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what is a good drill tool?

I have the one that GW made alongside their other new tools, but am very unhappy with the quality, and refrain from using it very often.

If anyone could provide links to either automatic or manual drills that they have used and been happy with I would appreciate it.

http://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-74041-Electric-Handy-Drill/dp/B000J46WZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439439343&sr=8-1&keywords=tamiya+drill

It actually comes as a kit on sprue so you build it yourself. At first I thought it was mostly for fun but it is sooo dang good. I pin everything and this makes that a pure joy.

The speed is low enough for control but its strong enough to do what you need. What I did though is get some proper HSS drillbits for it rather than using any supplied with a hobbytool. Makes a world of difference.

huh, looks easy to use.

Does it go together nicely?

I would assume so

thanks for the reference

I bought some really good drill bits from a drill place (who had a shop on ebay), and then I use whatever pin vises I can find, like these;





The bottom one is similar to the GF9 one, which is pretty good, the top ones are the best (make sure not to get cheapy ones though, as they are rarely straight, making them useless)

The GW drill is actually great, but the drill bits that come with it (and every other hobby drill) are turd. The definition of great for me, by the way, is that it is machined true (no offset), is comfortable, and can easily drill. On a budget, the P3 drill bt is just fine, too -- I have 3 of each ⁽with different size bits)

If you buy tungsten carbide bits, they will cut through plastic like a laser through butter. Attach one to a GW pin vice, and you're in business. My recommendation is to get a 0.3mm to 1.2mm kit (they're like $10 or less on amazon), and then when you decide on the one you like most, buy a set of 10 of the same bit, because they do break. Also, I would suggest 0.1mm smaller than the pin size. So for a 1mm brass rod, I would use a 0.9mm bit (this is my favorite size).

One other thing, too - if you put your model into a vice and drill straight down, you'll get much better results than if you hold the model in one hand. This is particularly true of drilling out bolters where alignment is everything (especially of you like big caliber / thin wall barrels). I also mark the center with a felt, punch a start point with an awl, drill out a small hole, and them drill out a large hole.

The Tamiya powered drill that granader linked is great too, and it goes together great. But, it is not ideal for pinning or resin (it doesn't take long to drill through). I use mine mostly for big models, and I usually start a pilot hole manually first.

I use a smaller Ryobi cordless drill I picked up at Home Depot. It works perfectly for me. I can control the speed based on how much I pull on the trigger.

Be sure to get one that can hold the size bits you need. I picked up one (army painter brand?) that works fine for small stuff, but won’t hold a 1/8th bit, which I need for some of my magnets.

 Talys wrote:
The Tamiya powered drill that granader linked is great too, and it goes together great. But, it is not ideal for pinning or resin (it doesn't take long to drill through). I use mine mostly for big models, and I usually start a pilot hole manually first.

Chicken! I pin hands and arms on marines with it... however... I mights have drilled my finger one or twice

I'm pretty happy with the GW one I got some years back when they had redone all the tools. I also have one from Army Painter that I love as well, it seems a little sturdier then the GW one. The GW bits I have seem fine for the job, I just use the small one for drilling out weapon barrels, but bought regular drill bits for the bigger holes I need.

@granander - Brave man I accidentally drilled through the foot of one model (which wasn't too hard to fix), and haven't used a power tool for that since. But those tungsten carbide bits drill through a LOT faster, too. A few twists, and you're there.

Incidentally, my favorite size drill bit is 0.9mm, and I pair that with 1mm brass rod from PP (for resin & plastic models). One pack of brass rods lasts me... forever.

Carbide Micron drills.

cuts plastic like butter. but shatters occasionally.

Can get them in exact size to pinning wires or whatever.

can also be VERY thin though not sure why you would need that.

I too find the current GW drill really good. It feels really nice and solid to use which for me increases confidence when drilling small parts, and it's simple to change the drill bits in it.


What may be useful to know is if there's something specific about the drill that you don't like. Might help with the recommendations.


Regards

My issue with the GW drill is that it doesn't feel solid, and an electric drill will fix my laziness impatience.

What are the different MM of the GW bits, it literally just says lasgun, bolter, heavy bolter lol. *sigh*

if anyone could link the tugsten carbide bits that would be great.

I don't really drill resin that much, mainly because I don't really need to for any of my armies, as the default resin sculpts are fine and don't need any pinning or stuff of the sort.

thanks for all the help!