Recommend a Power Drill

[Craig V]

I'm tired of having to go to a friends house and using his power tools.  I want to buy a drill that I can use for drilling out my metal boxes, and my PCB holes.  

I'm not looking to spend anymore that $100 at the absolute max, and I was thinking the cheaper the better.  I don't need anything fancy, just a straight ahead power drill.  

Anyone have suggestions?

Thanks.

[Steve C]

I'd get a drill press.  You can get them for under $100 now, and they work great.  I went to visit my father in Alb. and he gave me the drill press off his bench (he also gave me about 7500' of #24 stranded copper wire as well, Dad's rule!!), and it cuts through boxes like butter with a uni-bit.

[Joep]

I recomment using some sharp and high quality drills. This is IMHO more important then the machine you use.

Bye,

Joep

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Amen to "sharp bits". Also, always use some kind of lube (even cooking oil is a lot better than nothing).
Safety is an issue with drills too. The main dange (in my opinion) isn't accidentally making a drill hole in yourself, it is having the object you are drilling suddenly seize up with the bit & fly around and cus chunks out of you (I learnt this making a little octal to 9 pin valve base converter plate).

[Brett Clark]

Cooking oil does work OK. I read an old machinist's book which claimed that Bacon Grease was the best cutting/drilling lubricant of all!
I haven't tried it, so YMMV.

For low-speed drilling of thin mild steel and aluminum (what our boxes are made of), just about anything that's greasy/oily should work.

As far as a drill, you've got a pretty wide range of choices. Almost any of them will work for drilling stompboxes. I have even used a cordless power screwdriver with hex-shank bits. It's slow, though. Is there anything else you want to do with it other than drill boxes? Your other needs/preferences may determine your best choice.

In drill presses, the cheap Asian-made ones work OK , but they are kind of crude compared to (more expensive) US/European/Japanese ones. I have a Taiwanese model, but I wish I had paid more and gotten a better one.

In hand-held drills, I would stick with US-made (Dewalt, Milwaukee, etc.) or whatever high-quality ones are available in your part of the world. The cheap Chinese ones are not very good at all, IMHO.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Some previously OK Japanese brands are now made wholly in mainland China & the quality is right off. I Australia we're swamped with GMC brand.. see the aus.electronics newsgroup for the warnings!

[cd]

Do yourself a favor and buy good tools - bits and drills included.  I'd much rather have a high quality drill than a cheapo drill press.  I already have two nice drills (a Makita and Milwaukee) but I bought a cheapo made in China drill press on a whim ($60).  It works but the base is a little unstable (even when bolted to my workbench) plus it doesn't seem to have the same amount of torque, even though the specs say otherwise (doesn't cut as fast or as well as the hand held drills, even with the same bit.)  Overall I get the impression that it was designed more for price (obviously) and the weekend woodworker in mind, not occasional heavy duty metalwork!

The Makita drill I have is an older corded model, I think it was about $75 on sale.  It's a made in Japan model, I think some of Makita's tools these days are made in China/Taiwan.  The Milwaukee is also corded and more expensive, I think around $125 or so.  Both have been reliable workhorses, I've drilled everything from cement to wood and metal and they still work perfectly.

[petemoore59]

The 'cheepo' cordless, keyless chuck, rechargable, adjustable speed drill, 2 bateries and charger have been doin the trick for me for a long time, I highly recommend the cheep ones as two WILL last longer for the money than 1 great one [in my experience].
 I also got some other higher torque foreward only ones for like 2 buxx each at garage sales...these are nice for the bigger holes.
 I step the bit sizes up as I go for each hole [unibit is nice for this] and this makes the overall drilling process easier than trying to get a 1/4''+ sized hole with the first cut.

[The Tone God]

If you are looking for a drill just to do pedal stuff then go with a drill press. Drilling out boards and boxes will be much easier. I have three drill press of various sizes and the small cheap 8" press is good enough for boards and boxes. Not amazing or the highest quality but nice and fairly priced. Its small enough to be attached to one of my mobile work benches that I keep in my "clean" workshop. The only machine tool I keep in that workshop as I don't doing anything with it that will make a big mess.

If you want a more generalized drill or this is going to be your only drill around the home then get a decent hand drill. DeWalt at the least. A kit with a 12v drill, charger, couple of batteries, and a carrying case can be had for less then a $100. They are tough enough.

As for drill bits most of the time I prefer titanium bits. Generic titanium bits are cheap and good enough for boxes. I use a number of different oils depending on the job. I generally keep an oil that I use for tapping holes on hand as it has a high smoke point and keeps the drill bit edge clean since the alloy used in most boxes tends to "stick" to the tip of the drill bit. I wouldn't use any cooking oils.

Andrew

[Craig V]

Thanks everyone.  I'm going to buy some drill bits and oil, and maybe this old drill, which I think is too weak to drill metal, will work.  It struggles to cut PCB's.  If it is too weak, I'm gonna look into spending the extra money for a quality drill.

Thanks again.

[RetroTones]

I suggest an inexpensive tabletop drill press from www.harborfreight.com  Also make sure you use something like Tap Magic cutting fluid ($2.99 at True Value) - just a few drops on the hole and bit. I haven't yet purchased a Uni-Bit but that would be a good idea.