Absolutely. I’d get a selection too. Your most used drill-bits can stay in those pin-vises and those will be ready to go for various tasks. See what’s available at your local hobby shop, or even online. I have one of those mini 1/4" chucks and as soon as I get a small drill I’ll be using it for drilling holes in styrene models.
LifeLike Canada came out with some fairly decent models of CPR’s Dominion/Fowler 36’ single-sheathed boxcars, which had freestanding grabirons. The cars were beyond my budget at that time, but one of the newly-released roadnames were lettered improperly.
LifeLike Canada offered free replacement body shells for anyone who returned the incorrect bodies to the place of purchase.
The hobbyshop that I frequented in those days sold the returned shells, as-is, for five bucks apiece…which was much more in my price range.
I managed to pick-up seven carbodies, but when I got them home and gave them a closer going-over, I decided that the grabirons, done in engineering plastic, not only didn’t match the colour of the cars, but were also overly thick. I was kicking myself for not noticing before buying, but a couple days later, I decided to replace them with metal ones, as I had lots of Tichy grabirons on-hand.
However, the grabirons on the cars were wider than the Tichy grabs, so I made a suitable jig to bend new ones, using Tichy’s .012" phosphor-bronze wire. Not counting the runningboard grabs on the laterals (I already had a jig for mass producing those…well… actually only four-at-a-time), each car required 36 grabirons.
The plastic grabs included bolt detail, which were the push-in fasteners which held the grabirons in place, so I used a chisel-type blade in an X-Acto handle to snick-off the too-thick grabirons, leaving the bolt heads in place.
Then, all I had to do was drill 72 holes in each of the seven cars, then install my custom-bent grabirons.
I did the drilling using a slightly oversize #79 drill bit (I had long ago learned that I could apparently break #80 drill bits merely by looking at them, so usually avoided even attempting to use them). <
Most definitely especially if you are using anything smaller than an #60. The set I have is a ATE Pro USA. The set has #61 to #80 bits with a pin vise with double ended adaptors with various size holes to fit various bits.
According to the link it fits drill bit sizes 0.6-3.0mm (or 0.024-0.118"). That is equivalent to #73-#32 drill bits. That’s a nice range but won’t be of any use if you are wanting to install grab iron or stirrups in HO-scale. You need a pin vise that will go down to 0.0135" (#80) for that type of work.
Not sure why you’d buy just ONE pin vise, unless you plan on building something with just one size of hole in it.
Think instead of buying multiple pin vises. Yes, get some excellent ones that will hold bits down to 80. But since you’ll only be using a few that size at once and mostly bigger bits, even the cheaper pin vises that can’t hold the smallest bits come in quite handy for holding larger bits just fine.
This way, you can set up to drill most holes when you start a build. Where many small bits get broken or lost is when installing and removing them in your pin vises. This is avoided by doing it once per kit rather than in changing bits in and out constantly while using just a single pin vise.
I know what you mean about that. I retired in order to quit being unemployed. Glad to hear you’re looking forward to better times.
That’s one reason why I recommended some cheap pin vises. You do want at least one good one that will go down to 0-80 or whatever that little one is. Looks like you have a good deal on a package that should accomplish that.
Micromark isn’t the cheapest, but they have a pretty good deal on a set of pin vises that I’ve used.
Search for Item #81497. It’s a set of four of them. The smallest will hold a 78 IIRC but is befuddled by an 80 bit. But they’re fine for bigger stuff and add to you tool box versatility at relatively little cost. They’re generic looking enough you can likely find them even cheaper elsewhere.