Best Air Drill

[stinger12]

I'm getting sick of using my Dewalt cordless drill at work. Its time for me to switch over to a pneumatic drill.

I do classic car restorations for a living, so I will be using it all the time. I used my boss's pneumatic drill a couple of months ago, and quickly switched back to my dewalt drill (that air drill was absolutely terrible...it had no torque, and didn't have any RPM). It was a snap on blue point.

I need one with lots of power, and it has to have reverse on it. Please post your recommendations.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Power for what? What size chuck? Way too open ended to answer.

A great, good price 1/4" drill is offered by chicago pneumatic, and has reverse. I have 3 of them.

3/8", and 5/8" are rockwells, but I doubt you'll find them with reverse. As far as torque, you physically can not stop the stuck 5/8" drill with a 10" handle on it.

 

[stinger12]

Power for what? What size chuck? Way too open ended to answer.

For drilling through sheet metal and steel. I can't see me having to drill anything thicker than 1/4".

I'm looking for one with a 1/2" chuck. Which is better...keyed or keyless?

 

[nissan_crawler]

Depends on how much money you want to spend. Personally, I couldn't live without my keyless Rohm chuck. However, not cheap.

 

[A_Pmech]

What kind of hole sizes?

The hole diameter, not the thickness of the material, will dictate the speed of the drill. With a 1/2" chuck it sounds like you want about a 1,000 to 1,500 RPM drill motor.

 

[sparky7]

sioux

 

[cnc-me]

I don't think any air drill, is going to have as much torque as an electric.
I got a Snap-On 1200 rpm and a Dynabrade inline 3200 rpm of the 2 I use the
Dynabrade a lot more. They don't have the torque (air drills) so you might as well get one
with some RPM's. Have not seen any keyless chucks (that come on portable tools anyway)
worth a ****, so I would get the keyed version.
Just my $.02 cents worth......

 

[stinger12]

Depends on how much money you want to spend. Personally, I couldn't live without my keyless Rohm chuck. However, not cheap.

I'm not concerned about price.

Please post brand make and model numbers.

 

[diesel research]

I'm not sure what the complaint is of being slow, the slow drills typically have more torque, allowing a higher feed pressure. Get nice long spiral swarf.

I will take air over electric hand drills any day in steel. I have yet to meet a cordless drill that could keep up if the metal is at all thicker than sheet metal. Corded can, but suffer a serious loss of power when trying to get low speeds.

To me, "restoring cars" also means drilling brackets and broken/rusted bolts. No particular brands in mind, even the cheap imports walk circles around a cordless dewalt (my least favorite brand of cordless) and even out performed the shops corded milwaukee magnum hole shooter.

Close to top of the line would be cleco or dotco. I think souix might be slightly behind them.

 

[DrkMtnDew]

IR Model# 7803RAKC - 1/2'' Keyless

SO Stock#: PDR3000A - 3/8'' Keyed

i don't currently have the SO but i'm hoping to change that soon.

 

[nissan_crawler]

I don't think any air drill, is going to have as much torque as an electric.
I got a Snap-On 1200 rpm and a Dynabrade inline 3200 rpm of the 2 I use the
Dynabrade a lot more. They don't have the torque (air drills) so you might as well get one
with some RPM's. Have not seen any keyless chucks (that come on portable tools anyway)
worth a ****, so I would get the keyed version.
Just my $.02 cents worth......

I would argue all of that. I drilled a 4.5" hole through the bed of my truck with my air drill, it about broke my arms, but the drill couldn't have cared less. 3" holesaw through 1" steel plate? Wasn't even a challenge.

A Rohm keyless chuck will grip better than any of the Jacobs keyed chucks I've used.

I believe this is the one that I have on my 1/4" air drill: http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=240-3042

 

[oldtools]

There are Dotco and Cleco. They are US made and they are made for the aircraft industry.

 

[kingston]

I've got mostly Sioux, I doubt that you will want just one. Having a few in a variety of RPM ranges is pretty handy. Look on the bay. Dotco, Cleco, Sioux and many others are very high quality. I started with the Sioux (s) and then ended up acquiring a stock of spare parts for them.

 

[Monte]

 

[NeilH]

i just have a mid range air drill as i dont use it enough to justify a snap on one.

if i used it every day then i would have no problem spending the extra.

mine has a 13mm keyless chuck.

 

[K5blazer83]

I have a Snap-On PDR3A with a 1/2" keyed chuck and I love it. It eats through steel and says "is that all ya got?!"

 

[oldtools]

Quackenbush would be an over kill and also cost you an arm and a leg. Boeing use Dotco and Cleco so they should be good enough for you. They are not cheap either. A brand new Dotco cost around $1000. Definitely look for used one. I got a used very good condition Dotco for $35 at swapmeet.

 

[sparky7]

I've got mostly Sioux, I doubt that you will want just one. Having a few in a variety of RPM ranges is pretty handy. Look on the bay. Dotco, Cleco, Sioux and many others are very high quality. I started with the Sioux (s) and then ended up acquiring a stock of spare parts for them.

Are you saying the sioux break a lot? just wondering

 

[cnc-me]

I would argue all of that. I drilled a 4.5" hole through the bed of my truck with my air drill, it about broke my arms, but the drill couldn't have cared less. 3" holesaw through 1" steel plate? Wasn't even a challenge.

Got a picture of the drill you used for this?
What model & brand is it?
What size hose are you using, must be 3/8 or 1/2" ?

Not saying all air drills are wimpy, but as a general rule the
electric motor has more reserve torque than air motors do.
I got my share of air tools, impacts ,drills, saws ect, so I'm not
biased to electric by any means either.

 

[kingston]

Are you saying the sioux break a lot? just wondering

No, I am not saying that they break a lot. I am saying that I've bought and resurrected more than a couple of well used or abused units that came out of heavy production environments. These are very heavy duty units made to work 3 shifts a day, 7 days a week... They can be and are worth servicing and repairing. Didn't you recommend Sioux above, this shouldn't be news to you. I don't know why I am even responding to this.

 

[jaysonb]

I have a snap on pdr5a, 1/2". Does the job well, plenty of power.

 

[peterbilr98]

snap on pdr5000a 1/2" lots of power will twist your arm when it grabs i also have a snap on 3/8 pdr3000 bolth great air drills iv tryed many of other air drills before getting my snap ons none of them come close money well spent i also took my time on ebay got them new for about 125.00 less than retail.

 

[toolfreak]

I have a snap on pdr5a, 1/2". Does the job well, plenty of power.

That's my recommendation, you better have a hold of it when it stalls.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Got a picture of the drill you used for this?
What model & brand is it?
What size hose are you using, must be 3/8 or 1/2" ?

Not saying all air drills are wimpy, but as a general rule the
electric motor has more reserve torque than air motors do.
I got my share of air tools, impacts ,drills, saws ect, so I'm not
biased to electric by any means either.

Back middle of the drawer:

It's a rockwell 5/8" chuck, no idea what model. 3/8" air hose, milton type v fittings.

 

[A_Pmech]

Back middle of the drawer:

It's a rockwell 5/8" chuck, no idea what model. 3/8" air hose, milton type v fittings.

No pancake or angle drills?

 

[nissan_crawler]

No pancake or angle drills?

heh, this is at home. I also have a 1/4" chicago pneumatic non-reversible at home.

At work I have:

1/4" chicago Pneumatic reversible with Rohm keyless chuck. (main drill)

1/4" chicago pneumatic non reversible

1/4" dotco palm drill

1/4" rockwell quick change drill.

3/8" rockwell drill

90* threaded (not a collet) rockwell drill

45* threaded (not a collet) rockwell drill

4 pancake drills

I would still like to get a 1/2" or 5/8" one at work, also.

 

[A_Pmech]

Ahh, the home box... That explains it then.

 

[sparky7]

No, I am not saying that they break a lot. I am saying that I've bought and resurrected more than a couple of well used or abused units that came out of heavy production environments. These are very heavy duty units made to work 3 shifts a day, 7 days a week... They can be and are worth servicing and repairing. Didn't you recommend Sioux above, this shouldn't be news to you. I don't know why I am even responding to this.

I was wondering if you were implying if they break a lot in your first post. It seemed like that might have been what you meant because you collect spare parts for them.

I never said that they break a lot, infact i own a rivet gun by them the 207a i believe.