discussion Hand drill or electric?

[pjgtech]

For drilling out very small holes in your models, do you prefer a small hand drill or a small electric model makers drill?
I already have a small model makers hand drill, but have seen some of the electric ones, and just looking for an excuse to spend yet more money!
Nb, I do have normal mains and cordless drills, but obviously they are large and heavy, I also have a Dremel (type) drill but was thinking more about a small battery operated model makers drill.

 

[pjgtech]

Quite like the look of this one.....

 

[Gern]

Unless you have a lot of holes to drill, I'd say stick to your pin vice. A lot of electric drills spin much too fast for plastic and you end up melting it rather than cutting through it. Not a problem if you have steady hands and can keep your drill straight. If your hands shake like mine though, you end up with a lot of oval holes!

 

[Jim R]

Most of the time I use a pin vice. Easy to use and control. I do have an electric MFA/Como drill with variable speed. I rarely use the Como for drilling holes but it is sometimes useful with a burr attachment.

 

[PaulTRose]

Pin vice every time for controlability

Ive regulary drilled out a couple of hundred holes when creating ventilated brake discs for bikes... dosnt take long by hand with a pin vice and a 0.5mm drill.....i wouldnt even want to try it with a powered drill.........in fact its actually a relaxing job

 

[Tim Marlow]

I have an electric modelling drill. Had it for around thirty years. I’ve used it a fair bit for grinding and with cut off wheels. Don’t think I’ve used it ten times for drilling holes though. Even when slowed right down it’s far too fast for the sort of small drill we use, basically melting through plastic and making candy floss from the swarf. It is a great drill breaker for sub millimetre drills as well. I far prefer a decent pin chuck and normal HSS drills. Much more controllable. The best investment you can make to go with this is a good sharp scriber you can use to make a pop mark at the centre of the drill hole. If you do this the drill won’t drift across the surface of the work and will give you a much more accurate result.

 

[pjgtech]

Cheers all. Yeah I did wonder about drill speed and melting plastic?
Apparently, Tamiya do a small model drill, with a pistol type grip, and its a bit slower than most, runs on two AA batteries.
I also like the ide of being able to use it for sanding, burring out, shaping, smoothing, etc as I have loads of dremel type attachments for my dremel clone, which presumably would be ok on a plastic model. I do also just like the idea of a battery operated one rather than a mains one, no trailing lead, no plugging in, etc.

 

[stillp]

I have a battery dremelclone from Lidl, made by Parkside. I can slow it down enough to drill plastic rather than melting it, but it's usually just as quick to use a pin chuck by hand, or a small Archimedes drill.
Pete

 

[minitnkr]

All of the above, but if you work resin, bit binding can be an issue and you'll break the bit or the piece you're working with a powered drill. Have done both when not paying enough attention with hand drills.

 

[flyjoe180]

Pin vice, the only time I've used a power drill was when working on my wooden cable car.

 

[BarryW]

I would certainly recommend getting one of the rechargeable pen drills.

these are very handy to use and I find drilling out such things as gun barrels a lot easier.

I use mine frequently and rarely use my hand pin drill any more.

 

[pjgtech]

Well I've bitten the bullet and bought the Tamiya battery powered drill, apparently its a kit that you build? And it is meant for model building and apparently has a slower RPM, so should be fine and not melt any plastic. I do also have a good little pin vice/hand drill, and lots of small/tiny bits, so best of both Worlds!

 

[Mr Bowcat]

You won't go wrong with the Tamiya battery drill, I have one and it's great when you have a lot of holes. Plus it's fun to build.