Sealey SDM30 5 Speed Hobby Pillar Drill

Peter 24/03/2014 20:30:45

The drill arrived promptly and in good order easy to assemble and woks well. very impressed with your service when correcting an error i made when ordering thnk you peter dyson

D. 18/04/2012 10:52:10

This is a good old fashioned pillar drill. I do not mean this in a derogatory way.. Pillar drills have not evolved in the way that hand drills have, but moving belt to different pully wheels is part of the experiance. The unit is solidly built apart from the red plastic safety guard holder/depth gauge mounting. The first drill arrived with this part broken, tooled-up were very good in picking up and delivering a new drill but after 3-4 weeks the same part broke. I enjoy using the drill and intend to reinforce the plastic with a metal plate as a new one will probably have the same problem. It would probably be fine if you are gentle with it but on soft wood i tend to rapidly push the drill down to the end stop which puts pressure on the end stop mounting which eventually breaks.

Geoff 30/03/2012 14:35:13

Casting pretty basic and flimsy guard but it does the job i wanted it for and there is no complaint about the price.

Barrie 28/03/2012 12:01:28

This pillar drill works very well at the hobby level of use. I have drilled 10mm holes in 3mm mild steel with it and all ok. The adjusting screw/handle for the rise/fall table could be improved, it is quite awkward. Overall i am happy with this tool and would buy it again.

Andrew 17/02/2012 20:52:15

Does the job nicely. steady and cuts a beautiful hole with my forstner bits

S 09/01/2012 12:04:33

Great value for money; i use it for model engineering and needed a tool that i could get out of the cupboard only when required. Total runout on the spindle is about 30 microns (~1 thou/0.001") on my example and with the keyless chuck (also recommended) that tooled-up sell for it, total runout is about 150 microns (6 thou/0.006") - i consider the spindle accuracy therefore to be pretty good, after all by the time my holes are drilled, they wander more than that! Mine required some setup to get it running smoothly (tightened the pulley grub screws as the pulley was slightly loose, loosened the motor mounting bolts and tightened the spring) but nothing major and it was all done within 20 minutes. i tightened the depth gauge screw which was loose and snapped off the plastic on the chuck guard that it was fixed to (too thin), i'll have either glue it back on at some point or fabricate a new one. The gauge will still work but it's annoying all the same. ensure that when you change the belt speed that you put some good tension on it with the motor clamp before using it otherwise you might get quite a bit of vibration. if going for a drill press vice, a 4"/100mm jaw model will be too big for this machine's table, i use a 3"/75mm vice and it fits reasonably comfortably. in conclusion then, i gave it 3/5 for build quality because it required some fettling and the plastic chuck guard's too thin but regardless i recommend this drill for the money and am happy with my purchase. note that the supplied chuck is rated for bits between 1.5mm and 13mm, i got the other chuck because i needed to use bits smaller than 1.5mm so haven't tested the runout of the supplied chuck.