Thread: Can Mag Drill replace Drill Presses in a shop

I have used Mag drills and roto-broaches many many times over the years when I worked as a shop iron worker and ornamental fabricator. Every time I needed to use one, I dreaded it! They are heavy, awkward, messy, sometimes unsafe too if the base metal is not thick enough. A Mag drill is something that a well equipped shop or field crew buys to fill a void or help when you can not take the part to the punch press or drill press. But take note that these 99% of the time come after a shop or field crew is well equipped, rarely before.

Originally Posted by snowman

They are even more useful in the drill press, but I had to make a custom MT3 holder for them.

You can buy them, the big mag drills are mt3 or 4 so need broach adapter
As some one said here the cutters are damn useful on a mill as they are only three inch long you actually have enough height for the job and cutter and they are so power efficient even a bridgeport can put three inch holes in a nasty bit of steel.
My bridgeport is permanently set up as such.

This job is a 50mm hole in a fairly tough grade of steel.
Without the broach cutter it would be a right pita , as it is so quick and easy taking only a few minutes each its a £200 per hour job( only a hour every few months unfortunately!)
This is on a tos mill and the amp meter might move normaly doesnt even register a load

Originally Posted by pressbrake1

This job is a 50mm hole in a fairly tough grade of steel.
Without the broach cutter it would be a right pita , as it is so quick and easy taking only a few minutes each its a £200 per hour job( only a hour every few months unfortunately!)
This is on a tos mill and the amp meter might move normaly doesnt even register a load

Is that a piston off Fred Flintsones car ?

Originally Posted by sable

Is that a piston off Fred Flintsones car ?

Yep, running too lean

Drill presses are relatively cheap... why wouldn't you want one, I have 3 mag drills, one for twist drills, one for annular cutters, a shorty for frame drilling, a drill press and a Iron worker... they all have their place.

Better than a hand drill but not a drill press either. We had a 3/4” steel work table and stuck the mag drill to it then used it as a defacto drill press. Like I said got by but certainly not ideal.

I have a traditional drill press, but wanted the capabilities of a magnetic drill, without some of its limitations. My solution was a drill press base, column, and table with a mag drill instead of a drilling head. I have two mag drills - one with power feed and two speeds, and one with variable speed (50 - 450 rpm) and reverse.

I am in the process of fabricating an identical second stand so I don't have to swap mag drills. This set up has a 14" swing, but could just as easily have been made with a larger capacity. The use of Weldon shank extensions makes the small throat issue go away.

looks like neat workmanship, but to me it begs the question why? I like a DP and a mag drill. I suppose the mag drill will give low speeds high torque for large diameter but you lose its advantage of being fixed to the work. The DP head will let you use taper shank tooling and will have higher top end speed than the mag drill.

Good question! I guess the first reason was to see if it would work. I have a regular drill press and a knee mill, so I don't really need it. The second reason is because it gives me automatic down feed, variable speed control, and as low as 50 rpm + reverse for tapping. When I put the second stand/mag drill right next to it, my table(s) will be able to support longer work than would be possible with a singe table.

Of course either mag drill can be picked up from its stand and placed on the work if needed.

i just got a radial drill don't know how I lived without it. but up until that time all I had was a mag drill, wore one completely out, slides gone, only half the magnet works totally shot. but I do a lot of fixing in place so a mag drill made sense. I got a new one and it has a lot of bells and whistles. hope it lasts. for some projects it save hours of time. I had to drill some ovaled holes out to 2" on a derrick didn't have time to order reamers and everything else had a junky morse 2" auction bit, cut the shank off, and drilled them out. would like to get a line boring bar but dont need it right now. had to stack the plates to clear then cut one off to get the inner hole.

my pictures always come out tiny on this site

Originally Posted by idacal

my pictures always come out tiny on this site

Try to load onto a computer first then onto here? Seems that most all small pics are direct from a cell phone.

New guy here on your forum.
Can't find post icon so I will ask my question here:
I have a Delta D.P. with a 5/8" chuck.
I am looking for an adaptor to be able to use annular cutters in chuck.
Do they make such an animal?
Thanks,
Don

Originally Posted by digger doug

What kind of place won't even set that on some waist high sawhorses ?

And how long did it take, kneeling on the floor, to layout, punch, drill and tap those 88 holes ?

If you want a really nice way to layout and drill holes over a large area. Move the SMR to position (the computer tells you how far and in what direction you need to move), hit the punch with a hammer, move on to the next one.

Leica Absolute Tracker AT403 | Hexagon MI
https://hubbsmachine.com/laser-track...9-15-tpsn.html

move the SMR to position (the computer tells you how far and in what direction you need to move), hit the punch with a hammer, move on to the next one.


Someday I need to build a mount to hold an SMR coaxial with the spindle on my 825KTS (Portable Milling Machine | Magnetic Drilling Milling Machine) then I can have a mag drill with a wide-area DRO.

The other project is to build something like Hubb's TPSN mount, but with a little XY stage on it; would make it faster to dial in the location. We built a cheap version out of amazon parts, but it wasn't rigid enough and the axis back-drove under its own weight when on a vertical surface. I need to use screws rather than rack-and-pinion on the next one.

Originally Posted by Don94596

New guy here on your forum.
Can't find post icon so I will ask my question here:
I have a Delta D.P. with a 5/8" chuck.
I am looking for an adaptor to be able to use annular cutters in chuck.
Do they make such an animal?
Thanks,
Don

Jancy and other manufacturers DO make a variety of arbors to fit their annular cutters, but you'll probably find that metal-cutting annulars will need more torque than a 170rpm reduction from an 1800rpm motor is capable of transmitting... and you might find that the spindle, column, and table of your drill press have a tough time maintaining alignment under that load, which will cause the cutter to bind and 'hog into' your workpiece enough to either stop the spindle, or spin the cutter's arbor inside the 5/8" chuck.

Using an annular cutter for steel, is the equivalent of using a hole-saw for wood... but it has it's unique challenges, and the machine spinning it, should NOT be casually chosen.

If your workpiece is 7 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds and needs a hole drilled sideways into it partways up, a mag drill is dang handy:



metalmagpie