Were you looking earlier or did I spur an impulse purchase?
Double whammy. Between you and others (especially
@CWret and
@DavidR8), I bit the bullet too.
All of you are evil!!
I confess that I've been looking at a mag drill for quite a while. One day
@CWret pointed out that they are designed to work with annular cutters and I lost all interest. My primary need is field repairs on farm equipment.
Then some greasy shifty member on here (prolly you
@Janger) said that some models come with a drill chuck. The fire started burning again!
I ordered from Amazon and it arrived yesterday. Some comments are appropriate.
Look at this shipping crate.
Ya, it's not wood. But man is it nice! Total shocker.
Mine doesn't have discrete speeds. It's truly continuously variable. But unlike VFD variable speed, this one is not constant torque. So low speeds will die with any load. I believe that also means speed will have to be adjusted while drilling to stop it from stalling out. Nonetheless variable speed it is.
The drill chuck sucks. Visually horrible runout. But it has a flat register for the weldon adapter, so as long as the threads are properly centered, I can probably true it up on the lathe. We will see.
At first, I was really disappointed with the drill clearance. Barely enough to install the chuck.
However, on inspection, the drill motor is mounted on its own dovetail and can be adjusted for best clearance. After adjustment, the drill bit clearance is waaaay better than expected. With the drive head fully up, there is a full 5 inches to mount a drill under the chuck, and close to 7" when mounted in the chuck.
At first I was very disappointed with the magnet. It barely held its own with plain sheet metal. It was slightly better with 1/8 steel sheet metal. Mild attraction, but it works. So I tried a piece of 1/4 plate. Waaaay better but I can push it over with a bit of effort but not busting an artery. I also had a big piece of 1/2" plate. That worked awesome. I was not pushing that over even with my full 260 pounds on it. The manual says it needs 5/8 for optimum hold. So ya, 1/2 is good enough for my needs but it prolly does need 5/8 to reach full strength. I'm not gunna worry about that. As an aside,
@CWret asked AI about mag drills and it suggested the max was achieved with 1" plate. That's actually possible with some of my farm equipment but 1" plate is not happening inside my shop.
In summary, I'm glad I finally bought one. So all you enablers are off the hook. This Time......
www.vevor.ca
