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Aldi Bench Drill


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  • 2 months later...

I bought the Lidl version yesterday - Parkside Bench Pillar Drill PTBM 500 E5. £59.99. It looks just like the one on Colin's box pic so is probably mechanically identical except for a few minor details including the colour - mine's green.

I'm having a problem mounting the drill chuck. It fits onto a tapered spindle like a Morse taper, and you tap it into place using a plastic hammer as detailed in the instructions. However, the drill chuck will not seat properly and the drill bit has a lot of run-out at its tip. The chuck can be rocked from side to side, even after a lot of tapping with the hammer to try to get it to seat concentrically. The mounting spindle has a rough surface whereas the tapered bore of the chuck is ground smooth and I suspect that the spindle hasn't been ground to the correct taper or finish. Would anyone know if a Morse taper spindle should be smooth, or left with grinding marks on it. It seems wrong to me.

I'm awaiting a phone call for advice from from the Lidl service dept, but thought I would mention the problem here, and ask if what I perceive as a problem might be normal with this type of cheap drill unit.

Cheers

Gordon

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I bought a cheap drilling machine years ago and the mistake I made was to fit the chuck on - the chuck was hopeless but wouldn't come off the taper to replace it with a decent one ( good chucks are cheap ) Once it was fitted nothing would remove it. If only I had replaced it with a good chuck ..........the rest of the machine is fairly good. So once you have sorted the spindle try the chuck to see if it's worth fitting or better to buy a better one ( Tracy Tools are a good source)

I think that chucks may have Jacobs taper rather than Morse and they are not the same - maybe drill chucks have a shorter length than Morse.

Edited By kc on 15/02/2019 12:22:57

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First and foremost....tapers are not meant to be struck to make them fit together.....the best way is to place a piece of soft wood on the drill table, place chuck on spindle and feed the spindle down thus pressing the chuck onto the wood....

The best way to check for fit is to use Micrometer blue on the shaft and see how much is deposited on the chucks mating taper...( experience here would help)

The spindle taper should be a ground finish, similar to the bore of the chuck. If machined correctly, there should be no discernable run out( subject to the tolerances of the machining if the rest of the machine!)

I'd wait to see what the service dept say before progressing...

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I've had the centre pulley seize on mine recently - low quality grease / cold weather meant that it went solid and the motor couldn't even turn it. Strip the belts off, pull pulley straight up to remove, clean then re-grease, all was fine again.

Just a heads up for maintenance. I've used mine maybe a dozen times in two years from new, so something to look for next time you have the belts off and changing speed.

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The biggest problem with all these drills is play in the quill. If you can (and at Aldi and Lidl, you can't) you need to open the box in the store, wind the quill down halfway and check it for play. If you're lucky, you'll get a good one. The types to look out for have a split head, where any play can be adjusted out. These are likely to be more expensive...

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I got one of the Cheapies years ago , the chuck was pure rubbish and actually flew to bits , I wear glasses luckily .

the taper fit and run out and hence the vibration when trying to "drill" was very apparent .

A new chuck from Proops and its been perfect ever since . It was from Lydl cos Aldi came later .

cheers

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You should really take it back for a refund or replacement as the drill is clearly not usable as supplied.

Anything else could leave you with a fairly heavy piece of scrap!

Of course you might get the two tapers to match using valve grinding paste as you do when grinding in a valve seat but it would be a horrendous "bodge" that would leave the chuck and drill as a unique matched pair!.sad

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Regrettably the Lidl tech dept didn't get back in touch this afternoon between 3pm and 4pm as promised, so I missed a lovely afternoon's flying weather crying However, I have sent a polite email with a full description of the problem with pix, and hope to get a reply to that before too long.

After reading Mike T's post I checked the quill; sure enough there's noticeable play, and I'm beginning to think that my best bet will be to ask for my money back. In reality it's probably a bit more of a "heavy duty" machine than I need, so perhaps a visit to the local Machine Mart or Axminster Tools for a lighter and more aeromodelling-oriented machine would be more productive, if a bit more expensive!

Cheers

Gordon

Edit.  Just read your post Simon, and it is a heavy piece of scrap! 

Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 15/02/2019 19:13:57

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Looks as if I started something here, I haven’t used mine yet! Also I have since bought the scroll saw, haven’t tried that yet either. I’m up to my ears in the Fury and with insufficient room to swing a cat in the shed will set this new kit up in the garage. (If I can squeeze between the two Nortons, my Honda and the E-Bike).

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Hi Colin, I sorta bought mine by accident, having gone to our nearest Lidl for the first time to buy the Lidl bench disc sander which was receiving good reviews on this forum. I didn't realise how heavy the drill was gonna be to carry up and down stairs between my garage and bedroom workshops, depending on where I'd be working. So it's almost a relief that I could return it with a fault, which I did today. It was surprisingly easy to return, though I did hand it over with a written and photo-illustrated report. One thing I liked about it but didn't get to use was the laser cross-hair system for ensuring you placed the drill right where you'd centre-popped the piece you wanted to drill. The depth stop is clever, too. I found your thread whilst looking to see if there were any reports on my drill. As both are just about identical I thought I'd just add my findings onto your thread.

I have the Aldi scroll saw which is probably like yours, and is very nice to use. If you're happy to use the fairly coarse-toothed pinned blades then it's dead easy to change blades, in the same manner as my 47-year-old Dremel Moto Shop scroll saw it replaced. I persuaded myself to use pinless blades as they do a finer cut, but blade changing with the alternative "floating clamp" system is a bit more involved, especially if you want to cut out the middle of a former as it's not as simple as passing a pinned blade through a 3/16" hole and hooking the blade into its notches. I've modified the blade clamps to try to make them easier to use for former cutting, but still have to use it to build a plane. I might just end up using pinned blades for their ease of fitting, but would like to see some finer tpi's available.

I'm enjoying following the Fury threads, BTW. They are all most enlightening, and have given me the hots for a 6S-powered silver bipe. I was looking at the Bristol Bulldog - I have Dennis Bryant's plan - but now the A.W. Siskin IIIa has surfaced as a definite maybe, especially after reading Air Cdr Allen Wheeler's account in his book "Flying Between the Wars" of him doing upward flick and slow rolls in one at RAF Hendon air displays.

Cheers

Gordon

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Hi Percy, I googled the Proxxon drill following your earlier mention and it does look to be more like what I thought I should get, ie something accurate and reasonably portable. I am already a Proxxon user, having the Proxxon FET Table Saw which I bought last year, fitted a fine-tooth blade, and used for stripping down some excessively large X-section spruce I bought a few years ago when I thought I would start building monster scale models. That intention fell by the wayside, but the saw ensures that my spruce stock will get used somehow. It's good for stripping 1/2in sheet balsa into 1in wide strips for leading edges, etc, and I've even stripped 3/32in sq spruce strips from some 3/32in spruce sheet I've had in stock since the early 1970s. A while ago I David-planed down some 1/4x1/2 spruce to 3/16x3/8 for wing spars on a 6ft bipe. It took ages plus sanding, whereas the FET saw would have done all 16 required strips in minutes with a fine finish needing no sanding.

I note that there's a sliding table available which could convert the TBM220 drill to a light duty milling machine handy for slotting materials for sliding items such as WWII fighter canopies, or tracks for Fowler-style flaps. The 6mm chuck is much more the style for any future designs of mine anyway, the monster chuck of the Aldi being well over the top for most drill sizes I'll be using! With extras it'll total over £200 more than the Aldi, but maybe more in line with my needs. We'll see, anyway. You can't beat having the right tool for the job.

Cheers

Gordon

 

Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 16/02/2019 19:33:01

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Hi Gordon, I need to get to grips with all of this kit. The bit of spare time I have at present is focused on the Fury, thanks for the advice on the scroll saw.

the Siskin would be a great project and a bit quirky. Another one that you don’t see modelled often is the Gloster Gauntlet. My dad used to go to the Hendon Air Displays pre-war and particularly commented on the “tied together” aerobatics, done first with Furies and later with Gauntlets. He had no doubt about which was best though, the Gauntlet. Looking back on opinions of the time it also seemed to be seen as the best biplane fighter by the RAF pilots. Although the Gladiator was a higher performance development of the Gauntlet, the impression is that it wasn’t loved in the same way as the Gauntlet had been.

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