Looking for a magnetic drill but don’t want to break the bank. Need to be able to do automotive frame drilling (old '59 GMC 3 ton dump as example, heavy frame !) and soft steel up to as much as 1 ¼ inch.
Not commercial, so intermittent use, but still like decent quality. Suggestions?
What’s your price point? Is mag drill for rotabroach (aka large holes) or a drill chunk for drill bits?
Rotabroach. Do any have adapters to take drill bits as well as Rotabroach? (2MT and 3 MT are my drill press choices and I own the bits already). (Whole different topic is the advantages of using Rotabroach).
Price point drives me crazy as I would like to own something with a strong magnet, good capacity and power feed. Eh, maybe I do break the bank ! Just don’t tell my wife !
What do you. consider a large hole? I have 3MT for my drill press up to 1 ½". Above that I think the rotabroaches get expensive. Use of a carbide tipped metal cutting hole saw is doable in a drill press, not so sure about in a mag drill.
@Carletal I have used Milwaukee brand but my favorite is the Hougen brand. I currently have used this small frame and it’s bigger brother. They make fantastic drills. Champion has a good selection of drills also. Yes you can get a drill chuck adapter for the larger frame models. They have a nice lineup to choose from. I need to get my hands on a bunch of different manufacturers drills and do some head to head testing. That would be interesting to see if the cheap drills can perform like the name brand stuff.
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Thanks for the fast reply and good information ! I think your idea of testing the cheaper mag drills against the big boys is a good one. Trouble is they may perform well, then die a fast or slow death over time. That, of course is harder to test and predict. If they outright can’t get the job done, that would be great information to know. Thanks again.
I bought this one for occasional use and have had good luck with it. Probably not as good as the Milwaukees or Hougens, but for something I use once or twice per year, it is plenty fine.
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Thanks. I will look it over too. My problem is that I may not need the tool very often, but a project may need lots of drilling in a couple of days. I need good reliability then, and some ease of use. I am recently retired from my lifelong work, and enjoying retirement way too much ! All those projects I never got to are now in play.