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.

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 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.

Easy assembly, works great for straight holes in precise work. Better tan expected. Highly recommend for DIY wood workers

This is somewhat helpful, but I can't decide whether it hinders more than it helps.- It's heavy.- It's mechanism gets stuck in the down position and doesn't want to come back up. The rails are not parallel, so it gets narrower at the bottom causing the slide to bind and get stuck in place. It takes a lot of finagling to get it back up for the next cut. Even a healthy dose of lithium grease did not solve it, although it was a bit smoother. (The shorter distance of the rails at the bottom than the top still caused it to bind and stick somewhat.)- The spring reduces the movement downward. This reduces the drilling depth by a half inch. I had to dissemble the unit to get the spring out and drill deeper holes, as I needed that extra reach.- There is too much play. About a quarter inch movement from side to side, even fully tightened.- It comes loose with heavy use (after 30-40 holes). If you don't notice this, you will drill angled holes without noticing, because you're convinced that they're straight. Hand-drilling them would be much straighter in this case.For light drilling, and under the right conditions, this can still be cheaper and more convenient than a drill press.And it has a superpower: Drilling a new hole that overlaps an existing one! I was able to fix some holes that were in the wrong place with new ones that overlapped the wxisti one by 1/3 the bit diameter. Amazing.It took some pressure, and a slow progression, but this would be impossible freehand.

This has been a perfect product for me. I have a very small woodworking shop, and it eliminates the need for a separate drill press. For me anything I can do to save space is great, and I can still do almost anything I could with a larger drill press.

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 !

Pour faire des trous bien droits et ne pas risquer de dérapage (qui peut conduire à se blesser ou à endommager la surface près du point de perçage), ce guide de perçage est une alternative aux perceuses à colonne.

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

This is the first drill guide of this type I try and it’s by far the best. It’s quite sturdy and drills straight since it’s mostly made of metal. Probably the best tool if it’s kind.

Il prodotto pare costruito con buoni materiali.Presenta un certo gioco come evidenziato da altri recensori, quindi non può essere considerato uno strumento di precisione come un trapano a colonna.Ma una precisione elevata non è il fine per cui è stato costruito.Serve per raggiungere una precisione "sufficiente" e migliore di quanto si può normalmente raggiungere con un trapano utilizzato a mano.Personalmente l'ho utilizzato con un trapano a batteria per fare diversi fori per tasselli in un muro, e ritengo che i fori fatti con l'aiuto di questo attrezzo siano risultati più precisi e definiti di quelli fatti in precedenza a mano libera.La presenza della manopola laterale (di cui sentivo per quel lavoro la mancanza sul piccolo trapano a batteria) aiuta parecchio a tenere in posizione il complesso trapano/supportoI piedini in gomma sotto la base aiutano molto anche a tenere fermo il supporto appoggiato sul muro nelle fasi iniziali della foratura.Un poco limitata l'apertura del mandrino, ma molti fori non richiedono più dei 10mm che può raggiungere.Il prezzo è più elevato di altre proposte apparentemente simili ma a giudicare dalle recensioni lette su di essi conviene pagare qualcosa in più per un prodotto che funziona meglio e dà una sensazione di affidabilità nel tempo.Un miglioramento possibile, oltre alla riduzione del gioco, sarebbe aggiungere un posto dove mantenere attaccata la chiave con cui si regola il mandrino (io per non perderla la lego alla maniglia con uno spago) oppure un'opzione per un mandrino serrabile senza chiave (penso però che quelli con la chiave offrano un serraggio più affidabile).