Thread: Revolutionary Teknatool Drill Press

I checked with Carbatec and they are still saying availability is some months away. Also pricing is around $2,400! Eeep!

Also, evidently the proximity sensor that shuts the drill down if your hand gets too close was taken out after the prototype. I asked as I do some work shaping boxes on a sanding disc on my existing drill press and thought it might keep switching off if you got too close. Doesn't really matter at that price, too rich for my blood...

The drill is now available in NZ Carbatec, the price they gave me over the phone is $2750 NZD.

I have checked out the drill subsequently and its a nice little unit. "little" when compared to my other machines.

After I have moved I will buy one (have finally sold my place and will be moving soon - wont be moving out to the rural though)

I went and had a look at this DP today and came away a bit conflicted and confused. Firstly let me say that I did not drill anything with it and was there just to have a cursory look to see if the idea still appealed.

The machine is a solid beast with no obvious flaws I could see. I extended the quill to the maximum and could not discern any movement when I held the chuck and tried to move the quill to test for any sloppiness which is good. The mechanical depth stop has a quick adjust feature where the knurled nut can be moved up and down the threaded rod without having to turn it on the thread, much like the quick adjustment on a vise. I can't see this being used much because the DP electronics can be set up to stop drilling at a pre-set depth so why they have a mechanical stop is not really obvious. The up and down quill movement feels good and no obvious roughness was felt.

The electronic settings are myriad, auto start when the quill is lowered to save that time when you need three hands to hold something and to begin drilling, auto reverse to back out of a drilled or tapped hole, select the drill type being used, material being drilled etc, in fact all the stuff we have seen on YT videos. While I was being shown this I began to think what happens when I want to just walk up to it and start drilling a hole, I don't want to go through all this crap as much as I like the idea of being able to do so if I wanted to. I have a geared head drill and it takes me literally five seconds to select any speed I want, if I had a belt change DP then I suspect setting the menus up would compare or be faster than changing belt speeds and if I was in that position I think the CC would have come out there and then.

The control pad seems very well made and the membrane is a tough flexible material which I have no doubt would last the life time of the DP given a respectable amount of care. It is very silent in operation, I have never heard a drill or mill that was as quite, If I am working at mine for instance for any period of time I use ear muffs because the drive train is so noisy. I think Nova have missed the boat on one aspect of this DP and that is if a user did a particular job frequently it should be possible to call up the settings for that job and save some time and any mistakes that might occur.

All in all a very impressive bit of gear and I am still thinking about it. I have had an offer to buy my DP but it is such a good thing I am reluctant to part with it. If it were an Asian belt driven DP it would be looking for a new home right now.

Thanks to the staff at CT who went to the trouble to show it to me. I know it is their job but they are still learning about this DP and aren't all that familiar with it yet which is understandable as they have only had it for a very short time.

Thanks for that Chris, very informative. But what are you confused about??

At $2420 it will sure give the Jet variable speed (beltless) DP a run for its money - a few years ago it was something over $2k and not as much quill travel either (not bad, but certainly not 150mm, which is great travel).

Reckon this might just be the DP for me when the extension is done.

If you have the space then you may as well keep your current DP if you get the Nova, as you won'y get a lot of coin for it will you? You will still use it for all sorts of things I think.

On thinking about it a bit more and watching a few videos last night my doubts have been erased. What I was not shown yesterday was the manual speed control, that changes things for me. I should have watched a few videos before I went to CT to have a look and things would have been more clear. I was only shown the use the control had within the menu system, as a straight speed control such as needed when the user walks up to the drill and wants to simply drill a 10mm hole it overcomes all my doubts. Now to have a chat to the bank errr wife manager.

You have someone who manages your wife? Where do i sign?

Originally Posted by NCArcher

You have someone who manages your wife? Where do i sign?

There called a mother in law
Can be difficult beast


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Has Festool's Domino finally lost its long held grasp of the #1 position on the "technology/price/functionality debate" ladder?! Who saw a humble drill press taking that away!

I see it as being similar to a Tesla. Its very impressive, I admire and respect it, I wish I had one, and am jealous of my 3 yr old son who will probably have one (or similar) the first time he is in a market for one.

Originally Posted by I_wanna_Shed

Has Festool's Domino finally lost its long held grasp of the #1 position on the "technology/price/functionality debate" ladder?! Who saw a humble drill press taking that away!

I see it as being similar to a Tesla. Its very impressive, I admire and respect it, I wish I had one, and am jealous of my 3 yr old son who will probably have one (or similar) the first time he is in a market for one.

I don't think this will replace the Domino as the #1 in that category, i still think the domino was and still is a game changer for speed and accuracy, i don't see this happing with the Nova Drill as much.

But it is a bloody exciting tool, i'm seriously thinking of getting one,

I'd have to make the effort to use all the benefits, or i might as well just use a normal drill press.

The big question is what is next...

Originally Posted by bryn23

I'd have to make the effort to use all the benefits, or i might as well just use a normal drill press.

Beltless infinitely variable speeds, 150mm travel are the biggies for me and would be almost enough to justify it by themselves. Everything else is a bonus!

Originally Posted by bryn23

I'd have to make the effort to use all the benefits, or i might as well just use a normal drill press.

That is the way I look at it, if the time is not taken to use all the facilities that it offers why bother. My bet is that those facilities will not be used very often as most of the time we use a DP to drill a straight hole, nothing more or less and I don't need a computer to tell me how to do that. On the other hand the one function I see be being used all the time is the auto start function, lower the quill and the drill starts. It is an extraordinary piece of gear that knocks every other DP for six and I think its primary market is in production work with the hobby market second and I want one.

The user manual can be downloaded from here....http://www.teknatool.com/wp-content/...thOct-2016.pdf

I hope that auto start feature can be switched off, it would really get in my way as I often lower the quill to make sure I am lined up to the spot where I want to drill a hole.

I am a gadget man but I see this drill press as a solution in search of a problem.

The only thing I would find useful is the infinite variable speed and that is easily retrofitted to an existing drill press with a 3phase motor and VFD.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

I hope that auto start feature can be switched off

It can.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

The only thing I would find useful is the infinite variable speed and that is easily retrofitted to an existing drill press with a 3phase motor and VFD.

It's not quite the same. The reluctance motor used generates a 50-5500 RPM (110:1) working speed range which is somewhat greater than can be obtained using a standard 3 phase motor and a basic VFD.

The other factor is that using a reluctance motor, full motor power and motor cooling is maintained across the working speed range.

Even by doubling the motor power, the typical real working speed range a standard 3 phase motor and a basic VFD can generate is ~6:1
Using a more expensive (i.e. double the price) Vector drive VFD that can be increased to about 15:1.

Admittedly speeds above ~3000 rpm are probably unnecessary for WW, and speeds below about 150 rpm are more for MW operations, so a useful range for WW of 150-3000 RPM (20:1) is getting closer to the 15:1, although the motor cooling issue may still be a problem.

I will also admit that >99% of the holes I drill are covered by the ~6:1 speed range generated by my non-vector drive VFD.
The only time I change belts is usually to lower the speed for holes >12.5 mm in diameter in metal.

One benefit of infinitely variable speed is to match speed more closely to the drill size/material. Most folks don't realise that even on a 16 speed DP there are some common drill sizes that have optimised operational speeds that are outside the available speeds.

The other feature I find surprising useful using a VFD is the reverse.
At first I was not even going to connect up a reverse direction but I decided to so so at the last minute and wad glad I did.
For example, sometimes when breaking through metal the bit gets tangled up in material and a slow reverse is an easy quick way to get out of this situation.