There are two types of people in this world: people who think that PVC is only suitable for plumbing, and people who don’t even know that you can use PVC to carry water. Instructables user [amjohnny] is clearly of the latter school. His PVC Dremel drill press is a bit of an oldie, but it’s still a testament to the pipefitter’s art. And you can watch it in action in the video embedded below.
Things we particularly like about this build include the PVC parallelogram movement, springs around tubes to push the Dremel head back up, and the clever use of a T-fitting and screw plug to hold the press in its lowest position. We wonder how one could add a depth stop to this thing. No matter, we love watching it work.
Anyway, this is just one hack of many that emphasizes the importance of a drill press in basically anyone’s life, as well as the ease of DIY’ing into one. If you’re in the PVC-haters camp, but have some scrap wood and drawer slides or plastic offcuts lying around, you have the makings of a rudimentary press — a welcome tool in the shop.
Thanks [Itay] for the tip!
Damn, this is way better than I imagined, unlike the highlighted links, which are more in line with what I was expecting from a PVC anything.
Because they want to dremel stuff in a convenient way and not just press drills.
i have one because i needed a drill press for circuit boards via’s, but don’t have the space for a table-size drill press.
This is a great build! Good work!
If you like PVC projects, you might want to check out my PVC dome!
https://hackaday.io/project/9578-softegg-pvc-spandex-trade-show-booth
PVC pipe is like Lego, there are gobs of adapters and unlike Lego it is cheap. Just remember that it has mechanical and pressure limitations, engineer within those limits and it is pretty useful building blocks especially combined with laser cutting and 3d printing for larger ‘thing’ builds. I place it in a similar category to a backyard bamboo patch for cheap lightweight build stock.
I was going to make some snark about “Inb4 PVC will kill us all,” but you obviously beat me to it.
Except bamboo is orders of magnitude stiffer, arguably stronger. PVC uniform, thermoplastic, very high elasticity, incredible pressure tank capability, high resistance to solvents. Different materials better used together than separate. Someone please build a PVC/bamboo potato cannon!
Where do I get bamboo fittings?
Ask for twine next time you go to the store.
A lot of fibres and fabric sold as bamboo are actually Rayon made from cellulose derived from bamboo.
There’s quite a few projects where people use resin and fiberglass or carbon fiber with traditional standard lashing patterns. Though it’s not strictly necessary. Lots of places still use bamboo as scaffolding with few accidents relating to the bamboo.
Adding a depth stop should be trivial. A ring/removable clamp with a stop-screw below the sliding part of the handle. Even pre-cut lengths of PVC pipe to quickly snap on as predefined depth stops.
And better than the one made by Dremel.
does that say much?
I fully expected this to be about as accurate as a pensioner with parkinsons…
Now I’m actually considering building one, even though all I need for my current drill press is a fucking belt that actually fits into it’s microscopic pulleys…
Or make a collet taper to dremel holder adapter
I don’t see much PVC hate here but there’s alot of pressurize PVC haters.
With enough internal pressure and under the right conditions, any pressure vessel can be turned into an ISIS Rave.
I heard the last ISIS rave was a blast!
It’s amazingly versatile stuff – water pipes, analog audio storage, unconvincing fake leather jackets, the list of what you can make out of PVC just goes on and on.
Downtown Atlanta discovered a new use for it… oh, sorry, too soon?
There is no parallelogram, just a lever.
Drill presses. No matter how hard you press, you’ll never get drill juice.
Heh. Not only that, I’ve blown up a few drills and there’s STILL no juice.
Harbor Freight Drill press:
$64.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/8-in-5-speed-bench-drill-press-60238.html
Can you fill the PVC tubes with something to boost the rigidity?
I hear compressed air is a good option.
Only if you mix it with cement.
I think that this will be best post and tutorial to make things learned in proper way.
It’s always hard to find the right spring when you conceptualize something like this.
In this case he uses springs from a “4” sprinkler body” And you just have to coincidentally know that has the springs you want.
Could plumb your shop vac to the PVC at the back/bottom, and have dust collection right at the lower platform easily.
For those who are still struggling with it, try my instructable:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Handheld-PCB-Drill/
Cool write up! quite creative I think. but buying a proper machine isn’t all that expensive http://drillpresspro.com/mini-drill-press-reviews/