It's definitely worthy buying at least a basic one for Lowes or Home Depot. You can get by without it, but drilling holes through thicker stock is so much easier (straighter and more accurate) with a drill press. So too is drilling a line of holes if you use a fence on the drill press table. You'll use it so much for other non-airplane stuff as well that you can rationalize it as something other than an airplane tool expense! :D Necessary? No. Will you build more accurately and easy with one? Absolutely. Good luck.
 
Required, unless you accept wobbled holes and misalignment in many operations best done under a drill press. It also subs as a poor man's lathe, and helps keep all digits attached when using a flycutter or hole saw.

John Siebold
 
How important are thumbs? You can live without them but it's much better to have them.

Jekyll
 
Thumbs are free (but you can't buy replacements).
Anyway, if the usefullness of a drill press for RV construction approaches that of thumbs, it sounds like I should definately get one.
I think I'll wait until I get to the point in the construction where I'm wishing for one, rather than go buy it now (won't be starting my empannage for a couple of months... just preparing the shop right now).
 
There was a good thread several months ago about tools. Look it up and you'll see recommendations for drill presses, band saws, dremel sets, extra microstop countersinks etc. I highly recommend you outfit your shop before starting the project, if at all possible. You end up wasting money (and time) replacing parts if you goober them up with the wrong tool. "Goober" is a highly technical term.

Check flee markets, Nickel Traders and such and you may find some inexpensive but serviceable general-use tools.

I wouldn't consider building without a good drill press, dremel set and band saw. Accuracy, speed and confidence go way up.

Join a local EAA chapter and you will find a ready source of most specialty tools such as tube benders and cable swages but you might not be able to borrow something such as a drill press.

Jekyll
 
Can you build without one? Yes. Should you? Heck no!!! It would be a joke trying to get by without one. I built my whole plane with a benchtop model and it was fine.
 
Fly cutter for the Emp. lightening holes and tank access covers alone make this a must. I've found a lot of use for it non-airplane stuff too. I will say, before I cut the holes in my inboard tank ribs later this week, I'm chucking my $39 special from Harbor Junk into the trash and buying the 12" table top Ryobi at Aircraft Depot. Slower speeds, more room beneath the chuck, a key that actually fits/works...

Say what you want about Ryobi, but it won't be near as bad as I can say about Harbor Freight!!!

Good luck, you'll be gald you spent the money.

Joe
 
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Rigid

Home Depot has a floorstanding drill press made by RIGED... When I was shopping for it, I thought it had the best options and feel for the $...


I would not drill anything (almost) without one.

my 2 cents.


T
 
Your Call

prkaye said:
How important is it to have a drill press for building an RV?
Click to expand...
This is a highly useful tool that is readily adaptable to many household chores and its uncommon utility is not reserved or the exclusive domain of homebuilt aircraft construction. You will find it useful for many, many tasks in and out of airplane construction. But back to your
question....."How important is it to have a drill press for building an RV?"
I would ask you.....How much of a stickler for optimium hole quality are you? Are you the type of person that "good enough" is good enough for you? Or, are you the type of person that constantly strives to achieve the highest quality work possible? Often times you will be faced with construction situations that are best accomplished with a good drill press. That is not to say a "passable" job cannot be done with a hand drill, but a good drill press will produce much higher quality work no matter how good you are. Todays advanced kits do not require nearly the amount of sheet metal work the older kits did, as an example, almost all the lightening holes are thoughtfully included in the newer kits and to the average new builder the task is essentially a non issue. Not so with the slowbuilt kits of just a few years ago. The thumbnail illustrates just how many lightening holes I generated while building my RV-6A. I saved every one of them for my amusement. Its difficult for me to imagine generating all those lightening holes any other way.

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Still, among its uncounted tasks, I used my floor mounted drill press fitted with a fly cutter to generate most of the instrument panel holes, with a wire brush generated decorative circular swirl patterns on the visible parts of the baffling, used it on occasion as a sort of router when fitted with various ball files and the like, even to polish the aluminum spinner to a very high luster.

In the end I would say strictly speaking, you do not really need a drill press but its welcomed use certainly makes doing many jobs much easier, sometimes quicker, and quite often better.
 
Essential

You go along just fine with the hand drill, die grinder for most of the plane but you come to many off airframe jobs that require precision in size, shape and alignment that simply require a drill press to get it right. To a much lesser degree the same can be said about a bench grinder but I consider a drill press an essential tool for building an RV.

Bob Axsom
 
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