jermfab
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
- Location
- atlanta, ga
There are “mag-drills” and there are “magnetic drill-presses”. Personally, I think any well-equipped fab shop should have one of each. I have a Hougen HMD904. It’s not painfully heavy, but it maxes out with a 2” annular cutter and is really designed only to make a hole in the material it’s stuck to. I bought the kit when I got mine, it came with five cutters, a Jacob’s chuck and carrying box. Mounting the chuck isn’t easy, you really need stub/screw machine drills and with that machines fixed speed, it really doesn’t turn fast enough. If you need a hole between 9/16”-2” in 1/4” or better plate, the Hougen is the best tool I have. I’ve never attempted to use it for tapping.
Sometimes you need to tap a hole, or need a hole bigger than 2”. That’s when the Milwaukee comes out. It’s BIG! It’s HEAVY! As has been mentioned it’s not AS stiff as it’s weight may suggest, but does the job with sharp tooling… dull drills and taps, not so much. I bought mine used, so I took what was available, but if the motor ever wears out I plan to replace it with the Morse taper version as I have MT2 tooling in assorted flavors. Mine has the swivel-base, having used both swivel and fixed bases, the swivel base is the way to go. Milwaukee also has their line of “Steel Hawg” annular cutters up to 6”. I have a 3/4” Steel Hawg arbor as well as an MT2 one for my drill press. The 3/4” arbor adds A LOT of length to an already less-than-rigid setup.
The other thing the Milwaukee can do that smaller mag-drills cannot is be used as a field drill-press… to an extent. At very least they can drill something above the bottom surface of the magnet… it’s neither ideal nor a true substitute for a drill press, but I have definitely used my Milwaukee to drill holes in material either too thin or non-ferrous stuff in the field. I’ve also sandwiched a sheet of 3/16” aluminum between the drill and heavy plate to drill holes my drill press didn’t have the throat for. My back hurts just thinking about lugging that Milwaukee ANYWHERE, but it will always have a place in my shop.
I just did a quick google search and was surprised to learn that Milwaukee apparently hasn’t gotten the message about gouging their customers under the guise of inflation. They’re still available online for the same $1250-1500 that they’ve cost as long as I’ve known of them. Meanwhile, I think I paid $800 for the Hougen kit, delivered to my front door in 2011… the same drill is now selling for nearly the cost of the Milwaukee.
Both mag-drills and magnetic drill-presses are specialized enough to not have a place in everyone’s shop, but it’s been my experience that if you have need of one style or the other, you’ll eventually have want for both.
Be safe
Jeremy
Sometimes you need to tap a hole, or need a hole bigger than 2”. That’s when the Milwaukee comes out. It’s BIG! It’s HEAVY! As has been mentioned it’s not AS stiff as it’s weight may suggest, but does the job with sharp tooling… dull drills and taps, not so much. I bought mine used, so I took what was available, but if the motor ever wears out I plan to replace it with the Morse taper version as I have MT2 tooling in assorted flavors. Mine has the swivel-base, having used both swivel and fixed bases, the swivel base is the way to go. Milwaukee also has their line of “Steel Hawg” annular cutters up to 6”. I have a 3/4” Steel Hawg arbor as well as an MT2 one for my drill press. The 3/4” arbor adds A LOT of length to an already less-than-rigid setup.
The other thing the Milwaukee can do that smaller mag-drills cannot is be used as a field drill-press… to an extent. At very least they can drill something above the bottom surface of the magnet… it’s neither ideal nor a true substitute for a drill press, but I have definitely used my Milwaukee to drill holes in material either too thin or non-ferrous stuff in the field. I’ve also sandwiched a sheet of 3/16” aluminum between the drill and heavy plate to drill holes my drill press didn’t have the throat for. My back hurts just thinking about lugging that Milwaukee ANYWHERE, but it will always have a place in my shop.
I just did a quick google search and was surprised to learn that Milwaukee apparently hasn’t gotten the message about gouging their customers under the guise of inflation. They’re still available online for the same $1250-1500 that they’ve cost as long as I’ve known of them. Meanwhile, I think I paid $800 for the Hougen kit, delivered to my front door in 2011… the same drill is now selling for nearly the cost of the Milwaukee.
Both mag-drills and magnetic drill-presses are specialized enough to not have a place in everyone’s shop, but it’s been my experience that if you have need of one style or the other, you’ll eventually have want for both.
Be safe
Jeremy
