Small bench drill

I don't know if they are any good, as I've never used one, but ARC Euro do a range of small high speed drills. I think there is a small xy table for one of them.
Regards
Kevin
oh, yes

Proxxon are good quality, well engineered, but not cheap.
Regards, Tony

I have a Proxxon bench drill which I use with their X, Y table. It is an excellent machine for small work. I guess the criticisms would be the rigidity of the column isn't all it might be but this is only apparent if you are abusing it by using too much drilling pressure (perhaps with a 3mm blunt drill :) ). With the X, Y table mounted, the head height is bit limited. The other problem I found was not with the machine but was finding a three jaw chuck that could be run at the high end speeds that the drill is capable of. I tend to use the collet system that come with the machine unless I'm using bigger drills and therefore lower speeds.
Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend it. It is not particularly cheap but then the level precision available seldom is cheap.
Mark
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Thanks Kevin.
For the price of a Proxxon drill I it seems could get a ARC mill of similar drilling capabilities with digital readout, but nothing is free in this world so what's the catch with the Chinese mill? I am drawn to the idea of a small mill but have had my fingers burnt with cheap junk in the past.
Cliff.

Can't comment on the small mill but I have just bought one of the C6 lathes from them for a specify job. This was the advertised prepared lathe and not an out the box jobbie as I don't have time to mess with one.
I bought the C6 over the other dealers offers basically on it's weight. They all offer the same capacity machines but this one is twice as heavy as the rest. Mass equals rigidity in my book.
To be very honest I'm amazed at what you get for the money, the fit and finish is very good, in fact no glaring faults. When I look at this and compare it to the brand new Myford I bought some years ago it is a definite improvement, and seeing as Myford must still be using the same WWII machinery that built mine I can't see that the newer 12 times dearer offering can't be any improvement. -- Regards,
John Stevenson Nottingham, England.
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Cliff, I've got one of those Chinese micro-drill machines (actually I've got the micro-mill, but its the same machine with the added advantage of a micrometer adjustable quill). A friend, who's won gold medals with his model engineering skills, was very sceptical at first, but was sufficiently impressed with mine to also buy one. He uses it a great deal, for both milling and drilling. Its amazingly heavy for such a small machine, and the accuracy is surprisingly good. Its been used quite successfully to drill lots of holes of less than 0.7mm. We got them from Chester UK, who, despite what some others have reported, I can thoroughly recommend.

I was at John's place last week as he was unpacking the lathe in question, and it was remarkably good value for the price he paid, so much so that I was very tempted to have a bash myself and get one!
Peter

Thanks Gary. It looks like you have almost talked me into it. It is only available, at least from ARC, in the unprepared condition, i.e. a total strip down is needed to clean and lubricate the machine before use. Is this straightforward? Are there any special points to watch for?
Cliff.

When I was speaking to them on the phone they said if I wanted an out the box job they would tell me the shortcomings that they knew of with the machine. I opted for the prepared machine as I wanted to use it straight away.
I'm not adverse to doing a bit of sorting but at the moment time is more valuable.
I have been running some small copper laser nozzles today on this C6 lathe and it's turned some nice work out. I used to do these on a Myford C7 capstan a few years ago but the job fell through and I sold the machine. It's now reappeared from another customer in a different form hence needing a small machine. These are a bit fiddly on the TOS and it lacks the top speed. The C6 is actually faster than even the Myford was and the finish on the ones I have done today is far superior. -- Regards,
John Stevenson Nottingham, England.
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WELL Dont laugh !!! Aldi this thurday just gone, had small bench drills in at =A329.99. admitingly they are far-east ones. but these ones are built a bit better than the avarage far-east ones...far-east with a bit of german influence I think. I bought one last year...and I was amazed by the quality for the price. my idea was to have it set up as a supplimentry drill for repeat operations. cons these drills have a silly reverce taper....so only the chuck supplied fits it. Pros. seems to have a different motor than most.....its open down the middle .=2E...so runs very cool. it's well finished and no spindle slop is present and at 29.99 you cant even buy the stop switch on them. Aldi usully has them in stock for several days after now . Good luck all the best...mark

I bought one last year too. The quill was a tad sloppy in use, but that was easily fixed with some sandpaper-shim-and-brasso. There's no detectable spindle slop on mine either. Drills 16 mm holes in steel without complaining too much as well - but the table bends down if you put any force on it.
I can't work out where it bends either, it seems to be the cast iron bending, which doesn't seem likely. I use blocks of wood on the base instead of the table to get vertical drilling, the base doesn't seem to bend even though it's a bit flimsy, but I may cannibalise it for the motor etc.
This purchase was the one that made me see the sense in John's desire for weight in a tool. Weight = rigidity, and you need that. I'm not unhappy with it, especially at the price, but I don't think I would buy another one unless I wanted some CE bits ...
BTW the taper is a male B-16, apparently it's the same as the small end of a Morse No 2.