Metalsmith Newsletter

Hi there all metalsmith friends,


We hope you are enjoying the tail end of summer.

In response to the survey we sent out a while ago, one of the big bug bears was drilling.
And indeed drilling straight and accurate holes takes time to learn and even with all the years of experience I have, I still do not drill accurately all of the time.

This is because one has a tendency with hand control to put force in one direction to counteract the twist of the drill and this mostly causes the drill to not be held perpendicular to the piece being drilled.
And particularly with thin drills, one cannot force the drill into a new straighter path.

For a long time I have been on and off working on a project to solve this problem of drilling accurately easily, and do so every time.

A miniature drill press was what I was aiming for.

At first I was building prototypes that had their own motor in them.

That was OK, except then that would mean an extra power source to the bench and more electrical cables and complexity and expense and that didn't really sit easy with me.

Eventually I discarded the idea of the machine having it's own power source and scrapped that concept ( after some 12 prototypes were built).

I realized that the trick would be to use the existing flex shaft motor in situ and make a unit that acts as a rigid drilling platform.

Many more prototypes were built culminating in a design that meets all my criteria.

From loose flex shaft to drill press and back again in a few seconds.

I feel that I have reached my goal and greatly expanded the capabilities of your average flex shaft motor.
I have built a tool that fits on a bench station easily and interacts between many tasks and offers a real solution for drilling problems on the bench.

Your are the first that I share this news with. I'm so excited that I can finally introduce to you, the Drill-Str8 Mini Drill Press.