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Drilling Aluminium

Astrokev

By Astrokev
in DIY Astronomer

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JamesF

JamesF

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Right, a bit of experimentation gives the inconclusive result that the chuck key from my corded drill (which claims to take a 13mm bit, but I can only actually get a 12.5mm in) fits the 10mm chuck I have for my lathe tailstock. Both my 13mm lathe tailstock chucks can use the same chuck key, which also fits the pillar drill chuck (which may be 1/2" capacity, or 13mm).

Perhaps 13mm hand drill chucks are deemed to be lighter duty than those of a similar size for pillar drills and lathes and therefore don't have such a hefty locking mechanism.

I've also discovered that the chuck on my hand drill is not functioning very well :( I might try lubricating it tomorrow, but otherwise I think it may be excessively worn (I know the feeling). I have this niggling feeling that it will be cheaper to replace the drill than to buy a new chuck, but it's a decent Bosch model that I've had for perhaps as long as 20 years and I'm loathe to lob it in the bin as it still works well from an electrical point of view.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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What's the proper term for an electric drill used in the hands? It's not hand drill, or at last that's not what I understand a hand drill to be really. A hand drill is one with a geared drive cranked using one hand. Power drill, perhaps?

James

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Paul M

Paul M

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What's the proper term for an electric drill used in the hands? It's not hand drill, or at last that's not what I understand a hand drill to be really. A hand drill is one with a geared drive cranked using one hand. Power drill, perhaps?

James

Pistol Drill?

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JamesF

JamesF

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Chuck keys are soooooo old fashioned, they've got like valves in them and stuff..... :grin:

I do actually quite like the convenience of keyless chucks, but many of them seem to be horribly made. I deliberately chose keyed chucks for the lathe because they appeared less bulky and space is a bit of a premium on my lathe.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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mmm 2 posts. Now how did that happen?

I think either the server is having a problem itself, or there's a connectivity problem to the server. I've seen a lot of double posts in the last three days or so.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Browsing further on ebay I find a 1/2" drill chuck, key and SDS adaptor on BIN for £2.95. How on earth do you sort the tooling, make, package, ship and sell a drill chuck for that price and still make a profit worth having?

James

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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Browsing further on ebay I find a 1/2" drill chuck, key and SDS adaptor on BIN for £2.95. How on earth do you sort the tooling, make, package, ship and sell a drill chuck for that price and still make a profit worth having?

James

I just had a brows on E-bay, some of those cheap chucks look like they may be made of metal as well.....

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JamesF

JamesF

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I just had a brows on E-bay, some of those cheap chucks look like they may be made of metal as well.....

China seems to have the entire world's supply of a metal that is almost, but not quite entirely unlike steel. I believe it is rumoured to be a new alloy including high percentages of either Edam or cocoa solids.

James

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Astrokev

Astrokev

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The choice of brands available seems a little bewildering. I think I've learned enough to know that Sealey are a great brand, sadly with a price to match the quality, but what about the cheap end of the market?

Names like Clarke, Draper, Power Craft, Rexon keep cropping up....

Please could anyone give me a Rough Guide to pillar drill brands. Which ones are worth considering, and which should be avoided like the plague?

Regarding the jargon, I've seen references to "drill capacity". Is this the thickness of material it will go through, or the drill diameter?

Intended use will be occasional household DIY jobs and fabricating the odd astro part for my scopes and "soon to be started" observatory.

Thanks for any guidance.

kev

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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Drill capacity is the size of drill you can fit. Not much good going on brands as most are made in China and rebranded. All the cheap table top pilllar drill tables will bend if using alot of pressure with a large drill.

I have a cheap one I use, cost about £50 at the time. Works ok and I chock the table with wood if I need to use force.

I recommend you select one with a strong motor and the biggest drill capacity and which also has a No2 morse taper as larger drills have these.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

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Thanks John. Useful advice. A stupid question, but chucks that accept tapered drill bits, I presume I can't use standard shank bits also? This obviously means I'd need to buy matching bits - not a problem, but would just like clarification.

Thanks

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Macavity

Macavity

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To take the process one stage further, is there also a way to TAP (thread) the hole, using the drill stand / press. I can often get holes reasonably vertical... it's my threads that often go astray! Clearly you can't just replace the drill with the TAP and power on through! But can you get threads started that way? Perhaps continue, rotating the chuck (tap) by hand? (Remove the power first!) Or is this verboten under health and safety... :p

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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To take the process one stage further, is there also a way to TAP (thread) the hole, using the drill stand / press. I can often get holes reasonably vertical... it's my threads that often go astray! Clearly you can't just replace the drill with the TAP and power on through! But can you get threads started that way? Perhaps continue, rotating the chuck (tap) by hand? (Remove the power first!) Or is this verboten under health and safety... :p

Yep, if you need to tap a hole straight then use the pillar drill without power to turn the tap for a few threads to get it started and then remove from the drill and finsh tapping by hand.

edit, I also obtained a tapping attachment for the pillar drill so I can use machine taps under power, when the attachment bottoms out on the depthstop it reverses the tap direction

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JamesF

JamesF

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Unlike a "normal" drill, pillar drills and lathe tailstocks often have a spindle that is tapered on the inside. There are lots of standards for tapers, but the Morse Taper (MT) is common and comes in a number of sizes which are numbered, the smallest being MT1. MT2 and MT3 are fairly common. A drill chuck for use with such a lathe or pillar drill comes with a matching taper (sometimes separate, sometimes part of the chuck body). Believe it or not, the chuck will stay in place in the tapered spindle of a pillar drill as long as both are kept clean even though there's nothing to hold it in but friction. In fact, it forms a very good form of attachment.

The tapered drill bits I've come across are meant to fit in a tapered spindle instead of a chuck. If you have a chuck in place then you'd use standard non-tapered drill bits.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Yep, if you need to tap a hole straight then use the pillar drill without power to turn the tap for a few threads to get it started and then remove from the drill and finsh tapping by hand.

That's what I've done in the past. It's also possible to buy jigs for tapping threads that keep the tap in the correct position. Another possibility I've seen is to have a set of steel or aluminium blocks with holes just large enough for the taps to pass through bored in them. These can then be placed on top of the workpiece to keep the tap square.

James

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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A picture is worth etc..

Here is a chuck with a morse taper, If you remove the chuck from the spindle, morse taper drills can be used. Above the chuck is the tapered tool to remove the taper from the spindle.

I just checked, My small pillar drill is a Rexxon, it does not have a morse taper and the chuck is fixed in the spindle with a Jacobs male tapered spigot so the chuck can be replaced but not readily removeable.

post-3186-0-48158900-1367101001_thumb.jp

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