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Air Drill?

zsadecki

Active Member
What's the advantage of using an air drill? They seem kinda expensive. Can you do things with them that can't be done with a regular plug-in or cordless electric drill? I'm just trying to look for ways to keep the initial cost of tools down a little, and the air drill is a big chunk of the tool kits...
 
They spin MUCH faster, which is helpful for clean holes in aluminum. They are usually lighter than an electric/powered drill, which helps when you're drilling a few hundred holes in a work session.

Also, they sound cool ;)

B,
 
you can get away with electric drills but it's bulky, bigger, and heavier..
 
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I bought a cheaper air drill and other than sucking down more air (alot) than the more pricey ones it works fine. I do find it to be inconvenient to use at times. With the draining and running of the compressor, the noise, dragging the hose around and the fact they blow oil a little bit I find that I use my electric cordless drills more often. Unless I have a lot of holes to make. If you go electric realize that some spin slower than others. As mentioned above the speed of the air drill seems to make cleaner and faster holes. Of course back in the stone ages when aluminum airplanes were invented there were no cordless electric drills.
 
I built my entire airplane with an old Black and Decker electric drill my dad gave me when I was in my teens. Clunky, but straight. Now i use a makita 14.4v with keyless chuck for virtually everything. Have never found the need to buy an air drill.
 
Many have argued that by using a corded-electric drill, that by chance, if the cord snagged on some metal and shorted out while you were touching the metal, this could = one seriously injured (or dead) builder.

On the other hand, check out The Home Depot. I bought an AWESOME Husky air drill from them....$49.00! Not even on sale. That's the everyday price. It works fantastic, and it is not a 'hog' on the air compressor.
 
Hi zsadecki

You need:
1) a high speed drill, the higher the better.
2) you need something convenient to use. i.e. light and small since you are going to drill a lot of holes

A quick lesson in theory:
The ideal RPM cutting speed formula used by machine shops is:
RPM ~= 4 x Cutting Speed [ft/min] / Diameter [in]
where Cutting Speed for Aluminium is +/- 250 ft/min

Using this 'ideal cutting speed' formula you'll see that:

For our #40 (3/32") skin holes the ideal RPM speed is:
RPM = 4 x (250) / (3/32) which = 10,666 RPM

and for our #30 (1/8") holes the ideal RPM speed is:
RPM = 4 x (250) / (1/8) which = 8,000 RPM

Luckily we drill through thin material so we can get away with lower speeds.
The slower the drill speed the more the metal deforms

Back to reaility:
Air drills:
The GOOD air drills sold by the aircraft tool companies turn about 3,600 RPM and weigh 1.5lb and 6" long and has a variable speed on it (the Sioux make for instance). The problem is the air drills consume a lot of air hence the compressor kicks in often, in addition the air pipe can be heavy! It is also very noisy.

Electric drills:
Generally Electric drills typical do not turn that fast, and can be a bit bulky to use. But they are quiet and do not have a heavy pipe to cary around.

The best one I have found and they guys use here is the Matika 6501.
6501_m.jpg


This drill turns at 4500RPM which is very good, (better than most airdrills) and weighs in at 2lbs, it is small and compact 8", not so noisy and do not have the heavy air pipe. The only problem is it is not a variable speed. So one have to use another 'variable speed' or low drill speed drill for the bigger/thicker holes and steel holes.

If they made a high speed (3,600 RPM+) electric drill in variable speed and in a compact form, maybe even cordless...then that would be you're ideal choice! I have not managed to find one yet...:D

Hope this helps,

Regards
Rudi
 
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Air Drills

I found a really nice small air drill online. It's a Chicago Pneumatic CP7300 palm drill. I ordered it from Bradystools.com I was a little skeptical as I had never ordered from them before but they had the best price at $78.

It arrived in just a few days and it's better than I thought it would be. I got it yesterday and drilled some holes with it last night. The trigger teases good. As Dan Checkoway would say "It's Sweeeeeet". Here's a photo of it in my hand, and I don't have large hands.

cpdrill1ii.jpg


Mark
 
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Oooh Ooh Oooh

Man, reading this thread makes me make those sounds that Tim from Tooltime made on the old Home Improvement show.

Anyway, I started building and using an old Craftsman electric drill and, everyone's right, you can build a whole plane that way.

One of the problems with the electric drill was I had to plug it in, and my outlets already had a bench grinder, drill press, extension cord light etc., so everytime I wanted to drill something (like drilling a rivet out ), I'd have to unplug the darn cord and sometime rerun an electric line.

With my air drill, just pop off the rivet gun line and pop onto the drill. yeah, I know, you can do the same thing with cordless drills, but I didn't have a cordless and, besides, they don't make cool sounds.

Oooohh Ooooh Oooooh

BC :cool:
 
Mark Burns said:
I found a really nice small air drill online. It's a Chicago Pneumatic CP7300 palm drill. I ordered it from Bradystools.com

Mark,

The price on the little CP7300 is sure right, but in comparing specs on it vs. the Sioux 1412 - the CP spins at 2k while the 1412 spins at 3600. Are you still liking the drill? Seeing any "QOH" (quality of hole) issues with the slower speed on the CP?

Mike D
 
Cp7300

Mike,

The drill is great. I think 2,000 rpm is plenty fast.
I certainly can't see any quality of hole issues.

The only way it could be better would be if it had a keyless chuck.
But the keyed chuck has a pretty small diameter which allows you to get into spots a keyless chuck wouldn't.

I lot of folks have built RV's with electric drills and cordless drills turning slower than 2,000.

You won't be disappointed with it!

Mark
 
No Umbilical Cord

My choice -

Cordless electric, small body, small battery, keyless chuck.

I've used a Makita 9.6V for 1 1/2 airplanes. No regrets, and I have an air drill available. Don't get a huge macho space-age-looking manly drill; too heavy, too big, very tiring.

Corded or hosed, it's an umbilical you're dragging across parts, hung up in corners, and tripping over. Hosed, ya gotta love the sound of a compressor running to boot, and the drills spew oil.

The only time speed is useful is drilling the billion holes in the fuse longerons. Generally, you're going to spend more time changing cutters and positioning than actually removing metal. Elsewhere, the slower speed of the cordless is compensated by controlling the feed rate: don't shove, let the cutter do the work, ergo, no quality problems. This is particularly true when countersinking, you don't want tool chatter. The electrics have very good 0 rpm torgue, something air drills can't do, particularly useful when touching up a c'sink freehand because a microstop cage can't be used (which occurs a lot, especially on fiberglass components).

Two drills is nice. Dante overlooked the level in hell where bad RVers are sent to forever be changing out #40 for #30 and back again.

John Siebold
Boise, ID
 
Get the quick change chuck

RV7ator said:
Two drills is nice. Dante overlooked the level in hell where bad RVers are sent to forever be changing out #40 for #30 and back again.

Get the quick change chuck kit from Cleaveland. It's 140 bucks and after a few minutes of using it you will see that it's the best 140 dollars you've spent in a long time. A friend of mine baught me one right about the time I was finishing my plane, sure wish I had it the whole time. That with a Sioux 1412, can't get much better than that. I do keep the cordless around for countersinking and all those little screws.
 
Cam,

While at Osh this year, almost bought the set, but asked Bob Avery why he didn't sell the same thing. He said that there was concern about the "tightness" of the bit, in that there may have been some wiggle that you don't get with a normal chuck. Did you experience any?

Jim

N916K said:
Get the quick change chuck kit from Cleaveland. It's 140 bucks and after a few minutes of using it you will see that it's the best 140 dollars you've spent in a long time. A friend of mine baught me one right about the time I was finishing my plane, sure wish I had it the whole time. That with a Sioux 1412, can't get much better than that. I do keep the cordless around for countersinking and all those little screws.
 
Where is it written?

I HAD to use an air drill when building taxpayers airplanes, but for my slowbuild RV-6A I chose to use a DeWalt 14.4V cordless on 90% of the holes, even though I have a perfectly good Souix air drill in my tool box. Why? Let me think....Hmm.....no electrical cord, no air hose to drag around, snag on the assembly or trip over, no overworked air compressor and no misplaced chuck key. Because of standard work practices and training demanded on the paycheck job, I consider myself much more critical of hole quality than the average builder. Happily, the majority of the holes we drill are through a simple stack up usually totaling less than .064 thickness and are filled with solid rivets which by their very nature make up for a lot of sins. Even .125 (1/8) aluminum poses very little problem for a cordless drill and a sharp drill bit. Bottom line......if the hole does not require a right angle drill for accessibility or a drill press for precision drilling and reaming, a good cordless drill is a perfectly adequate alternative. Now, some of our favorite tool vendors might not want to hear that, but there it is from someone intimately familiar with both sides of the fence.


Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"
RV-8A empennage complete
 
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jimrobinette said:
He said that there was concern about the "tightness" of the bit, in that there may have been some wiggle that you don't get with a normal chuck. Did you experience any?

The bits stay in there nice and tight. Just get one, you won't be disappointed. Not having to ever use a chuck key is so nice. Those lightweight air hoses are also very nice.
 
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$140!!!

Good Grief! You can buy a second cordless drill for $140, not one weird chuck. And those cordless drills can have keyless chucks.

One more thing in favor of cordless drills - and this is unbeatable -

Explain to your wife the utility of having a go-anywhere tool that doesn't also need a $400 compressor, let alone Ol' Weird Chuck for another $140.

Your turn.

John Siebold
 
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RV7ator said:
Good Grief! You can buy a second cordless drill for $140, not one weird chuck. And those cordless drills can have keyless chucks.

One more thing in favor of cordless drills - and this is unbeatable -

Explain to your wife the utility of having a go-anywhere tool that doesn't also need a $400 compressor, let alone Ol' Weird Chuck for another $140.

Your turn.

John Siebold

No need to argue here.

I built the tail with an electric drill. I didn't like dragging that heavy drill around. Once I finished the tail I moved to a hanger, so the noise was no issue plus I had the radio cranked. Some people build at their house and noise may be a big issue, for those an electric drill may be great. But the extra cost of 140 or even 1000 in tools won't really effect the overall cost of building a plane. It kills me to see a guy with a BMA EFIS one and going for cheap tools to save money. I'm sure every builder has a good cordless drill (If not they should), you can't really live without it. I just chose to use it for screws and large drill bits, others use it for the 30's and 40's.

So if you want a great air drill the 1412 is tough to beat. If you want a cordless drill, I'm sure there are some great ones to be had for less than a 1412.
 
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This is almost getting to be a religious argument! My vote is for a good quality air drill. You already have a compressor - if you bought a noisy direct drive, that's your problem. A light weight, fast, air drill is just much more enjoyable to use. The battery pack will never fail, the charger will never fail (taking your expensive battery pack with it). I have a 3600rpm Sioux with a keyless chuck and would not swap for a cordless electric. I also have the quick change chuck stuff on another drill and don't use it much, it puts the body of the drill too far from the work.

Pete
 
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I like 'em all! I've got a Sioux 1/4" chuck air drill, a 90 degree air drill, three cordless drills, two electric screwdrivers and a corded drill or two.
I usually have them all out there and ready for use with different bits in each one. Some work better for different applications. (I never use the corded electric drills anymore, though.)
Cordless drills have gotten so cheap that you can replace the entire drill set for the price of new batteries (Almost!) and they are easy to move around and rechuck so I have been using them a lot. Especially since I have been working on the RV8 canopy frame and rollover structure using different size bits and thread taps, etc., where space isn't a problem. I like the electric drills for drilling into steel since you can use more pressure and less RPM and still get a lot of torque, which is better for the heavy metal drilling. (Don't forget the Boelube or cutting oil, though.)
Each of them have their advantages and personal preference is probably the big deciding factor.
I must admit though, that the 90 degree drill can be a life saver. I built a slow build RV6 without one but now have one while building the QB RV8 and I don't know how I got along with out it! (Same applies to the pneumatic squeezers.)
This is a thread that is never ending, but I still like to hear everyone's thoughts! Have fun deciding.
 
GEE, you guys are scaring me. I'm beginning to wonder how I ever built 7 1/2 airplanes with my (2) $19.95 air drills from Harbor Freight. (and they're both still running great). Of course my kits didn't come with any holes.
Mel...DAR
 
I have a cordless drill and a regular AC electric drill. Also have several second hand air drills bought thru eBay or at Boeing. Why? Air drills are lighter (there are thousands of holes to ream or drill out on the wings), they spin up faster and they stop faster. I have several because I was too cheap to buy the fancy spendy Sioux model and I bought a few at <$40 before I learned the pros & cons of the various models. Now I have the advantage of not having to change bits and my little Rockwells and Dotco are almost as good.

If you go for an air drill, go for the smallest you can afford, because they will be handy for drilling in some tight spots and they are lighter. That CP drill looks pretty neat, but as I understand it they use bushings instead of bearings. Might be OK, and if it wore out before you finished the plane you could buy another and still be $ ahead compared to the Sioux. The only disadvantage I see to the HF and Home Depot models are the size, but they sure are smaller than any electrics.

Richard Scott
RV-9A Wings
 
what I have found to be the biggest difference in air drills and electric drills is--

when I drill into my hand with the air drill and let off the button it stops right away. the electric keeps on going. :eek:
 
And with the high speed of the airdrill, I usually don't feel any pain for several seconds, allowing me time to pull it out before I pass out. The slower electrics tend to tug and twist the skin all up making removal much more painful, too.

Roberta :D
 
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