Pillar Drill

[Bm101]

There is not doubt about it that some of these pillar drills are engineering masterpiece's and essential if you are needing 0.01thousands of an inch tolerance, but if you are drilling timber that has a grain and fibres that wander about and will enlarge any hole you are drilling, is it worth all the trouble, only you can decide.

Mike

Too right. I got tired of trying to drill my little hobby metal work stuff out of true. Even then I can't really justify it other than it's a hobby and I like the process of learning about all the different aspects of it all. It give me something to do and I'm a bit weird maybe that I'm just as happy learning about bsf threads as I am learning about woodwork. Each to their own. I enjoy the process of it all. I find it gives me a calm feeling. We're all different.

 

[adidat]

Another vote for the elliot, my grandad owned one so have memories of using that drill for most of my life, it was sold off when he died.

i spent some time trying to find a decent one for a good price, i finally found one with a perfect table, no smiley of shame!! for £115

the gearbox is lovely and smooth!

adidat

 

[heimlaga]

All my stationary machines are old and there is a good reason for that.
I want high quality and in my life situation sparetime is not quite as hard to find as spare money.
Then old industrial machines are the best option for me.
Someone who is very short of time but has plenty of money will surely find that rebuilding old machines isn't quite the best option for him.
It is all about making the best of whatever resources there are in your life.

I paid something like 1000 euros for my old Arboga gear head drill press. Rebuilt it for 400 more. Got the equivalent of a new industrial drillpress costing around 5000.

 

[ndbrown]

A backgeared drill such as the Elliott 2G/GS Meddings M4 is great for a situation where you are looking for an excellent quality drill capable of drilling accurate holes in wood or metal, to be fair and only in my opinion. If it you only ever going to be using it for general woodworking, the others are correct and a reasonable quality pillar drill will be fine. I started the other way round 12 years ago I with a Chinese Axminster drill which was great and I was amazed how often I started to use it for all sorts of jobs but as I used it more, it’s limitations started to be obvious. Limited motor power of 250w versus the 1000w I have on my Elliott 2GS now plus play in the quill on the Axminster when drilling metal and drill depth of 75mm versus just over 100mm. Any reasonable drill will be much better than drilling by hand and if you don’t spend too much, you can keep an eye out for a better older British made drill but be picky and avoid really heavily used ones as they are not industructible and like everything else - eventually wear out. Hope you find something.
Nigel

 

[Teejay]

The one I linked to is old, it was built in 1981 (if I am reading correctly)

More information:

Thoughts on power etc?

 

[ndbrown]

I did everything I needed with my old Axminster drill which was about 1/3HP so 1/2HP looks fine and a good range of speeds. I suppose the term old is a relative thing, I have quite a few years to go until I retire and this was made when I was serving my apprenticeship so to me its not old. The heyday for British manufacturing of machine tools that were self powered (not driven from belts) was the 1950s through to the mid to late 1960s so thats the period that I would describe as old to me. Hopefully not insulting anyone else in the process of replying. If its in good condition, you can get it at a good price and its close to you then it looks like it will be a decent woodworking drill.
Nigel

 

[Teejay]

Great, thanks for the review.