| Although hand drilling brass is possible and in some cases even the best option, power drilling is often faster and using a drill stand makes it more accurate |
Drill Proxxon FBS 230 (old) / FBS240 (new) |
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One serious investment in the tooling for your hobby
is going to be a decent drill with a drill stand. I found that drilling holes accurately by hand is cumbersome, tiresome and in most cases inadequately accurate. Only with these tools you will be able to drill accurate and
round holes, without the drill slipping away. I found it virtually impossible
to drill 0,5 mm holes without the drill stand. I just couldn't hold the drill
sufficiently in line with the holes, inevitably breaking the drill bit.
The drill cost me about €55 in a set with various
accessories. The drill stand cost me another €45
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| In 2020 my by now old and well used FBS 230's motor died. Several attempts to repair it did not give the desired result and I bougth a new power drill. By now Proxxon has reworked the design of this drill and changed the number. The new FBS 240 (bottom) features a better grip (light green rubber insert) and the blocking pin for the spindle is now locates under your thumb on top of the drill. |
Cross table Proxxon KT70 |
| An optional accessory to the drill stand is this cross table. Combined with a vise it allows you to move your workpiece in X direction (left to right) and Y direction (towards and away from you) and postiotion it accurately. One
complete turn of the wheels corresponds with 1 mm, the scale on the wheel allows
you to position as accurate as 0,01 mm. The working table also enables
you to perform small milling operations. I bought it in a sale, so its price
was acceptable for an experiment. It came and never left. I won't do without it. The price varies around €75 |
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Drill stand Proxxon MB200 |
A final improvement bordering on decadency is the 2016 replacement of my original drill stand. Proxxon had issued a new type that allows accurate vertical drilling. More, the head of the drill stand allows a tilt with the head moving along the line of the tilt. The old one could only move up and down, irrespective the tilt of the head. So I can now drill under an angle. |
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A good gauge to measure the angle of the tilt |
And a depth gauge |
Digital read out on the Proxxon MB200 |
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After seeing some use the millimetre scale of the MB200 had been stripped off by the plastic indicator cum depth stop. This proved to be very annoying. I was in critical sitiations always guessing for the depth. So I decided to install a digital read out.
I had cheap but sufficiently accurate calipers living in a drawer which would be just a good replacement of the millimetre scale. |
The calipers were milled and cut to suit. |
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I had to sacrifice the function of the depth stop but as I have never used it I considered that a reasonable trade off. The vertical guide rails of the depth stop was simply pressed into its holes so with a bit of convincing force it was removed. |
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| Main dimensions |
| Diameter |
9 mm |
| Height |
10 mm |
| Slot depth |
6 mm |
| Slot width |
3.6 mm |
| Hole drill size M4 |
3.5 mm |
I made a small holder from 10 mm brass rod. I did not make any photos during the turning and milling, after all it is a relatively simple part. Main thing is that I threaded a centered hole to receive an M4 Allen caphead bolt. |
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With this bolt the holder was attached via the hole that formerly housed the depth stop rail. The head of the modified calipers was glued with epoxy and the body of the calipers was epoxied to the head of the stationary head of the stand |
Ready for duty. I later removed the remainder of the milimeter scale |
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