A New Drill Press for John

I have a few drill presses. I often use my big CNC milling machine where I want best accuracy, but it takes time to set up, and weighs 3 tons, so it is probably not suitable for use in our home TV room which is the location where I wanted a small drill press, without disturbing SWMBO watching her favourite British whodunnit shows.

So this is the drill press which I purchased recently, so I could do my ship modeling at home in the evenings on my desk in the TV room.

It is 180mm high and the base is 80mm x 100mm. So yes it is very small. In fact it is advertised as a watch repairers tool. It plugs into 240v supply, but the on-off speed controller reduces the voltage to 12v, 0.2-2.0 amps.

There are 3 types of chuck advertised for the drill. An 8er collet holder, a 3 jaw chuck, and a 1/8″ fixed diameter chuck which requires drill bits with a 1/8″ shaft. I chose the 1/8″ fixed dia chuck because sets of carbide drill bits with 1/8″ shafts are cheap and easily available (for $AUD5 per set), and my experience with 3 jaw Dremel chucks shows that they are fiddly to load with fine drill bits, and not particularly accurate. The er collets would be OK, but require a different collet for each drill size, extra cost and extra fiddling to load.

The drill itself cost less than $100 post included, from AliExpress. It is beautifully finished, and feels quite tight. The side insertion of the power cable is not ideal, and the height adjustment tightening knob is a bit small so I will make a new bigger knob soon.

I also plan to install an X-Y axis and vise later.

A pinch test with the drill running shows a surprising amount of torque from the tiny motor. I had no problem drilling 12mm deep holes in hardwood with a 0.8mm drill bit.

An advertisement for the drill shows it being used to drill brass clock gears for re-shafting, but I doubt that it will be good at drilling ferrous metals.

As far as using it with SWMBO watching TV in the same room, it IS very quiet. Much quieter than a Dremel drill which I have used previously.

I think that it will be ideal for drilling sub millimeter holes in masts and spars and belaying pin racks.

Just one word of caution for prospective buyers. Read the advertisement VERY carefully, to see exactly what is being offered for the price. I noticed a tendency for vendors to show photos of the drill press loaded with all sorts of accessories which are not included in the advertised price. I purchased mine from an Australian AliExpress supplier, and it arrived within a few days. Very happy with my purchase.