Angle Drive drill attachment

[AlanBeckett]

I've ordered one. I'll report when it arrives.
Alan

[pwdrive]

Whilst looking up your Trend device Lawrence I came across this one for < a fiver.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-RIGHT-ANGL...erTools_SM&hash=item3cb9ef3b4d

Cant be much good for that... probably the plastic falls apart after a few holes.

Gary

You may well be right, usually these things come with a gaurentee....90 days or 'till you use it, whichever comes first....I stand to be corrected though.

Lawrence

[AlanBeckett]

It's arrived.

It's in what I believe is called a 'Retail Pack', that is it's meant to be hung up.

As predicted there's no instructions and no Guarantee, although the usual Sale and Supply of Goods Acts apply.

The gears feel 'orrible, but more about that later.

By way of a test I used a 16mm flat bit to drill through a couple of inches of softwood using a battery drill, which it coped with OK, although clearly it's wise not to push too hard.

So, what's in there? As expected there's a couple of bevel gears which look to be cast. Involute they ain't, more like semicircles. Each shaft is supported by a machined bush which has a flange to locate it in the (plastic) body. There's a token amount of grease applied. The chuck looks to be quite good quality and at least it has a key. It's threaded 3/8" x 24 and there's a LH Thread screw to stop it coming off when you reverse direction – all very normal. The gears appear to be pressed and staked on to the shafts.

Now for the oddity; there's no provision for adjusting the end float on the shafts and no method of resisting thrust, so that when you push on the drill you actually force the gears together, hence the horrible feel. The reason I find this odd is that behind each shaft is an indentation in the moulding where you might expect there to be a thrust pad. I'll see what I can do.

Alan

               

[pwdrive]

Hello Alan, a thrust pad sounds a good idea if it can be done, I do not know off hand if the smaller flat bits are available with a lead screw, I know the 32 mm. ones are as I have one and it tends to reduce any forward force you might otherwise have to use but they tend to increase the amount of drive torque required. On the subject of right angle drives for cordless drills...One of the best ones I had the chance to use was the Festool one that fits the Festool cordless drills which was owned by a friend of mine. If anyone wants to go upmarket on carpentry power tools the Festool ones are very good, I bought one of their hand held circular saws some years ago now along with a couple of 1.5 meter guides which can be connected together, they are deadly accurate. I have to say that they are about the best available and clearly designed with the carpenter in mind, their jigsaws are something else as well. Not cheap though.

Lawrence

[pwdrive]

Just thought I would throw this one in on the subject of Festool cordless drills, not exactly scientific but nevertheless worth a peep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bZ4yrpTcjw.

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

I've had a play and I'm afraid it's not positive
First I machined the ends of the shafts, by the gears, nice and flat.
Next I turned down the end of a piece of brass bar to fit the indentation in the plastic, then parted it off to make a T-shaped (cross section) pad.
When I offered this up to the mouldings I was horrified to discover that the two halves don't actually meet in the area where the pad would fit. I can only think that there was too much shrinkage in that area. Anyway, I decided I might as well press on, which meant I needed to take a skim off the pad to get the thickness right. That was OK, but when I was taking it out of the chuck I dropped it into the suds tank, There's no hope of recovering it short of emptying it all out
I think I've had enough. I'm going to put it back together and stick it under the bench. If I ever have to drill a smallish hole in an awkward place it might come in, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Alan

[Radio Fixer]

Butterfingers! But we have all been there not that I have a suds tank.

Thanks for the investigation Al and I wont bother with that one

Gary

[AlanBeckett]

One other thing I forgot to mention is that it would be necessary to stop the pad rotating in the plastic. That's usually done by pinning it, or if the plastic is good in that area simply knurling it. Neither would be easy or practical so there's another nail in its coffin
Alan

[AlanBeckett]

No Gary, it wasn't butterfingers, it was rank incompetence. When I parted it off I put a big icecream tub under the chuck to catch the part. Of course I didn't bother when I slackened the chuck to take the pad out - idiot!
Alan