I have a Hougen and really like it. Very strog drill and magnet. Only draw back is the cost of annular cutters and 2 inch maximum quill stroke. I have the old Milwaukee drill and it is just collecting dust. To heavy and weak but it did have its place. The local LWS has some Jancy's and they are quite nice to. They have one with a power quill which would be nice for the big stuff. I believe it has a 4 inch stroke also. Hope this helps a little. I am sure they are all good and have there place.
Thanks! I'm kinda leaning that way, I've heard some good things about them. You haven't happened to use one of the metal saws that are handheld have you?
Do you mean a portaband(portable bandsaw)? If so yes I have. I prefer Metabo's but also like dewalts and milwaukees. Older Porter Cables are great also. But I still like a Metabo grinder with a wafer wheel for accurate cuts. Hey guys I meant I had the old Milwaukee drill. You know the giant one that weigh over 100 pounds. I just researched the new Milwaukees and they look identical to all other mag drills. I like the regular drill chuck idea because you can get small annular cutters. The smallest I have seen is 3/8 of an inch. I might decide to buy a Milwaukee next time I am in the market from what i have seen.
No, it's the circular saw type. Do they work like they claim?
They do work pretty well, but may or may not be the most cost effective solution. A friend of Mine was using an EVOLUTION brand saw to cut 1" plate, it worked OK even at that thickness, but He later went back to other methods due to the cost of the blades. I suspect they would hold up better on thinner material.
hello,
I have used both the hougn that was rented and we own a milwalkee. One big difference is the amount that they travel which makes the Milwalkee more adaptable for set-up. With the 3/4 chuck you can get any sized bit or hole saw. The slugger bits are awsome if you have a lot of the same sized holes but they cant cut thicker material. Depends on you main application, for production of the same sized holes in under 1 1/2" material I would buy the slugger style of drill with coolant. Bits can run into the $100 range. If you do a large variety of work I would stick to a long travel style drill, they are a little longer but much more usable.
As far as the hand held circular style metal cutters I have a Makita and love it. The drawbacks with the blades is they are not very forgiving. Pinching, hard slag inside and scale makes the carbides go poof. Loosing a couple of carbides is not the problem as they still cut fair with damaged blades. Its the $50 bill ever time you grenade one.You can make a 8 foot cut on 1/2 ms in under 8-9 minutes without much problem.
Good luck and have fun with the new toys
Dave
I have a jancy and love it. I can put a chuck on it and use twist drills or annular cutters. Has plenty of power and magnet holds real good.
Also have a milwalkee metal saw, they work good but like uphill says the blades get a little pricey.
Hougen is my choice the drill is a little heavyer then a milwaukee but the magnet is stronger. Uphill has said that it cannot drill through thick material I disagree if you are willing to pay for the bits they come in a 2inch length but they are pricey,but worth every penny if you want to save time standard lenght without going to measure one is 1.25 inchs which is good enough for most applications. they aren't cheap either the last one I bought was 1 1/8" cost $250.00cdn
Ruffian, Hougan or Jancy is best in my opinion and for annular bits Cleveland Steel Tool is a good source. Just bought a dozen 15/16 x 1 $ 31.50 ea. GO STEELERS AND PENS
If memory serves me right(its been 15 yrs) theres a way to get 3" depth on a hougan, by moving those shims that sit on the magnet. don't ask me how but we used to do it, on older type drills.
I own 3 mag drills. One is a dewalt with a standard jacobs chuck, the second one is a hougen low profile and is very compact and uses rotolock style bits that you don't need any tools to change the cutter. The third one is a hougen single speed that has a coolant tank and will take up to a 2 1/2" dia. cutter with a 2" cutting depth that I bought new 12 years ago and never had any problems. One nice thing about the annular cutters are you can use them on a drill press! We have to make tube sheets every so often, the holes are 2", 2 1/2" and 3" dia. So I bought an adapter that accepts the annular cutters 3/4" shank to #4 morris taper to use in my radial arm drill press. It takes about 40 seconds to drill a 2" hole in a 3/4" thick plate from the time I start the cutter in the plate until the slug pops out of the cutter. I hardly ever use twist drills anymore for large diameter holes unless I have to. (step drilling with twist drill take alot more time, so the cost of the cutters will pay for themselves quickly) All the brand name mag drills you mentioned are all very good, you will have to decide which drill will fit your needs. Some even have power feed. Hope that helps
( boiler tube )
i own a jancy holemaker and a mil. 8 in metal cutting saw, i love both of them. the jancy uses both twist bits and annular bits. the last job i was on the co. bought the saw blades so that was a good advantage on my part. if you shop ebay you can find good prices on blades and bits. in the long run both have paid for there selves many times, i was one of the last to leave job because i had both tools. makes the job so much easier, with little or no grinding.
Hougen makes a really nice drill for the $.
A Fein might cost a little more, but the maintenance cost is almost nothing.
Give me a call if you're pricing them out. (419)727-1727
-christian-
Forum
