Pillar Drill advice

[jweaver]

Hi.. Just sold my Rage Buggy and now have 1/2 my garage back.. need to drown my sorrows and am tempted to buy a floor standing pillar drill.

I currently have a cheap Lidl one I bought 10 years ago and its really good.. Its served me well and still going strong, even though the belts are a bit sloppy...

But I fancy something a bit bigger..

Does anyone have any thoughts.. I could look around for a 2nd hand industrial one.. Or I could just buy something from the likes of Sealey/SIP/Fox etc.

One thing which interests me is the variable speed models.. I am lazy and often drill without changing the speed, because I can't be bothered to move the belts just for 1 hole.. As such I wonder if a variable speed model might suit me.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice on what to buy (or avoid).. Any info would be appreciated

Jon

 

[julianthegypsy]

Get a good old fashioned british made drill by the likes of meddings, union, fobco or mercury and you won't go wrong. I would go for something with a back gear, that way you can change on the belts but also have a high/low range by shifting a lever. Or if you are really lazy you could get a variable speed controller and do it electrically. Keep your eye on ebay etc as good drills do sometimes come up cheap, I just picked up a gorgeous back geared meddings for an embarrassingly small amount of money!

 

[Wendelspanswick]

You can pick up pillar drills with a gearbox, no belt changing. My Pollard Drill has a gearbox with 8 speeds.

 

[julianthegypsy]

You can pick up pillar drills with a gearbox, no belt changing. My Pollard Drill has a gearbox with 8 speeds.

Even better! My landlords have a herbert with at least eight speeds on a gearbox, it's a joy to use, but these things tend to be three phase and often not simple to convert. The belt driven ones are often available with a single phase motor or you can swap it out easily enough.

 

[rtbcomp]

Elliot Progress 1 for 5 speed belt change, Progress 2 for 10 speed belt/gearbox

 

[julianthegypsy]

You can sometimes find a mercury with a planetary gear, those are really nice as the gearchange is really slick.

 

[BrokenBiker]

the college I was in had two cheap Chinese pillar drills with 2 gear levers on them, 10 speeds, lowest was 90rpm and highest was 2450 rpm.

they worked well, only downside was the noise they produced. even though they were single phase they were loud

 

[julianthegypsy]

The Meddings I have goes from 80 to 4000. The pulleys ae a bit worn but its still not too noisy. It has a 1 hp single phase motor. I've always found three phase motors to be far quieter though, surely that's not just me?

 

[jweaver]

Thanks all for your help.. Given up on the idea of a new one.. Will now hold out for an 'vintage' one instead.

A Meddling and Fobco have come up locally (Both Single Phase), so I am going to see how much they go for. One is a 1/4hp, so I am not sure if its man enough. That said, for my usage, I am sure its fine.

I know its an impossible question, but what sort of money should one spend on a drill like this?

Also, I am interested in the comments about electronic speed controllers. Would this work

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DRILL-SPE...ial_Automation_Control_ET&hash=item1c376911bd