TooltimeNew Bench Mountable Power Drill Plunge Stand with Depth Gauge

Dead easy to set up. Accurate enough to drill holes for string-through ferrules on an electric guitar. Take care when mounting the drill and you'll be golden.I think if I needed to spend a significant portion of my time needing to make perfectly square holes, I'd invest in a pillar drill. But as I have time to ensure the drill is set up straight and to take the operation slow, this is fine. Plus when not in use it sits comfortably in my tool racking rather than taking up valuable shop space as a pillar drill would.If I was to nitpick, the action could be a little smoother out of the box but some lubricant on the springs sorts that out.Bottom line: well worth the money if you need something like a pillar drill on the odd occasion or on a budget or if you need to manage and curate your workshop space carefully. If two of those three factors don't apply to you, consider a pillar drill instead.

Looks again via a photograph that its sturdy...it isn't

To drill through a metal bar .

I've got loads of off cuts from tree jobs that I'm intending to turn into decorative tea light holders that I'll hopefully sell in the summer, so I bought this in the hope of getting some precise and accurate holes bored for a big enough diameter to hold candles etc.So far, I've used it to put a perfectly level, 32mm hole 2 inches into a nice piece of hard wood using a 500w Ryobi percussion drill with no major problems. It's getting the vertical bore required every time.Things to consider with it: The base plate surround is well made but the metal could have done with being a mm thicker, I noticed that as you pull down on the lever the plate bends very slightly near the up stand. This is easily sorted by drilling a hole on the base as near to the stand as poss and bolting it down.Keep an eye on the allen key bolts, they often work themselves loose. Also try to resist over tightening them, usual problem with allen key bolts, I've always felt the bolts should be deeper than they are. The shallow depth of the allen key fitting makes it easy to strip the head with too much pressure.All in though this is a very handy bit of kit for the money, far more accurate than trying to drill large, deep holes by hand and a great deal faster..

I've given it four stars mainly on its price. I used it to drill holes in a printed circuit board. It is quite adequate for that purpose. It would be useless for a watch maker. Fortunately I have an old drill, which is cylindrical and has an on/off switch rather than a trigger switch. If you only have a pistol drill, which only works if you continually hold down the controller, this type of device is going to be very awkward to use as you need one hand to hold the work piece, one hand to turn the drill on and a third hand to pull the lever. You could use it with that type of drill if you ignore the lever and push down hard but that would be awkward and a strain on your arm unless you stood over it. However that would make seeing where you are drilling problematic.The device is quite robust and will probably last for some time. The reason I don't give it five stars is that there is some lateral movement because the main mechanism is not precision machined.

I am renovating a three bedroom house from top to bottom and this has involved considerable construction of shelves and cupboards and other woodwork.I had been thinking about getting a drill press but couldn't really justify spending a couple of hundred pounds or more on one as this job is a one off and I wouldn't require the drill press afterwards. I came across this and, based on the reviews, and on the price, decided to get one. It fit my Black and Decker (which has a 42cm chuck) with a bit of a push the first time. I put some white lithium grease on the shaft to make the movement easier.It is quite robust (mostly metal parts) for the price. I have found it useful for rapidly and repeatedly drilling vertical holes along pieces of wood. The base has slots and it is a simple enough matter to set up jigs so a hole can be drilled in the same place on a number of identical pieces of wood. It really speeds up the process and increases accuracy as you are no longer dealing at all with the weight of the drill. My best results have been with the drill set at a low speed. I have found that where I want high accuracy it helps to keep my left hand lightly on the drill itself when pulling the lever with my right. It really needs to be clamped or bolted to a workbench/workmate or it tends to wobble.I wouldn't rely on it for millimeteric precision but at this price wouldn't expect to. If you need that amount of accuracy you will probably need to stump up the money and find the room for for a drill pressI would recommend it if you do a lot of woodwork and want to improve the accuracy (particularly vertical accuracy) of your drilling.

A few things on the negative side, 1, the base is cast aluminium alloy and NOT cast iron as the instructions suggest. 2, the bar is NOT solid as description say, but is hollow.Positives are, really easy to put together and not very heavy.Not used this yet as only arrived this morning but a possible tip might be to secure the base to a workbench either with screws or quick clamps to keep it secure whilst in use.

This is a cheap alternative to a bench pillar drill press, but leaves a lot to be desired.It has a lightweight aluminium, not cast iron, base and the return spring is excessively strong, so the whole thing tends to topple over when it is operated. It either needs fixing to the bench, or fixing to a substantial block, to hold it steady.The guide on the upright is quite sloppy, so the drill point moves as you start to apply pressure on it.My "Silverline 265897 Drill" would not tighten up in the fixing, so the collar had to be packed with some 0.5mm thick cardboard, though this was because the collar on the drill was undersize. My "ARGES 400w mains corded Drill" fitted ok.It does work and is better than nothing, you get what you pay for, but not much else.