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Homemade Multi Drill

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Cosmosus

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Hi,
I'm thinking of making a multi drill for wood drilling, that uses anywhere from 6 to 9 9V or 12V DC motors. These motors would be wired in parallel, with one battery source. I'd mount a drill chuck on each of the motors shafts for a drill bit. Now, I need a little bit of help from you. Do any of you have an experience in doing such a project?
My main concerns are drilling torque so that I could drill holes effortlessly in about 5 centimeter thick wood frames. Also, Another concern is battery life and how many volt batteries should I get? With same voltage as the motors? Are DC motors prone to overheating by working close to their full potential? My goal is to have reliable and long-lasting contraption for drilling.

Thank you very much, I wish you all a good day!
 
First bearings in most "motors" are not meant for axial forces. Motors designed for drilling have "thrust" bearings. You might consider purchasing old battery powered drills that have dead batteries and just wire them up to an external power source. How many drills and what spacing are you envisioning? What is the maximum size drill bits?


Ken
 
First bearings in most "motors" are not meant for axial forces. Motors designed for drilling have "thrust" bearings. You might consider purchasing old battery powered drills that have dead batteries and just wire them up to an external power source. How many drills and what spacing are you envisioning? What is the maximum size drill bits?


Ken
Thank you for your message.

I was thinking anywhere from 6-8 drills, spaced about 5 centimeters apart. I would like to be able to use smaller aswell as bigger drill bits, like 10 mm.
After more thinking about this project, the best option would be 220V power supply rather than battery, since this machine would only be needed in garage. In this case, a transformator should be wired before the circuit (motors). Would I need anything else, like voltage regulator? My main goal with this project is being as straightforward and simple as possible, with enough DC motor torque to drill thicker pieces of wood and without motors overheating.
 
5cm apart...up to 10cm diameter holes! What are you trying to make with this drill concept?

Sometimes it's easier for us to help solve you problem, than help solve your solution! ;)

Ken
 
5cm apart...up to 10cm diameter holes! What are you trying to make with this drill concept?

Sometimes it's easier for us to help solve you problem, than help solve your solution! ;)

Ken
Drills bits with 10 MILIMETER diameter, not 10 centimeters. They would be 5 centimeter apart from each other.
 
Drills bits with 10 MILIMETER diameter, not 10 centimeters. They would be 5 centimeter apart from each other.

It would be much easier to use ONE drill and some automated jigs.

As discussed above, starting with a real drill motor or even a whole drill press may be easiest. Even if you need an x-, y-gantry to move the drill over a sheet of plywood. There is plenty of 3-d printing control (G-code) software out there to make what you might need. Use some extruded aluminum channel "80-20" to build the gantry.
 
Sorry. But, holes 5cm apart means the drill bodies can only be 5cm in diameter. And 10mm (~3/8")would be a pretty big bit for that small a drill motor. Dremel drills might work, but only have collets for 1/8" (~3mm) bits. Still, you haven't said what you are trying to accomplish.

Ken
 
I'd use smaller drill chuck, found one with only 2.5cm in thickness, there are a lot of them on ebay.
This "machine" is for drilling multiple holes at the same time, evenly spaced.It is used for making holes in hive frames. Don't know exactly why, but there is a demand in my area, so I thought I could begin with this project.
All the mechanical parts I can get for free, laser cut, even stainless steel.
Here are pictures of what I'm trying to accomplish:
 

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Most normal electric drills have a standardised "neck" where a side handle attaches - a 43mm diameter parallel section.
You can get various clamps and fittings to allow drills to be attached to frames at that point.

If you worked on 100mm spacing instead of 50mm, you should be able to use most types of common pistol drill in such a jig.
Just have a sliding base with two dowelled locations 50mm apart so you can drill the full set of holes in two operations.

Example clamps - there are dozens of styles available:
**broken link removed**
https://www.axminster.co.uk/shesto-universal-drill-clamp-504095
https://toolmonger.com/2009/02/24/clamp-your-drill-to-your-work-bench/
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1lhO2...-Mount-Bracket-Clamp-Spindle-Motor-Holder.jpg
 
Most normal electric drills have a standardised "neck" where a side handle attaches - a 43mm diameter parallel section.
You can get various clamps and fittings to allow drills to be attached to frames at that point.

If you worked on 100mm spacing instead of 50mm, you should be able to use most types of common pistol drill in such a jig.
Just have a sliding base with two dowelled locations 50mm apart so you can drill the full set of holes in two operations.

Example clamps - there are dozens of styles available:
**broken link removed**
https://www.axminster.co.uk/shesto-universal-drill-clamp-504095
https://toolmonger.com/2009/02/24/clamp-your-drill-to-your-work-bench/
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1lhO2...-Mount-Bracket-Clamp-Spindle-Motor-Holder.jpg
Thanks, alll the mechanical stuff is not a problem, I have a friend how is a master in DIY mechanics and frame building, my most important things to consider are motor types. I was looking at something like
t**broken link removed**

or this
**broken link removed**

with a transformer and a bridge rectifier
 
OK on the mechanics.

I'd avoid anything like your first link, low voltage and small output shaft. The power will not be that high and the life under load rather short.
The second is more practical, just with a different gearbox ratio to give a reasonable speed at the drill bit.
I'd also only use 24V ones, they should be more efficient and give better results; higher voltage means lower current for the same power.

This is the nearest I can find so far; for an inline-style one:
**broken link removed**

That has has a 10:1 gearbox which gives ten times the torque of the bare motor but still gives a drill speed of up to 1000RPM.

Or better still, a right-angle one with a bigger [and better made looking, machined rather than pressed] motor, still less than 50mm wide.
**broken link removed**

The 24V 470RPM version of that should work well. The fact that they have an 8mm output shaft (hopefully) shows they are designed for serious loads rather than just being toy motors..

It looks like there are a few places selling those, or get them direct from aliexpress etc.

I'd add a small thrust bearing for the chuck to seat against, so the drilling force is applied to the gearbox body rather than just the output shaft, they should last a lot longer that way.
eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEARING-...748314?hash=item2edee077da:g:i4MAAOSw-RRXCny4
 
OK on the mechanics.

I'd avoid anything like your first link, low voltage and small output shaft. The power will not be that high and the life under load rather short.
The second is more practical, just with a different gearbox ratio to give a reasonable speed at the drill bit.
I'd also only use 24V ones, they should be more efficient and give better results; higher voltage means lower current for the same power.

This is the nearest I can find so far; for an inline-style one:
**broken link removed**

That has has a 10:1 gearbox which gives ten times the torque of the bare motor but still gives a drill speed of up to 1000RPM.

Or better still, a right-angle one with a bigger [and better made looking, machined rather than pressed] motor, still less than 50mm wide.
**broken link removed**

The 24V 470RPM version of that should work well. The fact that they have an 8mm output shaft (hopefully) shows they are designed for serious loads rather than just being toy motors..

It looks like there are a few places selling those, or get them direct from aliexpress etc.

I'd add a small thrust bearing for the chuck to seat against, so the drilling force is applied to the gearbox body rather than just the output shaft, they should last a lot longer that way.
eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEARING-...748314?hash=item2edee077da:g:i4MAAOSw-RRXCny4
Wow, thanks man! I was wondering if 12V motor is not powerful enough. I got the info that drill bits used on this machine should be 5mm thick at maximum. Mostly, 4mm bits would be used.
Now, we got the motors set. What about power supply to the motors? One 220V to 24V transformer and a bridge rectifier would suffice? I don't need speed control or separate motor control, just one switch to turn machine on and off.
 
This "machine" is for drilling multiple holes at the same time, evenly spaced.
Why not drive all the drill chucks with a single mains motor, using a toothed or V-belt?
 
What about power supply to the motors? One 220V to 24V transformer and a bridge rectifier would suffice? I don't need speed control or separate motor control, just one switch to turn machine on and off.

How many motors are you going to be using? They could need several amps each at full load.

A commercial 24V PSU that has smoothing and regulation may be more economical in the long run.

For a transformer-rectifier, the transformer will need to be something from 15V to 18V depending on ratings and quality - that will give around 24V after rectification and smoothing. You need a reasonably well smoothed supply otherwise the motor load and power will be very uneven and the gearboxes are likely to wear rather faster.


Something like this, 24V 41A, should run anything from [probably] four to eight motors depending just how powerful the motors are and how much load you put on them:
**broken link removed**

Those are rather cheaper than a conventional power transformer capable of 1000W output.
 
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Why not drive all the drill chucks with a single mains motor, using a toothed or V-belt?

This is an option. How were you thinking of making this? One main motor with belt and a few shafts with chucks?
This shafts should then have tooths right? Do you have a picture or a sketch of this mechanism?

How many motors are you going to be using? They could need several amps each at full load.

A commercial 24V PSU that has smoothing and regulation may be more economical in the long run.

For a transformer-rectifier, the transformer will need to be something from 15V to 18V depending on ratings and quality - that will give around 24V after rectification and smoothing. You need a reasonably well smoothed supply otherwise the motor load and power will be very uneven and the gearboxes are likely to wear rather faster.


Something like this, 24V 41A, should run anything from [probably] four to eight motors depending just how powerful the motors are and how much load you put on them:
**broken link removed**

Those are rather cheaper than a conventional power transformer capable of 1000W output.

If I go that route with multiple motors, I'd like having minimum 4 motors, maximum 6. Btw, this machine wouldn't be heavily used, only once or twice a year (usually in winter), when beekeepers use it on wooden frames before pollination season.

This 41A one is 45$, which is way over my budget only for power unit.
 
How were you thinking of making this? One main motor with belt and a few shafts with chucks?
Yes. Ask your friend for his advice on the details, since you said :
Thanks, alll the mechanical stuff is not a problem, I have a friend how is a master in DIY mechanics and frame building
 
So in that case, would 24V motor be enough? Like that one, that rjenkinsgb suggested:
That might cope with one chuck, but even then it would drill very slowly.
A typical power drill is rated at a few hundred Watts, so I don't think a 24V 10A supply would be enough, particularly bearing in mind that ratings for some online products tend to be 'optimistic' (to put it politely :) ).
 
Looks awesome, it's just on sale! This one shouldb be more than enough for the project. Now hom many Amp power station am I going to need?

Btw, why are these so cheap?

https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...pm=a2700.7724838.2017115.1.b3c83ab4qLUWpu&s=p

https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...l?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.84.b3c83ab4qLUWpu

If you're looking at specs, it says 5~48V output voltage, 2.3~16A output current, 100W power
 
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