Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I want to pin some really small pieces and I'm in need of a drill bit that can make 0.5mm holes to do so, but the smallest my electric drill will grip onto is drill bits with 1.0mm diameter.... is a 0.5 drill with 1.0+ shaft something that exists?

You want a pin vise. You might be able to get an adapter for the electric drill that will go that small though. Or put the pin vise gripper (chuck) in the electric drill.

You want a pin vise. It's a tiny hand held, hand powered drill designed to work with very small bits.

Micro carbide drills

gods gift for drilling small holes, even in metal.

they are brittle so watch out.

is a 0.5 drill with 1.0+ shaft something that exists?

Yes.

Although, someone with more expertise may come along and shed more light (there you go, Desubot already did) but I have a feeling there might be a reason your drill only goes down to 1mm. Finer drill bits can be a beggar to keep in one piece, even with a pin vice.

 Desubot wrote:


Micro carbide drills

gods gift for drilling small holes, even in metal.

they are brittle so watch out.

Exactly what I need thanks!

RE: pin vices, the couple I used in the past were terrible, took forever to drill as deep as i wanted - like 100 rotations to get anywhere with metal miniatures, it took all day for me to pin a few models in the past and ended up with blisters on my fingers from gripping the thing was a miserable frustrating experience.

The tamiya electric modeling handy drill is what I use now and I love the thing, these should work great in it.

Personally love using a dremel

it gets the rippums

also the 1/8th Colet works with those micro drills.

My bits are HSS "Jobber" drillbits in <1mm size and they go down to 0.3mm.

Luckily I have a supplier a couple of suburbs over (because I'm running low - my pack of 10 of each is being depleted by the odd snapped bit).