Axminster pillar drill - I bought one

[graduate_owner]

Hi everyone,
About 2 months ago I asked for opinions on the Axminster pillar drill which was on offer for £200, reduced from £275 (model AH2003FDP). Since most of the comments were positive and I had about £200 worth of Axminster vouchers I decided to go for it and here is my review of it.

Firstly it is obviously a far east import, judging by the quality of the castings, but that doesn't affect the performance and it certainly doesn't worry me. I have to say I am quite impressed and am glad I bought it. I tried drilling 10mm holes in box section steel without a starter hole, and the drill didn't flinch, no slowing of the motor at all. I checked the run out on the spindle and it was a very acceptable .05mm but a drill in the chuck showed noticeable run out (about .8 mm). I contacted Axminster who immediately told me that was not acceptable and posted out a replacement chuck that very day. With the new chuck fitted and a test bar protruding about 150 mm from the chuck, the total run out was about 0.2mm and I am quite happy with that, after all it's not sold as engineering quality, it's hobby rated.
I was concerned about falling into the trap of " well what can you expect for £200?" But in fact it is a nice piece of kit. Unfortunately it is now out of stock, but at £200 I didn't expect them to last long.

So, £200 for a decent, brand new floor standing drill with 16mm chuck capacity. Beats the cr@p outbof my old NuTool bench drill.

K

 

[AJB Temple]

Nice review. Glad you like it. Sounds like a great deal for £200. Pillar drill is a very handy tool to have.

 

[MattRoberts]

This is one with the crank to adjust the table height right? It might be a stupid question, but with the type of pillar drills, can you use the crank to raise the table up to give you a greater drill depth than the plunge handles allow? Or is there movement / play in the table when using the crank? I've always wondered...

 

[n0legs]

can you use the crank to raise the table up to give you a greater drill depth than the plunge handles allow? .

I had a smack around the head for doing just that as an apprentice :lol:

 

[MattRoberts]

Because...?

 

[Eric The Viking]

On mine (Clarke) the table sags quite a lot off horizontal if you don't tighten the pillar clamp up well. And it will twist around the column. Also it's rack and pinion, relying on being clamped to relieve the pinion.

But I've done just what you suggest when it's not critical.

E.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Because...?

The slack (and inaccuracies) in the gearing and possible movement on the column would lead to inaccuracies. It was queried some while ago why Meddings drills didn't have a mechanism for raising the table, and the reason given was that it was better to have a guaranteed square (in every direction) table, and let the user to make any other adjustment. The internals of the drill itself are far better machined than the "unimportant" parts.

 

[MattRoberts]

Ah, I thought as much. Thank you both

 

[Bodgers]

A lot of these drills just seem to have terrible build and casting standards. I bought a Jet and sent it back it was that bad. The small Axminster ones I looked at weren't much better.

In the end I settled on a Rexon which seems to be in a different league build wise. It was similar money to the others too...


Sent from my MI 3W using Tapatalk

 

[Roughcut]

Yep I have a previous series Axminster pillar drill with the common rack and pinion height adjustment.
Because you have to unlock the table lever clamp it is then free to move left or right.
I've used industrial drills in the past that do this also.
However in my opinion the Axminster drill I have is good enough for what I require and has been good value for money.

 

[graduate_owner]

Yes, I agree with these comments - the table swivels from side to side when unclamped ( it is meant to so as to be able to swivel it right out of the way) so using the table rack and pinion for feeding is not a good idea. It is normal practice on a milling machine, where the table can be raised and lowered on dovetail slides so is rigid enough for feeding.

K

 

[n0legs]

Because...?

Pretty much as Phil said and the concern over breaking an expensive Dormer bit :lol:

 

[memzey]

Because...?

The slack (and inaccuracies) in the gearing and possible movement on the column would lead to inaccuracies. It was queried some while ago why Meddings drills didn't have a mechanism for raising the table, and the reason given was that it was better to have a guaranteed square (in every direction) table, and let the user to make any other adjustment. The internals of the drill itself are far better machined than the "unimportant" parts.

My Fobco Star is the same. Manual adjustment of the table but bob on accurate and square all the time. It does also weigh about four times as much as some of the other drills mentioned on this thread though!!