Tool post drill?

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I have come to the conclusion that a tool post drill would be useful. There are plenty of designs around, most using some sort of overhead pulley system for the drill power.

There seems to be a huge range of battery driven drills and screwdrivers, or even small motors. Has anyone taped into this source of motive power? If so what did you use and what needed modifying?

I only require what might be termed a spotting drill, so not a great deal of power required. I realise that a battery screwdriver would need the gearbox removing, also any batteries would not be required. as it would use a low voltage PSU, mains driven,

Andrew.

 

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

I’ve used my Proxxon IBS/E drill held in a simple adapter in the toolpost.  Much more robust than the Dremel or clones.  Mains powered and 100 W gives it adequate power for use with up to 2 mm drills for brass.

Russell

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Andrew

As you have discovered the common method is to use some sort of ball bearing spindle with a chuck on one end and pulley(s) on the other to take a belt drive. Drive either the old fashioned way via an overhead shaft and long belt or from a close coupled electric motor fixed to the same mount as the spindle.

Which seems an awful faff for something that will, most likely, see little use.

Quick and dirty bodge was to clamp an old style mains powered pistol drill to the toolpost via the standard size collar most breeds have. Effective but somewhat uncontrollable and lining up could be aright pain. I abandoned an attempt early on because I could see no way to reliably set the drill horizontally on centre as a starting point for setting an offset to do drilling on a pitch circle and similar things.

Trouble with attempting to use a battery drill its that generally they don’t have a mounting collar and modification of the plastic case is essentially impossible in most cases. All the bits and bearings being held via cunningly moulded webs, slots and half holes relying on the case being complete and screwed together as the designer intended if it is to retain its structural integrity. If hoped to use one of the Makita NiCad drills made redundant due to switching to Lithium battery versions but there seemed no reliable way of modifying the cases.

As Russell notes Dremel and similar have a suitable collar type carrier moulded into the case but they re limited to drills small enough to fit the collets.

Inline die grinders look promising as most have a mounting collar but they run way too fast with too little torque for drilling.

I concluded that the old fashioned way with a spindle and close coupled motor was the only approach with a high confidence of being successful. Too much faff for too little gain.

If you do go ahead and make a spindle an effective alignment method is to modify an MT blank end arbor with a suitable external diameter or centre hole to fit something on the pulley end of your spindle. Sit it in the tailstock and adjust the cross slide so the mating feature on your spindle slides in or over. Works a treat with the carrier for my tube mount coventry die head, which has to be on centre.

Clive

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Take the guts out of a battery drill, braze 2 jubilee clips to a bit of plate that will fit in the tool post. Clamp motor body in the clips and the job is done ? Noel.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

My plan, not done it yet, is to use the motor, gearbox, chuck and speed control from an old Bosch nicad pistol drill. Whan you split the halves of the drill the motor and gearbox come out as a neat assembly. That just needs a means of mounting in the toolpost. It could be annything from a length of 8mm square bar and two hose clips to a elegant CNC machined housing.
You can pick up an old drill for literally noting on freecycle, local facbook re-use groups and the like.

Robert.

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Well that gives me food for thought! Thank you gents! Clive I had to smile at your “..most likely see little use….” comment. The last 4 jobs would have been much easier with a tool post drill! hence my quest. However I will probably never see the need to use one in the future, such is SOD’s law!

Andrew.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

I have made two in the past and the first was powered by a sewing machine motor and was ok but could have been better ( max drill size 2.5 to 3mm). this lasted for several years and found that toolpost milling would speed up a few jobs so made another one but with ER16 spindle and larger motor (shower pump), a definite improvement and although it doesnt get used every week for some jobs its invaluable

[HuubParticipant @huub]

I have made a BLDC tool post dril for radial and axial drilling, milling and gear cutting. For tapping I made a holder for a cord less drill that can also be used for drilling. Both are used on a regular base.

BLDC tool post drill FreeCAD design.

Tapping holder:

[Andrew CrowParticipant @andrewcrow91475]

Good article in the April issue of ME & W by Rod Jenkins, might give you some ideas.

Andy

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

If you only need a simple drill press and already have a drill, either mains powered or battery, get one of these. Much easier than trying to make your own. Available from ebay and hardware stores.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

..but even in that (advertising?) picture they couldn’t get it to hold the drill perpendicular to the table.. ..😢..

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

The photo is only intended to show a typical attachment for a hand drill which I found after a 2 minute search. There are lots of others of different styles and quality.

This is my first drill press which I bought 40+ years ago and is still used. Not as good as my mill/drill but capable of drilling accurate 1″ dia holes thru steel plate. It originally had a cast alluminium base which was replaced with the one shown.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

This is my effort for a tool post drilling attachment I made a while ago. It has a variable speed motor and driving a pair of toothed pullies and toothed belt to prevent slippage.

David

[Huub]

On Huub Said:

I have made a BLDC tool post dril for radial and axial drilling, milling and gear cutting. For tapping I made a holder for a cord less drill that can also be used for drilling. Both are used on a regular base.

BLDC tool post drill FreeCAD design.

 

Drilling and Tapping holder:

 

Added the pictures, don’t know why they did not show up on my phone!

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Robert

Interested to see that your Bosch has the motor and gearbox as an integrated assembly that comes out as one unit, making removal and repurposing practical. The Makita I investigated wasn’t so convenient needing the body moulding to hold everything in line. Same with the Skil that I’d briefly considered some years ago. If I recall correctly the issue with the Skil was that the brushes were held in the drill body, not the motor housing itself.

Always worth investigating I guess if you have a drill doing nothing lying about the place.

Andrew

SOD’s law definitely applies in my case. Struggle through four with knife and fork methods, make a proper tool and use it once seems to be the rule. Nowadays I tend to say do it once, do it right and make a proper job first time. Which generally gets used twice. So probably still behind the curve.

Years ago I came ‘that” close to making a Quickstep when the drawings were published in ME. Fortunately(?) the motor was going to be prohibitively expensive.

Huub

Very impressive.

Probably the best way to go about a quick, easy and effective enough job. I’m gonna steal your grab the end of the spindle with a drill idea just as soon as I can find the spindle I saved into the gotta be useful box mumble, mumble years ago and bang a drill chuck on the end.

Clive

 

Clive

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I used my cheapo Pillar drill conversion (For a pistol drill) to make a tapping fixture. But even if I had a second one, it would be of no use for making a tool post drill. I have several old NiCad drills, so I shall investigate if they can be repurposed for use as a tool post drill. However I doubt  if they will be like Robert’s Bosch. I have a Skil drill too, but apparently the lack of mounting for the brush gear would be a problem.

Looks as though a simple spindle plus motor may be the way to go.

Andrew.

[Charles LamontParticipant @charleslamont71117]

As noted above, a die grinder is not suitable for drilling, but it can be useful. Needing to re-grind bell-mouthed chuck jaws, I made up a toolholder for one. Aluminium was to hand, easy to machine, and perfectly adequate for occasional use.

 

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

I have a complete unit like Robert, with an axial possibly epicyclic gear box, it was given to me and is undoubtedly of the cheaper type, a simple mounting of the sort I mentioned would work – just need a power supply and the trigger for variable speed, though this could be replaced by a pot ? Noel.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Not strictly a toolpost drill, other than for very high speed, but a Bosch router setup for a toolpost grinder.
Seen here whilst modifying a motorcycle chain sprocket for a friend.

Bill

[Clive Foster]

On Clive Foster Said:

Robert

Interested to see that your Bosch has the motor and gearbox as an integrated assembly that comes out as one unit, making removal and repurposing practical. The Makita I investigated wasn’t so convenient needing the body moulding to hold everything in line. Same with the Skil that I’d briefly considered some years ago. If I recall correctly the issue with the Skil was that the brushes were held in the drill body, not the motor housing itself.

Always worth investigating I guess if you have a drill doing nothing lying about the place.

<SNIP>

I went to take a photo of the motor and gearbox but it wasn’t where I thought I’d put it…
Watch this space, Ill try to find it.

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

I’ve found these small drills very good, plenty of power for the smaller drill. Shouldn’t be too hard to make a mounting to fit a tool post.

 

Die Grinder Variable Speed 6mm

 

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

the link didn’t work. Its on the Aim tools web shop – Die Grinder Variable Speed 6mm

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

https://www.aimtools.co.uk/collections/power-tools/products/7-66

 

Found out how to paste a link, I learnt something !!!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If you only have a need for spotting then the simple way is to drill and ream a hole through the end of a bit of 10 or 12mm sq bar to suit the diameter of your spotting drill.

Hold the bar in your toolpost, set to ctr height and then position as needed. Just use the bar to guide the spotting drill while powering it with your cordless drill.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

The problem I found with most hand drills these days is that the casing is made from plastic, so when you tighten  the clamp to grip the drill in a drill stand , the drill slows down. In the old days, the drill body was made of metal, so this never happened.

Progress ?????

[Author]

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