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Cool Tools: Wabeco's Portable Drill Stand

By Rain Noe - March 14, 2022

in Tools & Craft

You've probably seen one of these cheapie $40-$50 drill guides before, that promise to let you drill perfectly plumb into workpieces when you don't have a drill press:

I could use that in my shop, but they tend to not get great reviews, and I'm skeptical that they work well.

Woodpeckers makes what looks like a well-made version…

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…but it's out of my price range at $370.

I spotted this thing on designer Daniel Rybakken's Instagram:

I looked it up, and that drill stand is made by German manufacturer Wabeco. It looks like a heavy-duty piece of kit, yet surprisingly, it's cheaper that the Woodpeckers offering: It comes in four sizes, ranging from a 500mm-tall €149.99 (USD $164) version up to a 1000mm tall (USD $254) version.

If you're curious about it, this is the best video review of one I could find:

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While it's coming close to having the same footprint as an actual drill press, for a tight shop I think this could be tucked away far easier, and it's certainly cheaper than a floor-standing model.

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John Whitley

2 years ago

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I have one of the model shown at top, and they're pretty atrocious. It's difficult to ascertain whether they're ever actually setup square to the base, and have so much wobble even fully locked down that I'm not sure it matters.

Wabeco also makes some reasonably well regarded small milling machines (possibly others - that's just what I'm familiar with), so it's no wonder that their version of a hand-drill press looks like "real" machinery. The depth stop mechanism in the video is interesting – it looks like it's probably a fair bit more consistent than the stop on my (otherwise fantastic) floor-standing drill press. I do wonder how much of the travel range that stop permits the use of? At one point, I would have been VERY interested in that bit of kit, back when dwelling in much more limited space, but it's obviously less useful now that I have the capacity for a dedicated machine with my own custom-built drill press table, etc. Still, sometimes there's an occasional need for multiple machines setup for multiple pass work. The Wabeco unit might be good enough for that occasional and/or portable accuracy need within a larger shop.

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