Hand drills

[Dan Morton]

Anybody other than me use a small aluminum hand drill to make holes for wire and put together armatures?

I don't think these were originally made for the hobby shop market. I just bought one with 10 very small drill bits from a welding supplies store. Welders use them to clean and drill out the tips of their torches.

I've seen these in hobby shops and online for $15 - $20. The welding store sold them for $7.50.

All the best,
Dan

 

[Ray]

Dan,
Are these things aluminum pin vices? I've got some nice brass and steel versions that Micromarc used to carry. I also keep handy a couple of indexes of number drills from 0 up, the smaller sizes being most useful for figure modelling, though the larger ones are handy for machining patterns.

Ray

 

[Bluesking]

I use a steel one.

 

[Dan Morton]

Sorry - I should have made that clear. The drill body is aluminum but the drill bits are steel.

All the best,
Dan

 

[Ray]

Dan,
That looks like a nice pin vice especially for the price you paid.

Ray

 

[Dan Morton]

Ray - it is a pin vise, but it also has drill bits included, so...more for your money...and cheaper?

All the best,
Dan

 

[Einion]

I use these a fair bit myself, although primarily as a tool for holding pinned parts (which is why I have four of them!) but I do hand-drill small white-metal parts because my motor tool doesn't really go slow enough to do this safely.

My sort of guide price for these is based on what I paid for the last one, roughly five bucks when converted, but these are a little cheaper than that:
http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/PROD/wire-tool/BKH15

eBay is also a good place to look for cheap ones.

Einion

 

[Ray]

Einion,
To slow your motor tool down you can assemble an electrical box with a receptacle wired to a dimmer switch, then use it for a speed control. This is really pretty basic wiring for which you should be able to get guidance at your local DIY store, as well as all the parts to put it together. If you're interested and can't get started drop me an e-mail and I'll sketch out a simple wiring diagram for you. I use a setup like this to control the temperature on my soldering iron for low temperature soldering of white metal parts, as well as to control the speed on a small hobby drill press for drilling plastic.


Dan, Einion,
Like clamps and cabinet making, a man (women too) making models can never have too many pin vices, eh?


Ray

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Ray+May 8 2006, 08:34 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ray @ May 8 2006, 08:34 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Einion,
To slow your motor tool down you can assemble an electrical box with a receptacle wired to a dimmer switch, then use it for a speed control. This is really pretty basic wiring for which you should be able to get guidance at your local DIY store, as well as all the parts to put it together. If you're interested and can't get started drop me an e-mail and I'll sketch out a simple wiring diagram for you. I use a setup like this to control the temperature on my soldering iron for low temperature soldering of white metal parts, as well as to control the speed on a small hobby drill press for drilling plastic.[/b]

Hi Ray, thanks for the tip. I'd already considered this once it hit me that that's what a dimmer switch was doing but my Minicraft drill already has a variable-speed transformer, it just doesn't go down low enough; I'd like one that works from zero up ideally - a foot control being the gold standard. With the existing power supply I was worried that if you vary the incoming voltage it just won't work (after consulting with a friend who knows more about electrical things than I do) but I'd love to be wrong.

<!--QuoteBegin-Ray@May 8 2006, 08:34 AM
Dan, Einion,
Like clamps and cabinet making, a man (women too) making models can never have too many pin vices, eh?[/quote]
On the evidence, no :lol:

Einion

 

[Ray]

Einion,
If your motor tool is a twelve volt job you could use a model train transformer in place of the original and have the 0-flying speeds you desire.

Ray