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And don't forget the BoeLube - when drilling steel or thick aluminium. |
Have both a 6k rpm drill and a 2,600 rpm one. Both work well and are virtually interchangable.
They would be completely interchangabe except one is reversible. Dave |
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You can build the entire airplane with a hand cordless drill.
For thicker pieces air drill is better. Don't over think these types of things. Use a sharp bit and get movin'. |
IMO it's not the speed but the size and weight that's more important. The air drills are compact and light weight compared their electric counterparts. I used an air drill, corded electric, and battery electric about equally through the build. Started with air in the basement, switched to corded electric when I moved up to the garage and couldn't run a compressor because the outlets wouldn't support it, and switched to a battery when I moved to the hangar more because my corded drill gave up the ghost around the same time. In the end, as other have stated, all will do the job just fine.
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I started out with a cordless Ryobi, bought a Northern Tool air drill that only does about 1800-2000 RPM, then later on bought a 3600 RM Sioux. The cordless works fine, although at 4# it will tire your wrist out more quickly. The Northern Tool air drill is "just OK", a little noisy, but it was cheap. The Sioux is the lightest, the smallest and the nicest one to use. It's also the most expensive by quite a margin, and the only one of the three that had to spend over two months in the repair shop to replace defective internal parts. I was very happy to get it back, though. I haven't used the cheap air drill since I got the Sioux, but I still use the cordless for some jobs.
In short -- use whatever you have, they all turn drill bits and reamers. |
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In sheet metal, I can't get the bit started accurately & up to speed before the hole is finished, so 6000 rpm has never been a real need for me. :-) |
As somebody pointed out, those speeds matter most for thicker parts - which you will probably do in a drill press. For pre-punched sheet, the quality of the bit matters more. I buy #30 and #40 bits by the dozen. I forget where I saw it, but there was a description of the proper way to sharpen bits for quality work: "Cup the bit in your hand so the tip is resting between the middle and index fingertips and the base of the shaft is in your palm. Then, with a gentle underhand motion, pitch the bit into the trash bin." :p
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For taking the undersized 3/32" and 1/8" holes up to final size, I mostly use a chucking reamer now. It takes a lot less deburring to clean the holes up. |
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