000 rpm, but 95% of the time it runs at around 1200 which seems OK for most things - I've just drilled 16mm through 3 inches of cherry at that speed without problems. It has a 2/3HP (500W) motor.
I'd also agree that a bit of slop in the quill isn't necessarily a problem. I had a Axi job with about 0.25mm slop at full extension, but it could make a hole within about 0.1mm of target. Whatever you get it's going to be way more accurate than freehand drilling I suspect.
Rob.

 

[Teejay]

Sounds good, I accept belt driven will be fine. Just a case of picking the right floor standing pillar drill.

 

[ndbrown]

Agree with others that it’s tight for budget but based your stated initial requirements, the two contenders could be either an Elliott Progress 2G or a Meddings Pacera M4. I have the Elliott, which I got just before Christmas for nothing as it was about to go for scrap as the establishment that had it were being forced to move to newer machines for health and safety reasons. The Elliott is backgeared and by moving a lever on the left gives you a complete new speed range with high torque. I think the speed range is around 40 to 2500. This has zero detectable play in the quill and replaced a 10 year old 12 speed Axminster drill which had some play in the quill from new. I found that I rarely changed speed on the Axminster and tended to put up with a mid range speed that was sometimes a bit slow or fast depending on what I was drilling as it was a bit of of faff changing two sets of belts. I have variable speed via an inverter on the Elliott plus the back gear option that should cover most scenarios. Drilling wood was never a major issue but if I was drilling metal changing speeds was often really needed. There are still a lot of these older drills about, often Just described as a pillar drill but the additional gear lever on the upper left is usually a indicator of a back gear. Hope you manage to pick something up that meets your needs.
Nigel

 

[Teejay]

Thanks for your reply Nigel. Could you please share some photos of your machine so I know what to look for if it is simply listed as 'pillar drill'?

 

[Robbo3]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have a few jobs in mind which will require a pillar drill which is floor standing due to the size of the parts/orientation of the holes.

The usual reply is to swing the head on the pillar so that it overhangs the bench.

 

[ndbrown]

Photo as requested.

The lever for changing from normal drive to back gear is on the left under the handwritten word grease. If you google Elliott Progress 2G drill you will get an informative description from the Lathe.co.uk site
Nigel

 

[Teejay]

Thanks for coming back with the photos, I will be on the look out now!

 

[Teejay]

Is this any good? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pillar-Drill ... Swlv9aiXUQ

 

[Teejay]

Anyone?

 

[Bm101]

Can't help on the Draper sorry. I don't know enough to offer any real advice. Only what I've consistently read on here and elsewhere.
I'll try and surmise what little I know at least in the hope it's of minor help.
If you want guaranteed engineering quality then you need to buy new and well outside your (and most normal person's) budget.
Which leads to two options, new and cheap or old and cheap.
The liddl one gets good reviews for the price.
If not then you look at a jump to buying a proper used drill.
The same names come up again and again. Fobco, Meddings and Elliot. There are others but they are far rarer in general.
If you get a good one you won't get a better drill. Simply put, they really don't make them like that anymore. These were tools made for industrial use to high standards of engineering. Built in obsolescence hadn't been invented yet.
The real issues are in reality your time frame and your patience. Also do you have a van and a strong back and a couple of mates helps.
Its the 3 buses syndrome. When I was looking every single goodun was down in the southwest. There was none for the right money/condition near me. I've read others from the the southwest post that all the gooduns are for sale near me.... Or in the Fens. Or bloomin Nova Scotia.
Point is it's a waiting game. It took me 4 months maybe and a few lost sales and that was scouring the bay. Did my research, searched prices paid for sold goods, nearly bid on some desperate cases then held back when good sense kicked in.
I got my one for about £130.

I was kindly given good sound advice by SunnyBob (a member on here), a retired engineer about the bigger picture on restoration which I
chose to wilfully ignore. (Sorry Bob ) But he was 100 % right.
To get it up and running, buy the tools to make new handles, etc etc, all in BSF threads etc which I had to buy taps and dies for,and spend some time learning about. Total cost is probably nearer £300. That's materials mind.
I'm doing a loft extension on my gaff at the moment so the drill has sat in the shed so near but so far, (complete the rewire, add breaker switch) for about 3 months. I'm happy with the work I had to put in but it was a lot of work relatively.
I suppose you decide what you want then takes your chances to an extent.

We're nearly there.

Point being, if you're gong to have to put the work in, go for a better drill. Hope I'm not teaching Granny to suck eggs. Just trying to help.

Regards
Chris

 

[MikeJhn]

There is not doubt about it that some of these pillar drills are engineering masterpiece's and essential if you are needing 0.01thousands of an inch tolerance, but if you are drilling timber that has a grain and fibres that wander about and will enlarge any hole you are drilling, is it worth all the trouble, only you can decide.

Mike

 

[Jacob]

I got a Nutool multi speed (belt adjustment) £50 on ebay. Surprisingly good. Might not be up to heavy engineering but fine for woodwork