Used high speed drill
 

I'm working on a budget and just couldn't afford $250 for a Sioux 5000 rpm drill. In fact I got my air drill from Harbor Freight for somewhere around around $20.

I guess I can't complain about the performance of the $20 drill. It does the job but it's so noisy that my wife told me that I should be wearing ear protection.

Recently I decided to take another look at high speed drills. The Sioux was still too expensive so I started looking at alternatives. Eventually I bought a used ARO 5000 rpm 1/4" drill on Ebay for $55.

I've got to say that even though this thing is old and has been given a tremendous amount of use it's really a great drill. Believe it or not, the holes in the chuck where the chuck key fits are actually somewhat egg shaped from use yet it only makes about half as much noise as the HF drill and goes through aluminum twice as fast.

I'm impressed.

What ever happened to the America that made this kind of high quality equipment?

I know what happened. We got hosed by greedy billionaires. "Land of the free, home of the hosed". 45% of our GDP is now financial services. Appears that the only manufacturing left is our homebuilts.

Just like you said, people couldn't afford (or didn't want to afford) the $250 drill.

Good point.

If I did this for a living I'd have no problem buying the premium part but as is every dollar I save is one that I can spend on something else for my project. After a while those saved dollars add up.

I use HF drill motors...... and, yes they are noisy. But I had no problem muffling them down. Come on!! use your imagination. That's part of building an aircraft.

It's not just the noise - it's also that the high speed drill just goes through metal so much faster and easier. I wouldn't have thought that it would make such a difference if I hadn't seen it myself.

The noise is just what you notice. The cheap knockoff tools, both the hand tool end and the compressors, are much less efficient than the good quality versions. The tool will use more air and do less work. This is why it is noisier, but only turns half as fast. Same goes for air compressors, that is why you can't rate them by HP. HP is just an energy rating, cheap compressors make more noise and heat energy and do less compressing.

drills
 

Yes, but when you're finished with your tools and ready to sell, that $69 China drill will be worth $20. The $250 (with all of the speed, lightness, quietness, acuracy and precision it had when new) will be worth about $190.