Seen them only in still pics and mentioned in text. Not sure if I'm calling it the right thing. It's a hand held drill? Want to pin some resin figures and would rather not haul out the big cordless drill.
so is this some kind of manual drill?
does any of this make sense ??
thx - craig
Yeah. A manual drill that allows one to do fine drilling. The knob end usually fits into the palm of your hand and you just use enough pressure to keep the drill moving. The knob end is held still whilst the shaft is rotated by your fingers. I've used one to drill small holes in HO railroad cars for handholds and railings. Once you get one and use it you'll wonder how you did without it. One word of warning: buy multiples of your drill bits as they do snap off unexpectedly and usually on Saturday nights after the shops are closed.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
I made an excellent small diameter drill from a battery powered screwdriver. There is a cheap three jaw 1/4 inch chuck that comes in a blister pack in the bargin bin. $3 or so. It has a shaft that fits into the 1/4 inch hex bit socket of the power screwdriver. This makes a low revolution high torque precision drill. Its beautiful to see a tiny spiral of plastic being turned out by the drill bit as it bites into the material. Beats twirling a pin vise anytime.
I made an excellent small diameter drill from a battery powered screwdriver. There is a cheap three jaw 1/4 inch chuck that comes in a blister pack in the bargin bin. $3 or so. It has a shaft that fits into the 1/4 inch hex bit socket of the power screwdriver. This makes a low revolution high torque precision drill. Its beautiful to see a tiny spiral of plastic being turned out by the drill bit as it bites into the material. Beats twirling a pin vise anytime.
Be aware that not all quarter inch 3-jaws will hold the really small drills. Many will not hold a #70 or smaller.
Also, referring to other posts, not all pin vises have "handles" at the end. I like having such a knob to rest in my palm, but my current set of four pinvises lacks this part, but they are still usable.
I have had one of those knobless pin vises for 30 some years. The vise has jaws on each end. One end is for small bits and the other for larger bits. The one jaw hold the smallest bits available. The best thing about hand held rather than powered drills is that you can make more accurate holes since the bit is placed in the correct position without it turning so there is no 'walking' of the bit off the mark, and less chance of breaking the bit than with a powered drill. I have a set of 20 bits in a plastic box indexed from about 0.96mm down to about 0.32mm (my measurements with a digital caliper) with some duplicate sizes. You don't want to put that .32mm bit down anywhere on your workbench lest you might never find it again. I don't remember where I got those bits, but I'll look it up and give you the site for anyone interested. I'll put a scan of the bits on alt.binaries.models.scale with the smallest bit in the vise .32mm.
I made one using an old drafting-style mechanical pencil. In addition to buying some fine bits at the brick 'n' morter, I also scrounged some dental burrs from my dentist. These are high-strength metal and I got a number of sanding burrs in several different shapes as well as the cutting and drilling variety. After X number of uses, the dental group will run these through the autoclave and discard them, the hygenist was happy to give me a cupful that would have otherwise been discarded. That cupful should last me a loooong time.
I found that to be true with my mechanical pencil (4-jaw type). I wound some Scotch tape around the base of the bit to increase the diameter a bit. Generally it works fine.
willshak wrote: : : I have a set of 20 bits in a plastic box indexed from about 0.96mm down : to about 0.32mm (my measurements with a digital caliper) with some : duplicate sizes. You don't want to put that .32mm bit down anywhere on : your workbench lest you might never find it again. I don't remember : where I got those bits, but I'll look it up and give you the site for : anyone interested. I'll put a scan of the bits on : You can get small metric and english bits from "Small Parts", smallparts.com, out of S. Florida.
Bruce
on 12/2/2009 10:31 AM (ET) willshak wrote the following:
I found the site where I bought the bit set..It is a Squadron/Signal product.
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