What Pillar Drill?

[Cyberprog]

Hi All,

I'm in the progress of finishing off my new workshop now my house move is over, as you may have seen on other threads some pics of the electrics and such I have a bit of space to play with

So the next thing on my list is a Pillar Drill (I already have a Welder, a Kemppi Minarc Adaptive 180, thanks to a friend who's sold a lot of stuff off cheap, Compressor and a Bench Grinder). Now my budget is about £100 atm, and I'm torn between floor standing and bench mounted.

For around £60 on eBay, it appears I can get a new Silverline 350W 5-Speed drill with a 3-Year warranty. My inner tight-wad says that this would be excellent for me, while my inner cynic says it won't last 5mins and will struggle to drill plastic.

Sadly missed out on a clarke floor mounted unit that was up the road from my girlfriend by a few quid earlier, but wondering if that is overkill for my needs. Thing is, I'm not 100% sure what my needs are. I hope to make a few projects in my head atm (for starters a wall mount for the bench grinder, then a frame for the workshop hoist).

Has anyone got any advice/opinions that they would care to share with me?

Cheers!

 

[MattF]

If it's just for the occasional doesn't really matter about quality or accuracy type job, anything will do. If you want quality, go old British. You won't find anything new of the same calibre.

 

[madkayaker]

avoid cheep silverline rubbish like the plague.

 

[tlovatt]

Do not bother with the silverline machine, save up for a bit longer and get a better unit. I got the previous model of one of these

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ed16b2-pillar-drill

and the different is amazing and for the money I could not find anything else close - although its not exactly portable I did manage to get it onto the bench on my own. The unit is much more accurate than the cheap junk like silverline, is far more powerful and has a deeper drill depth which comes in handy at times.

 

[Fazerruss]

The little Clarke ones aren't too bad, there's not a lot to go wrong on them but as said you cant beat old British. I have a floor standing Ajax with rack n pinion lift table that's probably as old as me that was passed down from my Dad. I Have no doubt It will be just as good when my lad gets it.

 

[Spark plug]

I bought one of the top of the range Clarke ones years ago, it was one of the worst mistakes I've made.

First of all the chuck was terrible, the spindle wasn't square to the table, then after not a great deal of use the spindle bearings started to develop play in them.

I got rid of it, now I have a meddings witch is terrific in comparison to the Clarke

 

[Cyberprog]

I had (once upon a time) a beautiful beast of a pillar drill, cast iron base, gear drive, oil filled, morse taper. Frankly it was more of a mill than a drill, but it got left behind when the company I was working for went bust, and I never got round to trying to get it back from the administrators as I had nowhere to store such a beast! Wish I could remember what it was, might have to dig through the email archives for the ebay transaction...

 

[Richiew]

I had the same experience as Spark plug. Avoid Clarke. Buy 2nd hand, older the better. Quality has been declining in this sort of the product for years.

 

[MattF]

These are my personal favourite, (hence why I bought this one a few years ago). An old Pollard Corona.

I can just about shimmy that round single handed, it's that heavy. Wouldn't try carrying it as one piece though.

 

[rtbcomp]

I bought one of the top of the range Clarke ones years ago, it was one of the worst mistakes I've made.

First of all the chuck was terrible, the spindle wasn't square to the table, then after not a great deal of use the spindle bearings started to develop play in them.

I got rid of it, now I have a meddings witch is terrific in comparison to the Clarke

Same here - I ditched it for an old Eliot Progress No2

 

[chunkolini]

I had a cheap Clarke one, it was ok for small holes.
Then bought the one that TLovatt mentions, reasonably cheap and am happy with it. Have been for four years. http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ed16b2-pillar-drill
I built a stand to save bench mounting it.
Draper are also worth looking at within this kind of budget. But the one mentioned still seems the better buy.
It seems that you have to stretch to the £200 bracket.
Painful but worth the effort.

 

[Cyberprog]

Hrm, a friend has offered me a floor standing one with digital variable speed control for £250, might take him up on that.

 

[julianthegypsy]

Keep your eye on evilbay, you will get a good old british one for £100 if you'repatient and you will never, ever, regret it.

 

[Cyberprog]

Yep, just spoke to the friend and he's waiting for funds to buy a bigger Mill before he will sell me his one! Might buy a cheapo one to tide me over if I can't get one in the next few weeks. Odds are it's value won't drop by more than a tenner regardless...

 

[MattF]

Keep your eye on evilbay, you will get a good old british one for £100 if you're patient and you will never, ever, regret it.

Possibly even less if he's really patient. I won't mention how much I paid for that Pollard. It's definitely a patience thing, but as you say, he definitely won't regret it when he gets one, provided he doesn't buy one which has been abused.

Might buy a cheapo one to tide me over if I can't get one in the next few weeks. Odds are it's value won't drop by more than a tenner regardless...

What are you wanting to do with it? If you're planning on using it for any serious work or frequently, I honestly wouldn't get a cheap one, even if it's only temporary. Like the others mentioned, a lot of the cheap drills are quite lacking. I had one of the Clarke ones once too, and it stayed here for about a day after I actually tried it. The drill tip was all over the place, there was that much runout. Never even bothered to check what was the cause. Just got shut.

 

[madkayaker]

I have an old one from the college I worked at. It had spent all it's life drilling 3.6mm holes in trunking . Paid the pricey sum of £10. Forget the make but it's got an elephant on the logo it's not that big but does what I need it to

 

[cumbriasteve]

I will go against the trend

I use a Clarke bench drill in my workshop, had it now for about 12 years and it's been excellent for my requirements and is still working like it was when new and it has drilled many thousands of holes over the years

But it all depends on what are your requirements? mine is mostly drilling 5mm flat bar with up to 10mm dia holes, occasionally 12mm and no great requirement for absolute accuracy, although the accuracy it has seems ok to me.

For the 12mm I will drill a 6mm first, this takes the load off the machine, otherwise I am asking a bit much of it.

They are still only £70 on a machine mart VAT free day.

In fairness if I could find an old heavy duty British machine I would probably buy it, until then the Clarke is serving me well and has repaid me what it cost many times over.

 

[rtbcomp]

........... The drill tip was all over the place, there was that much runout. Never even bothered to check what was the cause. Just got shut.

Mine was the same - you could feel the workpiece moving as the drill rotated. The quill and the chuck each had excessive runout, I was going to use the chuck on my Elliott but got a new one instead.

 

[MattF]

Yup, that's just what that one was like. There was no way you could turn the machine on before you tried to drill something, as you could only get the drill tip in place on the piece whilst it wasn't rotating. It resembled a whisk more than a drill.

It does kind of put you off ever sampling the Far East stuff again, doesn't it.

 

[Rig Pig]

I looked at some of the cheap import drills - and bought a loverly old British made one the imports are very poorly made in comparison. Just remember that a lot of the good drills are ex industry and 3 phase,so budget for a new motor if you dont have the supply.