Pillar Drill or Pillar Drill/Lathe

[Life Saab Itch]

I'm looking at Pillar Drills.

I'm going to get a reasonable sized one, but I keep looking at the Pillar drill heads that are mounted on a small lathe.

Are these a decent Jack of all trades or are they a bit st at both jobs?

For another £100 I could get one of these which would mean that I wouldn't need to get a hobby Lathe later.


Worth it? Or am I just better off getting a Pillar Drill and at some point in the future getting a seperate Lathe?


Any experiences with these?

[Big Al.]

You could just mount a small pillar drill on the end of your lathe bed if it's long enough that's what i've done, but I'm limited for space.
Is there a specific reason why you want it mounted on a lathe? are you going to be drilling lots of radial holes around turned parts?

If you're not then I'd just buy a bench or floor standing drill.

[ceebmoj]

or cutting gears / toothed pullys

[Life Saab Itch]

Big Al. said:

You could just mount a small pillar drill on the end of your lathe bed if it's long enough that's what i've done, but I'm limited for space.
Is there a specific reason why you want it mounted on a lathe? are you going to be drilling lots of radial holes around turned parts?

If you're not then I'd just buy a bench or floor standing drill.

It's purely because they are available that got me thinking about them.

Yes, I would possibly do radial drilling, but the drill would get used on it's own more often than not.


It's really down to whether they're a bit crap at both jobs or whether they do both well.

If they're crap, I shan't get one. If they're good, it's another consideration.

[virgil]

Go separate. My great uncle and granddad had the smallest workshops imaginable (and produced some truly amazing work but made the space for separate lathe and drill.

My pillar drill gets a huge amount of use and the lathe more than I thought, but to have work set up in one and not be able to use the other function would be more annoying than not having the tool there. I'm also not sure it'd be man enough for some stuff a normal pillar drill would cope with...

If you want to combine, you could pay the extra for a mill/drill. Ability to mill stuff is great!!!!

[virgil]

Go separate. My great uncle and granddad had the smallest workshops imaginable (and produced some truly amazing work but made the space for separate lathe and drill.

My pillar drill gets a huge amount of use and the lathe more than I thought, but to have work set up in one and not be able to use the other function would be more annoying than not having the tool there. I'm also not sure it'd be man enough for some stuff a normal pillar drill would cope with...

If you want to combine, you could pay the extra for a mill/drill. Ability to mill stuff is great!!!!

[virgil]

Go separate. My great uncle and granddad had the smallest workshops imaginable (and produced some truly amazing work but made the space for separate lathe and drill.

My pillar drill gets a huge amount of use and the lathe more than I thought, but to have work set up in one and not be able to use the other function would be more annoying than not having the tool there. I'm also not sure it'd be man enough for some stuff a normal pillar drill would cope with...

If you want to combine, you could pay the extra for a mill/drill. Ability to mill stuff is great!!!!

[mickrick]

Are you sure it's a pillar drill attached to the lathe and not a milling head?
If it's a milling head it could be quite a handy thing to have.

[V10Mike]

If it's a chinese lathe with a milling head, they're completely rubbish! If you're serious about doing some quality work, find yourself a decent Meddings or Fobco drill on Ebay, and get a decent British lathe -Boxford if you're tight for space, Colchester if not. Like this:

[mickrick]

I've heard good reports about these.
http://www.warco.co.uk/12-metal-lathes-metalworkin...

[s4quatt]

Hehe.. Boys toys, gotta love it!

[Willhook]

Proper bit of kit!!!