Update on drilling holes in aluminium

I really should have written this post long ago, since my first attempt at having a working drill stand fell well short of satisfactory. In fact I'm bemused to find the post doesn't already exist. Clearly all the ranting was only in my head...

The drill press proved woeful. Actually, I wrote a review on Amazon, so I guess that's what I'm remembering. A lot of people thought oh well, it's cheap what do you expect. I went and bought a Record Power DS-19 for £59. Yes that's twice as expensive, but it's twice bugger all, and using it is a completely different experience. In my previous post it wasn't up to the challenge of using an end mill. Nothing else has proved beyond it.

I also didn't end up with the drill. I bought it, and returned it, after I found the chuck was more than 43mm, and so the drill wouldn't go in the stand, even though it had a suitable collar. Instead, I got a Makita DP4011. This cost £120. I actually have no idea why I did this: I could have bought a bench top pillar drill with a nice quiet motor for less than £120. I just didn't know things like that existed.

On the plus side, this combination drills very accurately, and I guess you might expect a Makita to have better bearings than some re-branded Chinese pillar drill. It has electronic speed control that works just as well as gears.

Obviously I'd buy a pillar drill now, if only because of the noise. Perhaps I will some when and I'll write a comparison.

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