Pillar drill choice.

[skipdiver]

I've recently been asked to take over a regular order from a guy who is retiring and after much thought, decided to give it a whirl. The item in question needs a lot of holes drilling accurately, so i am investing in a decent pillar drill. Had decided i was buying a new one but having had a trawl of some of the threads on the subject on this site, there is a lot of suggestions for second hand. There is a guy near me selling this Startrite for £200. Any thoughts?

http://www.timdixon.com/drills-and-saws.htm

I was initially looking at this or the model up which are £250 and £295 respectively.

http://www.warco.co.uk/drilling-machine ... chine.html

Which would you plump for?

Thanks.

 

[Spindle]

Hi

If the Startrite is in good order with regard to spindle / quill wear and accuracy I'd go for that.

Have you considered it may be 3 phase?

Regards Mick

 

[skipdiver]

Yes, i have considered that and will confirm before i pursue it. Was just trying to get more input because at the moment, i'm leaning toward new. Don't really want to spend too much time fettling with an old one but will if it's the better option. I've also got to consider space. A benchtop one can be moved about but a floorstander will have to remain put. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Fitzroy]

I've been through this same dilemma myself. Ended up getting a bench mounted second hand pillar drill, I actually have two. A Grafton (clone of a US Atlas) £70 off ebay, and a Fobco Star £50 off gumtree. Both great machines however it took me about 3 months to find the Grafton and the Fobco came up by random on Gumtree locally and I couldn't refuse at that price. My experience is you can get them second hand for reasonable money but you have to be patient and active on ebay and gumtree. I'm also in Aberdeen so anything that is collection only tends to be too far away. If you are more centrally located you'll have more chance to find a deal.

Based on the photos in the link the Startrite is 3 phase, you have 3 red "line" wires and an earth. It is possible to run 3 phase machines from a domestic supply using a box off ebay for £75ish but it involves a bunch more fiddling and potentially messing with the connections in the motor, which I enjoyed learning about but you may not!

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks for that and yes, it is 3 phase, so that rules it out for me, especially as it was £200. Think i can get what i want cheaper. Was speaking to the father in law earlier, who is a retired engineer and makes fifth scale steam engines from a small garden shed. He has a cracking old pillar drill that weighs about half a ton (feels like it anyway) but he also has a small Draper bench top one that was £130 and he says it's spot on and very accurate, so maybe a bit better quality new one than the Draper will suffice. Think i'll keep searching for second hand but will have to get one soon as i need to start making my first batch next month for delivery in April.

 

[skipdiver]

Anybody got any experience of the Warco drill in my link. I need one soon and can't find a suitable second hand machine locally. Any other suggestions if i buy new?

 

[finish_that]

Warco have a good reputation for after sales service and are a specialist machine company that have been around for
a while . I think if no decent used machine is available then the model you link is a good bet .
Make sure the spindle travel of 80mm is what you need - thats where the older UK drills out do the newer ones
Meddings model 4 are 127mm for example .

 

[shed9]

Warco have a good reputation for after sales service and are a specialist machine company that have been around for a while .

I have first hand experience of Warco and have say it was dire.

 

[Woodmonkey]

I would say you will struggle to buy a new drill for £200 which is very accurate, look for an old meddings on ebay. They come up regularly and its very easy to swap the the phase motor for a single phase. I have one and its rock solid and super accurate

 

[Myfordman]

Buy a 3 phase old solid machine and keep the motor and run it from an inverter.
A continuously variable speed drill is a pleasure to use and once you have had one you will never want to to back to swapping belts.

 

[skipdiver]

Ok thanks. Still have a little time before i need to pull the trigger, so will keep looking.

 

[pike]

Buy a 3 phase old solid machine and keep the motor and run it from an inverter.
A continuously variable speed drill is a pleasure to use and once you have had one you will never want to to back to swapping belts.

How much would the inverter cost? Do you need to be a sparky to wire it up? I agree that would be a nice option and am considering it myself but I've never refurbished a machine so would not have a clue if what was on sale was worth the hundreds people usually ask for good old pillar drills.

 

[porker]

I've got the Startrite Mercury like the one at the top. Mine is single phase. Great machine and no play in the quill. You would have to pay a lot of money new to get anything close to the quality. Whatever you buy extend the quill and see how much play there is. Most of the cheaper stuff I have tried is pretty dire.

 

[skipdiver]

Opinions on this would be welcome and how easy is it to convert to single phase please?


Modedit: Please refrain from posting links to live auctions. See the following forum rule, specifically 8.6. Many thanks.

global-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting-08-14-t54297.html

 

[skipdiver]

Opinions on this would be welcome and how easy is it to convert to single phase please?


Modedit: Please refrain from posting links to live auctions. See the following forum rule, specifically 8.6. Many thanks.

global-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting-08-14-t54297.html

Wow! Really? Seems a bit Draconian as i was just asking for an opinion on something.

 

[Adam9453]

I've got an old fobco star bench mounted pillar drill that you could buy for a very reasonable price (a lot less than your budget).
I've got a floor standing one so I don't need the bench mounted one anymore.
Its mechanically sound but cosmetically poor as the top cover got damaged when it was being delivered to me.
Its 3 phase so you would either need to swap the motor out or run it from an inverter (both are pretty cheap options).
PM me if you are interested

 

[Doris]

I've got an old fobco star bench mounted pillar drill that you could buy for a very reasonable price (a lot less than your budget).
I've got a floor standing one so I don't need the bench mounted one anymore.
Its mechanically sound but cosmetically poor as the top cover got damaged when it was being delivered to me.
Its 3 phase so you would either need to swap the motor out or run it from an inverter (both are pretty cheap options).
PM me if you are interested

DTR may be interested....

 

[CHJ]

Opinions on this would be welcome and how easy is it to convert to single phase please?


Modedit: Please refrain from posting links to live auctions. See the following forum rule, specifically 8.6. Many thanks.

global-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting-08-14-t54297.html

Wow! Really? Seems a bit Draconian as i was just asking for an opinion on something.

Had you have been one of the forum members bidding for that item then I doubt that you would have appreciated the on average 150 to 200 viewers of UKW forums at any one time being alerted to the sale.

Moderators not only have to make judgment calls on rule deviations they have to field the complaints from members.

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks for the offer Adam but Essex is just too far to travel for me to be worth it.

 

[skipdiver]

Still not found anything suitable after scouring the usual places, so i am going to buy new as i am at the stage where i need to buy something with work backing up. Has anyone got any recommendations? The Warco one i was looking at is out of stock, typically.