Bought a C18, no magnet in the spindle?

[demographic]

So, I've bought a secondhand C18 drill driver, it's only got the 13mm chuck and the spindle that holds the chuck has a 1/4" hex hole in its end and deeper down has a 4mm hole in it. No magnet in there though.
Now to my untutored eyes an absolutely obvious thing to have in that 4mm hole would be a magnet so any standard 1/4" bit could be used directly for the shortest possible driver without it dropping out everytime I point the driver down.
Am I missing something?
It seems that in order to sort this out I just epoxy a 4mm diameter by about 5mm long (I've not measured the length yet so that ones a guess) into that little hole in order to have something far more practical.
Anyone else done this or am I missing an important point?
Other than that the C18 seems, err... OK I guess. The torque setting thing seems pretty good but I've been using drill drivers and impact screwdrivers for so long that I have fairly good trigger control and I hardly ever use the torque controls on them anyway.
It's not especially lightweight and nor is it balanced like a ballet dancer either.

 

[Coen]

I have no experience with being a ballet dancer, so wouldn't know about their balance.

I don't remember anymore if the Festools have a magnet there. But reading here;

L

Thread 'Magnets in drills and Centrotec'

Dec 16, 2016

Do the magnets in your drills and bit holders keep coming out of the holders?  It is driving me batty.

• linnlp12
• Replies: 15
• Forum: Festool Tool Problems

It seems they do have it but more people had it fall out.

 

[demographic]

Hmm, theres a small circlip inside the hex that I assume has just lost some of its tension so doesn't do much in the way of gripping. Might pull that out with a pointy hook doo daah and see if I can tighten it up without knackering it.
Or possibly pull one out of a Spax bit holder.
Then I might sort the magnet issue.

 

[Cheese]

I have no experience with being a ballet dancer, so wouldn't know about their balance.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

The native attachment, while certainly of a size that .25" bits can slip into isn't really designed to "hold" them. That hex shaped hole provides support for the length of Centrotec compatible tooling that goes much deeper than the typical .25" bits. (which is why the detent groove is farther down the shaft on Centrotec tools) If you intend to use .25" bits, then there is a magnetic bit holder in Centrotec format that is designed to hold them and it holds them extremely well. It comes standard with the drill/driver kits but if you bought a bare tool...you wouldn't have it.

The Festool impact driver is the exception to this and it does support .25" bits natively.

 

[Coen]

Yeah, but it gives the shortest combination.

I don't know why Festool still doesn't seem to be able to publish basic tool dimensions... but I have used the same function with a Bosch GSR 12v FC, which tool-only is like ~126mm long.