Toolmaking – Converting a Hand Drill into a Drill Press

For my current project I have need of a drill press. However, I already own a perfectly good, and rather powerful hand drill (Bosch GSB 16 RE) and did not want to spend money on a whole other tool. I came across a drill stand on Carousell (a craigslist-like app) going for 30 bucks, so I decided to pick it up.

Here’s a cheap drill stand.

After receiving the stand, I realized that it has a problem. The stand is decent enough – fairly rigid with a slightly-too-stiff press mechanism. However, since the hand drill is operated by a trigger, and the speed depends on the pressure on the trigger, that meant that once mounted on the stand, the drill cannot be controlled easily. After starting this project, I realized (upon reading the manual for the first time in 2 years) that there is a latch on the drill to keep the drill on, as well as a knob to control the speed. Nevertheless, that is a somewhat unintuitive mode of operation.

I came across a drill speed control using a bike brake on Instructables (great site, by the way). I realized that I had some leftover parts from a previous project, as well as a set of old bike brake levers and brakes that I could use. First, I measured the inner diameter of my brake lever mount, as well as the thickness of the drill stand handle. Then, I drew up a 3D model of an adapter on FreeCad, and 3D printed it. Using this, I was able to get a good clamping purchase.

3D printed almost-half cylinders to adapt the brake levers to the press handle.

Next up, I had to improvise a bit because unlike the brakes in the instruct able (which uses a caliper brake), mine is a so-called v-brake. As a result, the mounting is a bit different. I use two mounting points to hold the brake, and because there are no screw threads in the plywood, I had to drill a 10mm hole and epoxy the brake on.

The V-brake needs to be mounted at two points, and the cable sits on the opposite side of the drill from the mounting points.

Now, I assembled the whole thing with the cabling, and it looks like this.

All told, this little build took about 30 mins, including simple planning, drilling, and assembly. Now, see the drill in action!