Drill Press

The Plus Factor of a Drill Press

Anyone who has had experience with woodworking excursions know just how tedious not working with the right tools can be. The right kind of saw for the right kind of cut highly makes the job efficient, if not yield perfect results. The wrong nail could ruin the wood or the wrong kind of plane could utterly render the woodpiece useless for a particular project.

The wrong type of drill could mess up the woodpiece.

Drills are basically tools for accurately boring holes into a piece of wood.

The earliest breed of drills are believed to be bow drills. The first electrical drill came out in 1889, and is credited to have been the invention of Mr. Arthur James Arnot. By 1895, the first portable electric drill came from Germany, through the efforts of Wilhelm Fein. Black & Decker, a standard bearer in the realm of power tools, patented the “trigger” switch in portable drills in 1917.

Various types of drills exist, catering to the various boring demands that come about when it comes to woodworking. The Drill Press is one such type of drill.

Contrary to portable drills, a drill press is a fixed type of drill, and often comes in mounted form, where it is fixed to the floor or a workbench. Also known as a pillar drill or bench drill or pedestal drill, a drill press is basically made of a base, a table, a column/pillar, spindle and a drill head.

A drill press is normally pushed by an induction motor, powering the drill itself. The drill head has three handles, which the operator uses in operating the power tool. The handles are positioned from a core hub, and controls the drill in boring vertically, in a path side by side to the axis of the drill press’ pillar/column.

The drill press’ table is movable in the vertical position, depending on the size of the woodpiece in need of boring.

A drill press boasts advantages over hand held drills; less work effort is needed in operating a drill press. Drill presses allow more accurate and secure drilling work, as a clamp is utilized in positioning the woodpiece, making way for a more secure work operation. For multi-boring procedures, because of the secure and accurate nature of drilling with a drill press, repetitively boring holes on a woodpiece is fast and easy.

When it comes to drilling woodpieces before they’ve been put together into form, drill presses truly shine. Where portable or hand held drills have their own weakness, drill presses come in and fill out those said weaknesses, making them an essential tool for professional woodworkers.