Milescraft 1318 DrillMate Portable Drillling Guide – Precision Drilling Jig Attachment for Drilling Angled or Straight Holes, Adjustable Drill Guide Attachment, Portable Drill Press with 3/8” Chuck

Wow! Drill press? Who needs a stinking drill press?
I have two drills, one is easy to manage and battery powered. The other is a powerhouse corded impact drill. My battery-powered Black & Decker has a slightly smaller shaft. I’m just guessing that the Black & Decker has a 3/8″ and this has a 1/4″. I don’t know for sure, it could be metric too. This was extremely accurate, easy to use. I assembled it without the spring for more depth control, not fighting the spring’s resistance.My primary use needed to be in a cordless situation with soft woods, so this is not going to work out because of the chuck size or whatever that piece is called.

A welcome addition.
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.

Nope. Easier to square a hand drill and go by hand for me
I really tried to like this thing, it’s built well and seems to be a fairly quality tool. However, after several months I have now screwed up three guitar bodies trying to make proper use of it (practiced on countless pieces of scrap getting familiar with it). It works pretty well for straightness once the hole is started, but it’s almost impossible to get centered and started because the whole thing is top-heavy, wobbles, and jerks when the drill bit starts to catch. The spring is constantly resisting against the user (and it is NOT a smooth vertical track, even when lubricated) so it’s a pretty aggressive process, all of which adds up to fractions of an inch of movement, which is NOT ok for perfectly-aligned string furls (which is why I got this to begin with).I have yet to succeed with this thing, as much as I’ve tried to like it.. it’s going into the cupboard until I can find a low-precision job for it. In my experience, it is not suited for guitar building, it’s just too clumsy and I don’t need any assistance with being clumsy 🙂 I have 30 years experience with woodworking, so I’m not a newb, and perhaps others have better success with this – I can do better taking my time with a hand drill for things that don’t fit on my drill press.

Small stock appropriate.
Specifically for craft and small stock. It fit a 3/4 bit but lining up perfectly on your mark is difficult. It might work great for smaller applications but it struggles logistically with large and repetitive, precise drilling. The precision drill markings sold in the Pro version would save lots of beaches.

Il fait son job.Par exemple, grâce à cet outil, je peux percer de gros trous profonds dans des poteaux, trous dans lesquels des barres se soutien prendront ensuite place. Il faut que les trous soient bien droits, pour que le poteau, une fois installé sur la barre, soit droit également.C’est ce qui me fallait !

Preciso e robusto

a little confusing to assemble. build quality is excellent. positioning is very precise.