I’ve had issues with lots of pin vices over the past couple of years, and this is the best one I’ve found out of the three main ones I’ve tried.
It’s made by army painter and comes with 1.8mm, 1.4mm and 1mm drill bits, and a VERY useful tightening spanner. The drill bits drill well (unlike random ebay drill bits which are designed for power drills) and you can get through a lot of material very quickly. Best pin vice drill bits I think I’ve come across.
Included are four chucks
Here is a 1mm drill bit beside the smallest chuck almost fully tightened in the vice. It can certainly hold pins smaller than 1mm, I’d guesstimate probably down to about 0.5mm.
But the big thing about it is it seems to have a ball-bearing palm spinner.
In the past I’ve gotten hand cramps and broken drill bits due to fighting with rough palm spinners that don’t turn very well under appropriate pressure. This one doesn’t have that issue.
Cost me £8 or so and I couldn’t be happier, don’t buy anything else.
5 Likes
Post script:
The other two I’ve tried were
- An all-silver Army Painter pin vice (a rebranded generic one as far as I can tell, and it was trash aside from the drill bits).
- Generic black coloured one off ebay (trash in every way, even the chuck wouldn’t centre properly)
1 Like
I have the predecessor from Army Painter (EDIT: very likely the other Army Painter one you are mentioning) which is OK: it is reasonably comfortable in the hand and does its job for the majority of drill bits but some sizes will either not hold at all or have to be pushed in by force. Also it did start rusting where the bit is hold in place – could be my fault entirely since I use it also for sculpting (very handy for that purpose). So overall good to see that they try to improve their products. However, 1mm diameter for the smallest drill bit seems to be a bit on the large side for pinning and any non-bolter barrel drilling.
Agree on this, can the smallest collet accommodate smaller drill bits?
1 Like
Definitely, I should have mentioned the various sizes of included chuck/collet, I’ll add them to the main article now.
Here is a 1mm drill bit beside the smallest collet almost fully tightened in the vice.
2 Likes
Great added pictures. So it does have a theoretical minimum bit size out of the box. (Slightly smaller than 1mm)
Unless another collet is available.
I use this one as well! Bought it just cuz it was there and cheap and it’s much better than I expected
1 Like
I always used an electronic hand drill, got tired of manual drilling metal a long time ago. ^^
Me too, this is my weapon of choise for the last few years
3 Likes
Ikea do some good small cheap rechargeable electric screwdrivers/drills. I got one for about £20 I think and it has been my favourite hobby investment by far.
I mean I did pin 20 metal Ironbreakers and 30 metal Hammerers to their bases so I would be biased.
1mm PCB drill bits work great for use with a drill without needing an adapter or chuck
1 Like
