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Labor Saving

Bombardier R142

Plastic
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
New York, USA
Hello all.

A few questions. Some might be 'dumb':

1. How many and what kinds of companies and/or industries still need workers to do things such as measure distances between holes (using jigs, rulers, tape measures etc.) and drill them using either an electric hand drill or a drill press?

2. Marking hole locations using writing utensils and measuring devices is a time-consuming process. How many and what kinds of companies and/or industries still need workers to do exactly this?

3. If companies that are in these situations can find methods to save time and labor by, for example, minimizing the amount of time and labor required to measure distances between holes, drill holes, and fasten fasteners, would they implement these methods? Of course the cost of implementation is a limiting factor. How exactly would it work? My guess it that the company would tell the workers something along the lines of, "alright, we brought in this new technology, so now we expect more productivity because we are making it much easier for you guys to build stuff (by, for example, making it easier to take measurements, drill holes, and fasten fasteners)."

I know that they still have to manually measure distances between holes in industries such as building construction and many types of construction that must be done outside, like train station construction/renovation. Although I also know that some components can be prefabricated and brought to the work site while others must be built or assembled on-site. For example holes can be drilled into parts of a staircase in the machine shop, but these parts then have to be assembled (with fasteners going into the drilled holes) on-site.

4. Would you say that the demand or need for the electric hand drill and drill press has decreased, increased, or remained the same over the years? If so, how much? Will it continue to decrease, increase, or remain the same? How much?

5. Anybody ever hear of the half time drill driver http://www.amazon.com/Allstar-HT011712-Half-Drill-Driver/dp/B005CVCXRA I read in the the customer reviews that it was a good idea but it was very poorly executed. If this tool were perfected, would it be successful in the commercial market?

Thank you.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello all.

A few questions. Some might be 'dumb':

5. Anybody ever hear of the half time drill driver Amazon.com: Half Time Drill Driver: Home Improvement I read in the the customer reviews that it was a good idea but it was very poorly executed. If this tool were perfected, would it be successful in the commercial market?

Thank you.

Judging from the pics, it appears there's a fairly serious inherent danger in this product. The area where there's two "legs" with the open space between them would make it very easy to get a fingertip caught while the tool is spinning, with some really unpleasant results.

There's an attachment that's been on the market for about 25 years that performs basically the same function with total safety. Its limitation is that it can only drive hex head screws, and not phillips or slot heads. The outer "shell" slides backward toward the chuck to expose the drill, and then slides forward to drive the screw via a hex that's broached into the outer shell.

The primary use for this attachment is drilling masonry and driving masonry screws such as Tapcons. In construction work, masonry screws are about the only application where you need to change between a drill and a driver on an ongoing basis. Drywall screws don't require a pre-drilled hole, and most all other screws used in metal work are either self drilling via an integral drill point such as Tek screws, or they have a sufficiently sharp point to pierce the metal in the case of thin materials and auger themselves into place.

I can see where the Half Drill Driver could be useful for the home handyman, subject to extreme caution in keeping fingers out of range when its moving, but I dont think it would make much inroad into the commercial market. As it is currently designed, I don't think it would pass muster of OSHA regulations because they're extensive when it comes to guarding any sort of rotating device that presents a possibility of grabbing body parts.
 








 
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