Several months ago an MR article about building a storage building out of boxcars had a technique for drilling small holes quickly and efficiently using a homemade drill from a can motor. Can anyone supply me with the how to build this such as the can motor used and drill collet parts etc.? I have a large project that has a lot of drilling and would love to same some time and frustration going the motorized route vs. the pin vise.
Thank you in advance.
I am not sure how well a can motor would work as a drill, it’s speed would be high and I feel you would break lots of drills. I have used a hand drill, crank type, for many years and feel like I have a lot more control. The X-Acto drill I have is no longer available, Walthers has a Circuit Concepts drill that would work
Search the MRR index page for the article.
I use a pin vise. Tried a variable speed Dremel and I managed to bend and break some drills, #70 to number 80 bits. No success at drilling any holes.
Rich
Not only would the can motor be WAY too fast, what do you do for the collet? Duct tape?
Get a GOOD pin vise. [tup]
Check out page 87 of Evergreen Scale Models’ book “Styrene Modeling”. There’s a diagram of precisely the thing you’re talking about using a Sagami motor. Speed control was by using a cheap power pack and the thing was turned on and off with a foot switch. It also uses a Dremel chuck to hold the drill bits.
Andre
Thank you Andre. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Like others I’ve used a Pin Vise over the years as well, however this is a huge project (Many Walther’s passenger cars) with grab iron installation. Most Dremel type tools spin with way too high an RPM hence more drill breakage. I’ve known several modelers over the years that have used soldering irons to put the grab irons in also, but I’m not that corageous!
I’ll let the group know of my progress. Thanks again all.
If you’re drilling holes in plastic, a good-quality pin vise is probably a better choice. The high motor rpm tends to heat-up the plastic resulting in irregular and over-size holes. There aren’t that many holes to be drilled on a passenger car, and you don’t have to do all of the cars in one sitting. [;)]
Wayne
You can do much the same thing much more safely with a Dremel rotary tool and the small drill bits that are made to fit it. There’s a set of seven bits ranging in size from 1/32" to 1/8". I find these to be satisfactory for my needs and I don’t have to worry about them flying out of a jury rigged collet rigged to a high speed motor.
I have a can motor with a gearbox on it, I think 20:1, which has a small hole which I filled with plasticine/thickener mix. I just push a bit in, and away we go!