DrillMate

I bought this out of curiosity. I find I use it a lot. I do not have a shop so my projects are done inside on a table or outside where ever. I used to have a woodworking shop at my previous house and I do miss my regular shop tools.I find the accuracy to be good. Stores small, lightweight but solid and well designed. Well designed useful base with V groves for round stock. For small projects and portability this DrillMate does well. At this price point, I wish I had purchased one long ago.Disadvantages: No drill through base so anything you drill has to fit between the bit and the base. With my battery drill, or any drill, this tool is top heavy and will try to fall over when you take your hand off the drill. Just be aware and hold on to it or secure it with a clamp. Considered drilling two holes in the base so I could screw it down to a base, but as yet haven't. That is an option.Would I buy it: Yes. Would I recommend it: Yes. It is Not a drill press, but it does a good job for it's capabilities. Even when I buy another drill press, this Drillmate will still be worth having.

I purchased this setup as I did not want to go out and buy a drill press to drill 3/16" holes into the ends of 1/2 X 1/2 inch acrylic rods . I tried clamping them to a workmate but kept getting the holes drilled at funny angles. I purchased this jig with a multi angled vise and got nearly perfect holes. YMMV but this jig is clever and effective for DIY projects. The price is extremely decent for what you get. If you have stuff that needs to be held within +/-.005.. No this will not hold up. but if you can deal with +/- 1/32" This will work just fine. It is not made of Chinesium but rather die cast aluminum and mild steal rods. The most impressive part is the decent quality bearings for the Jacobs Chuck assembly. No discernable wabble and holds drill bits perfectly. Glad I made this purchase.

I needed to drill a series of 3/4" holes for bench dogs and after some freehand tries, I realized I needed a drill guide. Since I liked the Milescraft drill block, the drill guide was at the top of my list. I wasn't disappointed!The guide worked like a dream and each of the holes was dead straight, with almost no wobble. Operation out of the box wasn't as smooth as I wanted, but a quick coating of wax on the rods fixed that. The stop block worked well and stayed consistent throughout all the holes, stopping the drill so only the brad point of the bit made it through to the other side. I then flipped the top over and used that small hole to complete the task from the other side without splitting the wood. I then used it for a few 45-degree holes in the legs, which worked well, too.It's not as steady as a true drill press, but it was more than steady enough for my needs. The only real downside I've noticed was that it would be nice to have a keyless chuck in the guide, but it's not a deal breaker for me. It's a great tool for the price!

I recently received a Milescraft Drillmate 1318. Assembly went smoothly, and the parts appear to be well made and nicely finished. The angle adjustment seems easy to use and should be useful, although perpendicular holes are its main attraction for me. With a little work, I could set the drill angle at something other than one of the 15 degree increment pre-sets.So far my use of the Drillmate is admittedly limited. Not surprising, I found the Drillmate to be somewhere between a handheld drill and a drill press. It does not have the precision or controlled feed of a drill press, but the Drillmate is much more portable and versatile. It certainly offers a lot more precision than a handheld drill, at least in my hands, where perpendicular holes are embarrassingly rare.Attaching a power drill to the chuck shaft requires working around the post extensions in order to tighten the power drill’s chuck, which felt a little odd. Apparently I have only dealt with chucks in wide open spaces in my, up to this point, sheltered life. But it is certainly doable, and I attached an 18v Makita drill. I don’t have any handheld power drills around anymore that have a keyed chuck, but like my drill press, the Drillmate does. Using the Drillmate actually requires dealing with two drill chucks.My first project with the Drillmate was to enlarge the dog holes on my workbench from 1/2 inch diameter to the more common 3/4 inch diameter, using a spade bit. With spade bits, I find it easier to control the feed, although there would not be any material to guide the center point in this case. Twist drills sometimes want to grab and chip. In my experience, It is relatively easy to enlarge holes using a drill press and much more difficult to do with a handheld drill. But enlarging these workbench holes on my drill press was not possible. Enter the Drillmate.To give myself a better chance of minimizing tear out and avoiding irregular holes when enlarging them, I like to make a template with a hole drilled in it of the desired size. I made a template with a piece of 1/2 inch thick panel about 10 by 10 inches, and drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the center with the Drillmate. I then positioned this template hole over a bench top hole to be enlarged, centered the template as best I could, and clamped it to the bench top. I positioned the Drillmate’s base onto the template, lined up the drill bit in the template’s hole, and powered on the Makita. I proceeded to make a 3/4 inch dog hole out of a 1/2 inch hole.I was quite pleased with the results - the edges were clean, the hole was round, and the drilling was quick and drama free. Thirteen more holes to go, and all went well. I was impressed with the holes and the Drillmate. It worked smoothly and precisely. I never felt that I was fighting the return spring. Perpendicular holes - at last!The Drillmate has a rather small base, but a larger, auxilllary base can be used unattached as I did, or attached, which I am considering. I found the auxilllary base or template to be necessary when drilling holes near edges where the Drillmate base alone would hanging over the edge and unstable.One thing I remember about chuck keys is that every stinkin’ one of them disappears. And that drills with keyed chucks are worthless without the correct key. And that no key ever fit another other drill’s chuck. So I just ordered a couple of extra chuck keys for my Drillmate. FYI - extra keys are available from the Milescraft website by clicking on Products, Drilling / Precision Drilling, 1318 - Drillmate, View Replacement Parts.Inexpensive, nicely made, versatile, a quality of work improving device, this Drillmate. Yet another tool I wish I had picked up a long time ago.