Proud owner of a Dremmel drill stand

[DaveBaxt]

14 hours ago, wefalck said:

In about 1977 I bought what by modern standards would be a primitve hand-held drill. At that time I hadn't heard of Dremel and, I think, PROXXON was not on the market yet. This drill consist of a motor in an aluminium tube, brass tube screwed to the motor shaft with a set-screw that acts as a seat for the collets. A set of good steel collets for bit up to 1/8" (or 3.2 mm) belongs to it. I am still using it almost daily.

 

In around 1983 I bought the PROXXON bench drill, when it first came onto the market and with it all the extras then available, namely a kit to convert it into a light wood-lathe or disk-sander. I have abused it for all these purposes and light routing too. It was worth every 'Pfenning' I spent on it. I gather the ball-bearings could do with replacing by now, but originally, it was capable to do more than what was advertised, namely drilling 0.5 mm holes, I frequently drilled holes down to 0.3 mm diameter with it. Or course, it could not compete with the small Swiss precision benchdrills I knew from my university's workshops. I added to the abuse by buying a larger 3/8" drill-chuck for non-modelling work, but otherwise preferred the collets, which would take up to 1/8" shafts.

 

The PROXXON drill is belt driven (I still use the first belt), but I rarely used anything else but the highest reduction (the motor is a standard 90 W sewing machine-type motor with presumably 3500 rpm. In order to reduce speed further, I am using a plug-dimmer. This in turn is plugged into a socket that is wire to a foot switch, allowing hands-free operation.

This is very good to hear and I am heading down this route. I have also had great feed back on Proxxon tools in general from facebook . What did you  think of the vice that Proxxon are selling as an optional extra. I have heard that this could be a problem. Thanks for your input.Best regards Dave

Edited April 19, 2021 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

I would like to thank everyone for thre input, which has given me lots of different options to think about and I will do a bit more research before making a final dicision. Best regards Dave

[wefalck]

I bought my vice in the early 1980s and from the beginning was never really happy with it, because of the rather poor guide for the moving jaw. At that time I didn't know of better alternatives. However, I don't know, whether the vice has been improved since.

 

Personally, I now would get myself a (or several of different size) so-called toolmaker insert vice. These close very precisely and are ground on all faces, so can be mounted horizontally, vertically and sideways, which offers multiple ways of work-holding. The 1-inch size costs around 40€ on the Continent. They are typically made in India or China and most tool suppliers have them, e.g. https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/ (I hasten to add that I have no other connection to this company than as satisfied customer - in those old pre-Brexit days). Below an example picture randomly picked from the Internet:

 

[DaveBaxt]

7 hours ago, wefalck said:

I bought my vice in the early 1980s and from the beginning was never really happy with it, because of the rather poor guide for the moving jaw. At that time I didn't know of better alternatives. However, I don't know, whether the vice has been improved since.

 

Personally, I now would get myself a (or several of different size) so-called toolmaker insert vice. These close very precisely and are ground on all faces, so can be mounted horizontally, vertically and sideways, which offers multiple ways of work-holding. The 1-inch size costs around 40€ on the Continent. They are typically made in India or China and most tool suppliers have them, e.g. https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/ (I hasten to add that I have no other connection to this company than as satisfied customer - in those old pre-Brexit days). Below an example picture randomly picked from the Internet:

 

I do like the look of those and look to be very well made . I inagine the holes are for a means of clmping it to the base of the drill stand? Also I had a look on the link you gave me but could not see these or any other insert vices. Thank you for your help.Best regards Dave Baxter

[wefalck]

I have three of them in different sizes, but mainly use them on my milling machines.

 

Fixing them to the base of the PROXXON-drill could be somewhat inconvenient, but the original vice could not be screwed down either. Not sure about the current arrangements.

 

The 1" vices have four holes on the sides tapped M4 and two at the bottom. I cut two pieces of small angle iron or aluminium the length of the vice and drilled holes to match the four tapped holes. The angles were screwed to the sides and had a number of holes in the horizontal part with which it can be screwed to machine tables.

 

The larger vice have horizontol through holes (I think 6 mm) for a round rod that goes through the lug with which the moveable jaw is screwed down. I made a 6 mm rod and cross-drilled it with 3 mm to take some long M3 screws with which to tie down the vice onto machine tables. The vices also have to round notches at the end for simple hold-down clamps.

 

If you think of getting one of the 1" vices, make sure you get one with the shallow recess on top of the jaw - this comes very handy for small pieces. The others don't seem to come with this feature.

 

BTW the vices may also run under the name of EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) vices, where they are used to hold the electrodes.

 

I didn't check, whether RDG Tools do have these vices, but thought that I bought one of mine from them. But I may be wrong, as this must have been some 15 years ago.

[Clark]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

I have three of them in different sizes, but mainly use them on my milling machines.

 

Fixing them to the base of the PROXXON-drill could be somewhat inconvenient, but the original vice could not be screwed down either. Not sure about the current arrangements.

 

The 1" vices have four holes on the sides tapped M4 and two at the bottom. I cut two pieces of small angle iron or aluminium the length of the vice and drilled holes to match the four tapped holes. The angles were screwed to the sides and had a number of holes in the horizontal part with which it can be screwed to machine tables.

 

The larger vice have horizontol through holes (I think 6 mm) for a round rod that goes through the lug with which the moveable jaw is screwed down. I made a 6 mm rod and cross-drilled it with 3 mm to take some long M3 screws with which to tie down the vice onto machine tables. The vices also have to round notches at the end for simple hold-down clamps.

 

If you think of getting one of the 1" vices, make sure you get one with the shallow recess on top of the jaw - this comes very handy for small pieces. The others don't seem to come with this feature.

 

BTW the vices may also run under the name of EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) vices, where they are used to hold the electrodes.

 

I didn't check, whether RDG Tools do have these vices, but thought that I bought one of mine from them. But I may be wrong, as this must have been some 15 years ago.

Hi Dave, hi wefalk

Using the vice of proxxon makes drilling and even sanding really easy but I would agree that fixing to the drilling table is a bit challenging in that you have to be sure to adjust it rectangular. I put a long strip (100cm) in the vice (MS4), adjusted the drilling table (KT70) rectangular to the edge of the work disk and measured and adjusted the deviation of the strip of the edge of the working disk. When no deviation was visible, screws were tightened.

Clark 

[DaveBaxt]

Thank you everyone for all your help in attempting to try and pick the correct drill press and vice. I hope I am now in some way able to make a better choice in what to look out for. Best regards Dave