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Hey all,

I've been trying to get some ideas of tools that I may need to make drilling holes in my models for magnets easier. I've read Dremel tools are good and bad. Would greatly appreciate the help!

Thanks!

I use the hand drill which was included in the "Wargames hobby tool kit" produced by Army Painter. But in general any hand drill is perfect for that job, go for the cheapest one you can get.

Just make sure you can drill holes with 2mm diameter as you won't find smaller magnets.

I don't like dremels for that task. If you want to go the power-tool way, a normal electric drill works better in my opinion, because it doesn't spin as fast (on most drills you can control the rotation speed depending on how much you pull the trigger).
Dremel does have an small extension that you can hold between your fingers for added precision, but I'm still not a big fan.

I just use a pin vice. Army Painter’s, but there are a number of brands/options.



The one left of the files.

Holds up to a 3mm bit. I’ve got a two sets of bits, one “normal” one metric.

I’ve tried a dremal in the past, but they are overpowered for the job. You need precision more then power here. I’ve done some work as well with a large powerdrill. Unwieldy, but can turn slow with a light hand on the trigger. Prefer doing things by hand.

I hear Tamia makes a build-your-own powerdrill designed for hobby use. Light, small, and easy to use. On my list of things to pick up someday.

I use the GW hand drill, I think it's great.

I use a Tamiya Hobby Drill. It's a battery powered drill that's lose revolutions but decent torque. Can handle bits up to 3mm which is enough. Bigger than that I use a normal household drill.

I have used a pin vice become to put a pilot hole in then used a larger bit in hand for the rest if it's just one or two holes.

I use the GW hand drill, but a quick search on Amazon (which I wish I'd done before buying the GW one) has turned up a whole bunch of other cheap little hand drills that do pretty much the same thing.

Depending on what you're using the drill for a power tool may not be a great idea; GW and WGF/Dreamforge plastic is soft enough that you get through it very quickly by hand and if you were using a power tool you'd probably just end up destroying it, but if you're trying to drill into metal or a harder plastic/resin doing it by hand can go very slowly and you may need the power tool.

Depends how big a hole. For my dread I used 4mm diameter magnets & used one of these to drill the holes:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-257690-Spur-Drill-Bits/dp/B000LFY4L0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488727901&sr=8-1&keywords=4mm+wood+bit
Because it was in resin, i just held the bit by hand. Took a bit of time but worth the effort to get a nice flat hole.

Thanks for the responses! This information has been really helpful. I'm glad I didn't go buy a Dremel tool. I take it they're really only good for pinning holes and working on big models like Titans. The whole time I've been trying to drill holes for magnets with just the Gun barrel drill that GW sells and then using the hobby knife to carve out a hole but it's never flush with the magnet. So I should probably get a hand drill and do it by hand.

At home depot I got a really basic magnetic hand drill for like... 3 dollars. Buying a set of bits for it was more expensive than the tool and I use it for all my drilling.

Or order this.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/25pc-High-Speed-Steel-Drill-Bits-0-5-0-6-1-0-1-2-1-5/32773668264.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.128.HoidG3&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10000560_10000606_10000561_10000073_10130_10000074_10000608_10000709_10000660_10000704_10000703_10000175_10000509_10000507_10000505_10000558_10136_10000068_10000552_10000369_10000063_10000365_10000367_10099_10000663_10000665_10096_10000669_10000569_10000097_10000094_10000337_10000723_10000090_10000147_10000091_10000726_10000144_10000339_10000150_10000679_10084_10000678_10083_10000676_10080_10000153_10082_10000673_10081_10110_10111_10112_10113_10000535_10114_10000534_10000089_10000086_10000710_10000083_10000349_10000690_10000135_10000716_10000080_10000693_10078_10079_10000717_10000688_10073_10000684_10000140_10070_10122_10123_10126_10124_10000546_10065_10068_10501_10000132_10000033_10503_10000030_10000026_10000126_10000023_10000129_10000123_10000696_10060_10062_10000699_10056_10055_10054_10000632_302_10059_10000120_10000020_10000013_10000117_10103_10102_10000016_10000114_10000111_10052_10053_10107_10050_10106_10051_20517_10000621_10000384_20515_10000629_10000101_10000100_10000576_10000579_10000104_10000045_10000578_10000375_10000108_10000377_10000612_10000390_10000613_10000042_10000592_10000594_10000039_10000587_10000036_10000389_10000187-10503_10102_10501_20517_20515,searchweb201603_3,afswitch_1,ppcSwitch_1,single_sort_0_default&btsid=1068f48c-17dd-469e-82f7-f4dc991f50ba&algo_expid=a90cad2c-cd0e-4c6a-be89-b6551352fa9b-14&algo_pvid=a90cad2c-cd0e-4c6a-be89-b6551352fa9b

I've got a Tamiya pin vise that works just fine for my smaller stuff - I use 3x2mm magnets for most tasks, though the drill won't hold my 5mm bit for my bigger magnets, so I just use a glove and turn it with straight hand pressure.

 Blackie wrote:
diameter as you won't find smaller magnets.

https://www.supermagnete.fi/disc-magnets-neodymium/disc-magnet-diameter-1mm-height-1mm-neodymium-n45-nickel-plated_S-01-01-N

Yes you do. Another thing is do you WANT to find them

I don't know if it helps any but I'm using magnets at 1/8" x 1/16" and 1/4" x 1/16". I'm not sure what mm drill bit I need. I have the silver with rubber grips pin vice that GW sells, can it hold other drill bits than the ones sent?

Depends on the size, but generally you standard electric drill, with a variety of drill bits. It's important to make a pilot hole with a xacto knife, but past that just drill baby drill.

However, most of my magnetizing is on vehicles, for infantry I definitely use a hand drill, or an electric one very, very carefully.

I’m not sure about the GW drill, but a lot of them (at least my Army Painter one) come with multiple colletes. Usually two sided, with a spare hiding in the body of the pin vice. You can swap them around to get the one that holds the drill bit tight enough.

If you have magnets in fraction of inches, just get a drill bit the same size. I use drills sold in the normal hardware section of Sears. Nothing fancy.

If you want more opinion than you're likely to ever want to read, search for posts by me that include either the word "drill," "pin," or "vise." I've posted about the topic, ad nauseum, before... and there's plenty more than what I've written.

Basically, it comes down to this: All of the common miniature model materials are in' butter, compared to what most tools are designed to cut. Like butter, you can easily manipulate by hand, but powered is faster. Use too much speed or force, though, and you'll have a melted and/or mangled mess on your hands. Horses for courses, and all that.

Personally, I consider a pin vise the best bet. With even moderately sharp bits, white metal is no problem. Plastic? A dollar-store lighter and sewing needle could sub in, if needs be. A crappy drill bit in hand, or shoved in a dimple poked in a dowel/wine cork/stick with a bit of superglue would do even better. Drilling only gets difficult if you put too much downward pressure on bits sharpened for wood/metal, causing them to bite and screw in, instead of cutting (too much positive rake to the cutting edge), or if your bits are SO dull that they couldn't even drill into a bar of soap.

Take what tools you have and scraps of what materials you have (spin a knife point into plastic sprue, twist a drill bit into resin gates... whatever) and test methods. Only if all of those fail do you need to buy (after research) new tools.

If you decide to buy new tools, avoid hobby brands/dealers like the plague, if you have the time to spare - like the distributors to any niche market, they run a racket. You can find literally the same tools for <70% of the price (sometimes 40-50%) on Amazon/EBay/other sites, having avoided the markup for being a "specialty" item.