Magnetic Drill vs Regular drill for Bobbing

[Robo McDuff]

For drilling holes in frames, you can't beat them. We needed to drill 10 holes size 18 mm (0.7"). I paid $ 90 for renting one for one day, and another $ 25 for the drill or cutter. Not sure what name to use; this is a not a normal drill with a tip and getting wider, but more like a thick pipe (it is hollow) with cutting edges on its surface. For oil, we did not use the standard oil-water mix in large quantities but just pure cutting oil in tiny drops.

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1. make sure that you have a good clean flat surface. If not flat, fill up or flatten with a sheet of steel, the magnet will just connect that sheet to the truck as well.
2. position drill and switch on power and then the magnet.
3. CHECK IF THE MAGNET HOLDS AND SECURE THE MACHINE, even on a flat horizontal surface. One fluctuation in the electricity and your magnet is off but your drill continues and smashes everything around it.
4. put a bit of cutting oil on the surface
5. start drilling but DO NOT put a lot of pressure on the drill. Gravity and a bit of lean is enough, it will just eat through it. Actually, you can push the thing down with one finger, and just drink a cupa at the same time.
6. Every now and then, remove the steel thread coming off and add a bit of oil.
7. Once we had the routine, we did one hole in 10 minutes. To specify, that was a sandwich of 8 mm base plate for fifth wheel then 8 mm frame than 7 mm frame strengthening beam. A 18 mm hole through 23 mm of steel in one go; no changing of drills no problem.
8. If going through several layers, after each layer we had to stop, and remove the drilled out material from the middle of the hollow drill. Without doing that, the drill just did not get grip on the next layer.

That was worth the $$$ without doubt. Trying to drill with normal stuff or cheap column drills through this steel with holes this big is asking for troubles and is a lot of work (increasing each drill size in steps etc etc)

 

[Awesome Possum]

How do these annular bits hold up? How many will I need to do the job, assuming a light hand and cutting oil? I'll be using stock front springs.

 

[cuukvee85]

I own two of them they are one of the best tools i have bought. One of mine is for annular cutters and the other has a 3/4 chuck that i mostly use for hole saws.

 

[skinnedknuckles]

Annular cutting bits should last quite awhile. Keep the cutter cool and lubed with cutting fluid and 1 will last you Way more than 1 deuce bobbing. Of course you may need a couple of different sizes . And when you use them to drill more than 1 thickness you will have to stop at the end of each thickness and take out the "plug" of metal and then drill through the next. All of the "hole pokin' " that I have done over the years on semis and dump truck frames and frame repair sleeves a mag drill and annular cutter ( broach ) is the only way to go.
Paul in Janesville, Wis

 

[Floridianson]

I i would start with a 1/4 drill bit, the use a stepper drill up to 9/16 Kyle

The only pronlem I see with stepping up is you are only running on part of the bit and they wear out funny. It's ok if you don't mind sharping them but when you go to use them again without sharping they don't cut right.
The deuce frame can be drilled in one pass as I made one hole one size just testing my first attempt with a Dewalt portable 18v. regular bit.
Once again wrong form but don't try a 5 ton frame without annular lots of lube and mag drill inless you like to sweat.

 

[blackrock]

The only pronlem I see with stepping up is you are only running on part of the bit and they wear out funny. It's ok if you don't mind sharping them but when you go to use them again without sharping they don't cut right.
The deuce frame can be drilled in one pass as I made one hole one size just testing my first attempt with a Dewalt portable 18v. regular bit.
Once again wrong form but don't try a 5 ton frame without annular lots of lube and mag drill inless you like to sweat.

your right it wears the size out. i just factory it in as tooling price.

 

[2dogsafightin]

If you are interested in buying one, check around local pawn shops. Over the years I have noticed they have them alot...Most shops will let you try them out and give you a few day warranty....Big cities and around Military Bases usually have good results..... Just my .02

 

[Floridianson]

If you are interested in buying one, check around local pawn shops. Over the years I have noticed they have them alot...Most shops will let you try them out and give you a few day warranty....Big cities and around Military Bases usually have good results..... Just my .02

Sorry you lost me one that one are we talking wifes or drills.
Sorry prime example of PW (Post Whore)

 

[123mack]

For removing rivets and rusted bolts, I use a torch tip like this. GOSS 2363-4 GO 2363-4 TIP VICTOR 1-112
Then knock it out with a punch. Works fast.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I found a place locally where I can rent a magnetic drill, but the guy wasn't as knowledgable as I hoped. He didn't know what an annular bit was, and said that the drill they had had a 3/4" chuck. The question I have now is: Are there two kinds of chucks, one for annular and another for regular bits, or are they interchangable?

 

[gimpyrobb]

Yes, two different styles. There should be an adapter to use annular bits in a standard chuck, but I haven't found one yet. (Not high on my list though).

 

[Awesome Possum]

Second place not much help either, except that the tool I'd be renting was a milwaukee 4210-1. I've even looked up a few manuals and they all assume a certain amount of knowledge going in. Checked Amazon and they don't sell a Magnetic Drills for Dummies either.

I want to thank all again for your help on this. I just want to make sure I have ALL my ducks in a row before I rent this thing!

 

[Floridianson]

On mine I change out whole chuck.

 

[Robo McDuff]

OK,

I had to do some serious wiki searching before I understand what the f@#$%$#@ you are talking about, in the last few posts, but I managed. So I used an 18 mm annular bit for drilling the holes.

Now go out and rent one and .

Any other drill then a magnet with annular drill is a waste of time and energy. Its worth the rent money and unless yo are seriously planning to do this often, buying a good magnet drill is just too bloody expensive for the 10 or 20 holes you need.You can get cheap ones, but the machine we were using costs about $ 700 or more.

 

[jatonka]

The Hougen company is pretty much the trade name of the industry when it comes to magnetic drill presses, they have many models which use chucks that accept drill bits and chucks for annular cutters, and some options to chuck up annular cutters. I bought a Hougen for $800 last fall and it is probably the best spent money since I bought a brand new backhoe in 1987. My helper was HAPPY to drill the holes in the truck we are sending to Austarlia and we haven't bent any more $200 Milwaukee hole shooters or broke any more $20 cobalt bits. Granted, I build trucks more than some people, but knowing what I know now, I would buy one to build one and then sell, rent or lend it out from there on. JT

 

[Sig229]

Just when I think SS cant get any better

I Just bought a work trailer and it has sides with doors. Well one of the doors had a lock on it. The guy that sold the trailer to me it had a drill inside and it would be part of the sale, I just had to cut the lock. I thanked him and went on my way. I got home started cleaning out the trailer and cut he lock to empty that box. What I found was a bulky drill with what looked like an iron at the base. I was like great junk until I read Milwaukee on the side. I dragged it to the corner of my garage and that is where it has stayed till I read this forum. Well long story short, if I didn't read this forum I would not know what I had and that it was worth more than the trailer it was in and best of all I know how to use it now.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this forum. It to me is one of SS best.

 

[Marcel]

Okay, so if you use an annular cutter how can you be sure that you are not cutting into the frame and thereby making a oblong hole? If you use a flat bottom endmill to mill the rivet head off and stop at the frame then you can punch the rest of the rivet out.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I Just bought a work trailer and it has sides with doors. Well one of the doors had a lock on it. The guy that sold the trailer to me it had a drill inside and it would be part of the sale, I just had to cut the lock. I thanked him and went on my way. I got home started cleaning out the trailer and cut he lock to empty that box. What I found was a bulky drill with what looked like an iron at the base. I was like great junk until I read Milwaukee on the side. I dragged it to the corner of my garage and that is where it has stayed till I read this forum. Well long story short, if I didn't read this forum I would not know what I had and that it was worth more than the trailer it was in and best of all I know how to use it now.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this forum. It to me is one of SS best.

Some people have all the luck! Congrats on your new drill.....Wanna make a quick hundred bucks?

I think I've finally come up with the rental drill and the bits and pilots I'll need to do this, but it wasn't easy. The folks who rent these down here don't seem to know anything about them. I did get the drill model # from the site ( Jancy JM101, a superceded model), found the manual for this elsewhere, found the bit #'s that it'd take in the back of the manual, then found a good deal on these bits elsewhere.
I'll be cutting 18 holes on each side, in both 1/2" and 3/4" so I'm hoping to save myself quite a bit of wear and tear on the ol' body with this.

What do you recommend for the cutting oil/fluid?

 

[gimpyrobb]

ATf is cheap, but because I have 5gal buckets of air-tool oil, thats what i use.

 

[Robo McDuff]

......What do you recommend for the cutting oil/fluid?

I was in this little ironmonger shop around the corner, where people really know what they are talking about. Already bought several good tools there with good advice. There advice on this: "buy real cutting oil and use drops of it. Don't buy this oil-water mixture used in professional lathes. That works good if you have a constant flow of the stuff onto the drilling area, using gallons of the stuff during the day. For a one-time job by non-professionals without the fixed permanent flow, real cutting oil works better". I followed that advice and it work a charm without all this liquid going everywhere.