School me on magnetic drills

[sandman2234]

As a youngster, I came across a Milwaukee for cheap, but when I went to move to jax, I sold it to help fund the move, for $100 to my boss. (and made money on it) A couple years ago, I came across another one, paid $75 for it at a pawn shop. I don't use it much, but a buddy that works for one of the A/B companies uses it pretty often. They can't justify the expense of one, so they just borrow mine.
David from jax

 

[HayDoc]

That sounds like a good buy. I just finished 16 holes in 1/8" diamond plate steel and it worked fine, even though it was possible to slide it sideways with heavy pressure. The Champion cutting oil is like honey at 17-25 degrees F, though, so had to squirt with a can until things warmed up.

I like the clean professional look of these drills and annular bits. Once you get the center pin locked on a deep center punch, you're set on a predictable path without worry of the bit straying.

 

[sparc]

For years my only drill press was a Milwaukee magnetic. I kept a piece of 1" plate on my wood topped bench for it, when I built my current bench, made the top from 3/4" plate so the mag drill could get a good bite.

They are a very useful tool to have, longer stroke than a drill press ever thought of having. What you can do with one is only limited by your imagination. Mine worked out great for drilling the dog holes in my woodworking workbench.

Ed

yes you can do a lot with a mag drill, but you have limited reach.

an option on thin material (in some cases) might be to tack a piece of 1/2 plate and set the srill on it, rather than directly to the thin plate or sheet metal. then clean off the tacks when done drilling.

most manuals for mag drills talk about strapping them down, the minimum material thickness to attach to, etc.

My milwaukee came with a chain for securing it when working overhead.

There have been many injuries in construction from misuse of mag drills.


RTFM !!