Alpine Engineering bench drill

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I think the one I referred to is 3 Morse maybe R8 is available not sure. From memory they were produced in various sizes in the past. I've no idea how precisely they were built but some did finish up in moderately sized businesses work shops so assume they were ok.

Maybe the bearings weren't hardened. I'm pretty sure I have seen add's that suggest some companies are using hardened bearings on lathes. I suspect it's penny pinching really.

Where I have the motor on my DW is a bit of a pain. Instead of being central and mounted on the back it's on the front of the same plate off to one side so I have to use a jack screw to get the head vertical and ever having to change the head angle would be a real pain. I've been wondering about fitting a modern 1/2hp motor for less weight but no need so far and it would still need a counterbalance to really improve this aspect.

That's the problem about wondering on model engineering – spending money when so far there has been no need.

JS has probably noted the title bench drill and here's me going into millers. The bearings on my NuTool pillar drill are shot so I have bought a larger used Medding's to replace it. The castings look surprisingly similar to some far eastern drillers. Messing up drilling some marine grade stainless is what seemed to finish off the NuTool – the  4 holes just had to go in it and I only had one piece the right size.

John

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John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 13/09/2016 13:07:41

[sparky mikeParticipant @sparkymike]

Mine is the 12 speed so called"bench" drill, but being the size it is, if sited on typical height workbench , it is too high for comfort and swarf would be too close to eye level, so I made a purpose built stand that is around 28" high that suits me fine. In the past I have drilled some pretty large holes with no complaints from the drill. I think that virtually the same drills are now sold by Draper or Sealey. I wonder if some clever British engineer did the original design for these ? That would not surprise me in the slightest.

Thanks for the tip re. shortened allen key . At the moment the screws for the guard are phillips head but I may well change them for allen socket head.

Mike.

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