A Magnetic Drill Allows Drilling To Be Conducted Safely At a Workplace
When you need to drill into steel it is very necessary that you are able to clamp down on the item being drilled, so that it does not move due to the friction and other forces that are imposed on it by fast moving drill bits. This requires tables and clamping devices to hold the work piece tight, while it is being drilled into. This can become difficult where any drilling operation has to be performed on site, or in awkward positions some of which may even be at angles or overhead.
A magnetic drill solves this problem, by allowing a drill that is portable to be clamped to the work piece or other holding structure so that the required rigidity can be easily maintained. It allows the drill to be taken to the workplace, instead of shifting the work piece to the fabrication shop or workbench. It can be used in any position, irrespective of it being horizontal, vertical or even overhead. These mag drills, as they are called are used in building construction, steel fabrication work, and even in mining, rebuilding of bridges, ship building, repairs to vehicles, by power utilities, mobile repair shops and any situation that requires steel or other material to drilled into away from a workshop. You will find them with handymen, and in large construction sites and they help to make drilling work much easier, because the drill is held very firmly and allows it to take all the resistance that drilling action can cause.
Mag drills are portable drilling equipment, which have an electro magnet at their base. Once the position of the drill is determined, the operator switches on this electromagnet, and this clamps the drill to the steel being drilled. This needs the surface to which the drill is to be clamped through magnetization to be solid and thicknesses of steel of over 3/8 inch are preferred. In case of lesser thickness it may be necessary to increase the thickness at that point by attaching another piece of steel. A piece of steel material bigger than the base of the magnet can be put below the steel surface to be drilled, so that it automatically gets gripped by the magnet and holds the drill in the correct position. You can use this same technique to clamp mag drills to non-ferrous materials that need drilling ,as long as you can ensure that a piece of steel is firmly attached to it by other means. It is very necessary that the surface to which the magnetic drill will clamp itself be free of oil or other coating, so that proper magnetic adhesion is assured.
Pipes can also be drilled through by mag drills by using pipe adapters that ensure that they confirm to the curved surface on one side and give a flat surface on the other side, to which the drill can easily be clamped. It must always be ensured that the surfaces on which the drill is to be clamped are not uneven, and have no debris or metal chips adhering to them. Most of these drills also come with safety chains or straps, which will come in handy to prevent slippage and the chances of injuries. They can also be useful, when the power to the magnet is switched off, prior to shifting it to a new location.
