Angle Drill for Sanding Failure

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have a Milwaukee close quarter drill and use it as a sander,two years ago my son used it to do some sanding on a threshold, he had stopped using iras he said it made some funny noise.

As I had read about the failures with these drills I assumed it was history, anyway, I opened it up and found the rear bearing ceased, there was sanding dust in the housing even though I would blow it out occasionally.

So when the bearing ceased it rotated in the plastic housing and it melted/wore the opening, and then the armature would start to bounce around, making the funny noise.

I examined the bearing, it was a shielded bearing, good enough for drilling what it was designed for, but with sanding dust had gotten into the bearing as I found when taking the shields off.

So nothing to loose I decided to see if I could repair the housing opening, I got some two part epoxy (3M) and build the opening up, I had put the bearing back onto the armature and laid the bearing into the epoxy, closed the two halves almost tight and let the epoxy harden up.

Next day opened the drill up again and removed the armature and the bearing from it, cut the excess epoxy away, got a new bearing and reassembled the drill, plugged it in and pulled the trigger................... and she was just smoothly running again .

So the problem is that the shielded bearing will eventually get enough wood dust in it and cease up, and then ruin the housing, if this had been a sealed bearing this would not happen for a long time.

Mine is running again just fine, but if I ever need to buy a new one again (not likely), I will replace that shielded bearing with a sealed one right away.

[Reed Gray]

I did see the scrapers from Stew/Mac some time ago. I got a kick out of the video on how to grind them. I commented on it that he needed a CBN wheel and one of my rests...... Anyway, John in particular, what do you use for a burnishing rod? I am playing with some 3/16 by 1 1/2 inch micro grained carbide rods I picked up. I do like them better than the steel ones I picked up at the local big box stores. Still experimenting with burnished burrs on V10 and M42 for my shear scraping.

John and Prashun, please PM or e-mail me...

robo hippy

[Fred Belknap]

Reed I have those scrapers and highly recommend them. I grind mine on a CBN wheel but your rest won't go to a setting I can use to sharpen them. I have my old rest that came with the Wolverine and set it to zero tightened it down and don't change it so when I need to sharpen one of those scrapers it is just a matter of taking one rest out and sticking in the other. You can use then in both directions so probably a 6" wheel would sharpen them better but I get good results with an 8" wheel.

[Prashun Patel]

Reed, I'm sure I don't have more valuable info to add on this than John. But I will say that I fashioned my scrapers from an old pull shark saw blade. The profiles on the 'flatworld' scrapers are too big to be used inside bowls for me.

I do not burnish my scrapers for bowls. I chuck them in a vise and run a mill file over them @ 90 degrees until I get a feel it cutting well along the entire length. Then I go straight to the bowl (reverse + slowest speed on the outside, forward + slowest speed on the inside). I use shallow concave radius on the outside and a tiny gooseneck-ish one on the inside. I present at about 45 degrees to the axis, and at a very acute angle (almost 0 degrees) to the face.

My lathe bottoms out at 250 RPM, which gives me troubles on near the end grain. So, I scrape that area with the lathe off and the index pin engaged.

[Don Jarvie]

If you have a big enough compressor it may be worth going the air tool route.

[John K Jordan]

If you have a big enough compressor it may be worth going the air tool route.

I mentioned the Grex a time or two, but here is a picture to show the shape and size, here with a 2" pad:

grex_ROS.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HFPDJQ

I have 2" and 1" sanding pads and shaft extensions to get into deeper spots. This thing is very light weight, easy to handle, variable speed. I mostly use it with the lathe off. What I really like is I can run it slow and it's very gentle, almost like hand sanding. I learned about this from Rudy Lopez at a TN symposium.

I use a 5-hp 60 horse compressor in my shop but when sanding it doesn't run all the time. Maybe I should hook it up to one of my pancake compressors and see if that would drive it OK.

The price is about $5 more right now than when I bought it about a year and a half ago but I see from camelcamelcamel.com that it has come down 80-90 bucks at times. If interested in one, it might be worth setting a price watch.

JKJ

[Roger Chandler]

I found this video on how to tear down & lubricate the Harbor Freight close quarters drill.......I have the identical unit, and on the last two projects, it has gotten pretty hot in my hands, and the thing has gotten a lot louder....almost like it is screaming, and hurts my ears. I have used it pretty heavily over the last 3 to 4 years, so I am not upset at all....one of the best $30 I ever spent, I suppose.

https://youtu.be/Ti03m5fDV_k

I went to our local Harbor Freight and got a new one, with the 20% off coupon, and went ahead and got the two year extended warranty. The new one is much quieter! I tried to take my old one apart, so I could try to lubricate it, but the jacobs chuck would not come off.....the screw head is stripped and even a come out tool did not help. The metal on the screw head is too soft for it to bite, and it just reamed out the head.

I was a bit surprised that the gears and all are steel, and looks fairly well made on the insides.........I might try to fix my old one at a later date. A good video for someone who might want to service their unit.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I found this video on how to tear down & lubricate the Harbor Freight close quarters drill.......I have the identical unit, and on the last two projects, it has gotten pretty hot in my hands, and the thing has gotten a lot louder....almost like it is screaming, and hurts my ears. I have used it pretty heavily over the last 3 to 4 years, so I am not upset at all....one of the best $30 I ever spent, I suppose.

https://youtu.be/Ti03m5fDV_k

I went to our local Harbor Freight and got a new one, with the 20% off coupon, and went ahead and got the two year extended warranty. The new one is much quieter! I tried to take my old one apart, so I could try to lubricate it, but the jacobs chuck would not come off.....the screw head is stripped and even a come out tool did not help. The metal on the screw head is too soft for it to bite, and it just reamed out the head.

I was a bit surprised that the gears and all are steel, and looks fairly well made on the insides.........I might try to fix my old one at a later date. A good video for someone who might want to service their unit.

My Milwaukee close quarter drill is not like the one in your link Roger, a picture here shows it and also the Neiko that a lot of turners bought, I would say it is identical, the parts chart shows a real different layout than in the link.

The #2 is the rear bearing nd being the culprit, the replacement shows that it is a shielded bearing, replacing that with a sealed is what is required when using it as a sander.

Milwaukee close quarter drill.jpgneiko close quarter drill.jpgdrill parts list.jpgshielded bearing.jpg

[Thomas Wilson80]

I've been using my nice Dewalt drill but after reading about the damage, I need to buy a cheaper alternative. Which HF drill are you using?

[Roger Chandler]

I've been using my nice Dewalt drill but after reading about the damage, I need to buy a cheaper alternative. Which HF drill are you using?

The close quarters pro magnesium. It has all steel gears, and 3 bearings inside.......pretty good for $37.99.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I've been using my nice Dewalt drill but after reading about the damage, I need to buy a cheaper alternative. Which HF drill are you using?

Thomas I have bought several regular variable speed drills that where on sale, as depending the shape I will use the regular drills, but I also bought the right angle and the Close Quarter drill that has a 55 degree head orientation, as I find the Close Quarter drill is easier to control than the right angle one, but having both gives me the option of using either one.

I always walk by the small tools just to see if there is an extra good priced drill on sale, if so, it follows me home .

Here’s a picture of a couple of them, I have a few more .

sanding drills.jpg

[Thomas Wilson80]

Thanks. Will have to pick one up ASAP.
Tom

[Thomas Wilson80]

And another quick question: Do most of you sand with the drill while running low speed on the lathe or off the lathe? It seems like I've read several posts over the last few months where people mention only sanding off the lathe and I wonder why as it seems like it would be more challenging/time consuming. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Tom

[Bob Bouis]

Usually you keep the piece on the lathe just because it holds it while you sand it.

But, yeah, a lot of sanding is done with the lathe off, just rotating the piece by hand. Especially if it's out of round.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

And another quick question: Do most of you sand with the drill while running low speed on the lathe or off the lathe? It seems like I've read several posts over the last few months where people mention only sanding off the lathe and I wonder why as it seems like it would be more challenging/time consuming. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Tom

Yes sanding is mostly done on the lathe, and only some final hand sanding is done away from the lathe.