Adding a Pot to the Tamiya Handy Drill?

[Tchail]

I just ordered the Tamiya Handy Drill.

Has anyone tried modifying the drill by adding a potentiometer to be able to vary the speed?

[aussie cylon]

Don't bother. It's a very handy drill as it is. The speed is reasonably slow and I'll say it's just about perfect for drilling through plastic. That's what it was designed to do, and it does it very well. Everything inside it is plastic, even the gears, so making it spin faster would shorten the life of all the components and cause catastrophic failure. The thing I really liked about this is that it came in kit form, you build it just like a model kit. The chucks that come with it only allow drill bits up to about 2mm or so....I'm not sure if larger chucks are available...Anyone know??

[Zubie]

maybe a more handy hack is adapting it to a 3V DC transformer so you can make do without the battery...although then you have to deal with the wire.

[Tchail]

Don't bother. It's a very handy drill as it is. The speed is reasonably slow and I'll say it's just about perfect for drilling through plastic. That's what it was designed to do, and it does it very well. Everything inside it is plastic, even the gears, so making it spin faster would shorten the life of all the components and cause catastrophic failure. The thing I really liked about this is that it came in kit form, you build it just like a model kit. The chucks that come with it only allow drill bits up to about 2mm or so....I'm not sure if larger chucks are available...Anyone know??

Thanks!

I was actually thinking about adding a potentiometer to slow down the drill, not speed it up.

But from what you’ve said, it sounds like it spins at a reasonable rate for drilling through styrene.

[AZRhino]

The Handy Drill runs at about 800 RPM (due to the gearing) and the Router runs at about 1400 RPM. I have used both for drilling plastic going as small as a #80 bit. The trick is to place the drill bit exactly where you want the hole, then hit the trigger. The drill bit should pull itself into the plastic. That also helps prevent snapping the bit for the really tiny sizes because you aren't applying any pressure to the bit. You just allow the drill to do the work. If you are concerned 800 RPM is too fast, you can also "pulse" the trigger so the drill can't get up to full speed.

[Tchail]

The Handy Drill runs at about 800 RPM (due to the gearing) and the Router runs at about 1400 RPM. I have used both for drilling plastic going as small as a #80 bit. The trick is to place the drill bit exactly where you want the hole, then hit the trigger. The drill bit should pull itself into the plastic. That also helps prevent snapping the bit for the really tiny sizes because you aren't applying any pressure to the bit. You just allow the drill to do the work. If you are concerned 800 RPM is too fast, you can also "pulse" the trigger so the drill can't get up to full speed.

Thanks!

I bought it specifically because I want to drill a lot of holes with a #80 bit, and I thought this would be easier than using a Dremel, even with a flex shaft.

[Tchail]

I have the drill, and put it together without too much trouble.

However, I was disappointed to find out that Dremel collets are too small to work.

Can anyone recommend a collet set that would work with a #80 bit?

[AZRhino]

When you say they are too small, to you mean the shafts are too short for the chuck to tighten down on them?

I personally have this set in addition to the Dermel collets and they work in my Tamiya drill and router

[Tchail]

By “too small,” I mean that the diameter of the Dremel collets is smaller than the diameter of the collets supplied with the Tamiya Handy Drill.

The included Tamiya collets measure 5.97 mm / 0.235 inch in diameter, while the Dremel collets are 4.34 mm / 0.171 inch in diameter.

Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out!