Allen Wolfenden MDB Horizontal Borer

We have one of these in the woodwork shop at the school where I work. The table moves up and down only. There is no left/right or in/out axis like on a slot morticing machine. That means you have to feed the work freehand into the drill bit. That seems OK for drilling dowel holes into the end of say a chair or table rail. You slide the rail against the fence and you can keep your hands well clear of the bit.

But I can't see how it can be done safely or accurately on the side of the leg of the chair/table.

The only thing I can see this machine being good at is injuring students. We have biscuit joiners which are much more versitile and undoubtedly safer than this machine. I think we should be teaching the kids how to use those instead.

Is there something I'm missing about the safe operation of this machine? Specifically, how do you drill into the side of a workpiece without imperilling one of your hands? And how do you make a straight hole in the side of a piece of wood when feeding it freehand?

Hold item with one hand against fence and feed with a push block/stick as a apprentice I drilled uncountable thousands of holes on one of those

We were instructed on those at trade school as apprentices . No fences of any type . There may have been lines scribed in the table to help sight and line it up correctly I think . There should be something to help with that. If you don't have then draw some on with a black texta. We also used one at work on the side of an Alta table saw. They are a good accurate way of doing simple dowel joints. The good thing about them is the simplicity of it. And a dowel jointed piece is better and stronger for seating or smaller tables than biscuit joints. Large tables were even made with them for a long time. No where as good as mortise and tenon but they lasted as long as the hide glue held things together.

I cant quite see enough in your picture. I think I see a depth stop around the drill ? That'll stop going through the work . There's not much danger of drilling yourself on one with that being there. Hands and fingers should push either side or well behind timber rail in relation to the drill bit. The more risky thing about them is getting your tie caught up in the chuck while drilling :). loose clothes and all that. Or leaving a chuck key in the chuck and turning it on .

I'll never forget being a first year apprentice, a month into it I think. We were being shown how to use this machine by a grump of an old teacher and he was loosing his cool and going off at anyone who didn't understand him. He was trying to explain with rage and anger, when some of us were getting it wrong, the face edge markings and the importance of following them when drilling.
A couple of guys next to me copped it. I passed and assed it somehow as I didn't know he was on about either. lol . It wasn't nice. old P***k
We had been shown in theory and on paper hours before but for some of us it didn't transfer over to the practical straight away or smoothly . Yelling didn't help at all but I never forgot it after that. He was doing the same thing a few years later when My brother went through his first year.

The way I was shown for accuracy was to mark out your face and edges on each piece and then gauge in a line on leg and rail . Then put the leg and rail together the way it will be joined and mark three lines where you want three dowels on the face . Then scribe back from that with a square to cross the gauge line you did on each piece. With an awl you then press a small hole at each intersection . The point of the spur drill bit will find that and your off to a good start.

If you want to be faster and slightly less accurate you can just do the three pencil marks on the face and finger gauge back from that, the drill setting will get the depth in from the face correct. A good sharp spur drill bit helps .

Sounds like the old buffoon we had in Patternmaking at Ultimo.
He’d go on about pencilling in knifed lines and then when doing the demo the grain would take his pencil somewhere else.
Best was when his Alpaca jumper was caught in the drill press chuck.
He didn’t get wrapped up in the drillpress but it tore it off him in shreds.
Full of bs, like the time during the war the ships prop was damaged so he cast another on the beach and saved the day.:doh:
H.

Thanks for the replies.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auscab

I cant quite see enough in your picture. I think I see a depth stop around the drill ? That'll stop going through the work .

---

That pic was lifted from a Grays listing. The depth stop is missing from ours. I could make another one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auscab

Or leaving a chuck key in the chuck and turning it on.

---

Yeah, I think I'm going to keep the chuck key hidden. I'll do the bit changes. That way the key won't get lost (again) and there's no chance of it being left in the chuck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auscab

old P***k

---

I think (hope) all of those blokes have been weeded out of the system now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auscab

The way I was shown for accuracy was to mark out your face and edges on each piece and then gauge in a line on leg and rail . Then put the leg and rail together the way it will be joined and mark three lines where you want three dowels on the face . Then scribe back from that with a square to cross the gauge line you did on each piece. With an awl you then press a small hole at each intersection . The point of the spur drill bit will find that and your off to a good start.

---

Thanks for the tips.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auscab

A good sharp spur drill bit helps.

---

The bit that was in it when I arrived was a blunt, cheap 10mm twist drill. No amount of pushing would get it to drill a hole. A 10mm brad point bit is on the way.