Drill Perfect Holes With The New UJK Technology Drill Guide

threesixright said:
Just a heads-up, it's on stock on AX.

I took the plunge, lets see what happend  [eek] [big grin]
Best of luck! Reviews are looking that good from the most recent ones on Axminster... Hopefully they got all the kinks out during the stock "shortage".
 
Hi-ya-all!

Received my UJK guide. Kudos to AXM, since they it got some shipping issues (i.e.e customs) thanks to BREXIT.

I know they're where some issues with the previous version(s)? Not a clue if they changed anything...

If you guys want some (specific) pictures or have me to look at something, let me know. Happy to to do so.

I don't have a need for it right now, but I will in the nearby future. Just ordered it because it kept being out-of-stock (and again it is )  [big grin]. So will review this baby a bit later.

First impressions, looks solid. Sliding the chuck up and down is stiff.

 
Here's a nice alternative to the UJK drill guide.

It has a lot of nice features including a ball bearing 1/2" chuck and the depth stop thumbscrew on a taper is real slick.
https://www.woodpeck.com/auto-line-drill-guide.html

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I was just looking at the Woodpeckers Drill Guide. It has a lot of great features if you need that type of tool.
 
Cheese said:
Here's a nice alternative to the UJK drill guide.

It has a lot of nice features including a ball bearing 1/2" chuck and the depth stop thumbscrew on a taper is real slick.
https://www.woodpeck.com/auto-line-drill-guide.html

Oh, I do like that very much indeed although it's 90 degrees only. The fence system / outrigger is something I wished they'd included in the UJK one. But yeah, very slick indeed. No sign of pricing though...  [scared]
 
JD2720 said:
The email I got had a price of 219.99
Thanks for that. That's cheaper than I expected. To my uneducated eye this looks to be a regularly produced item (with a cheaper introductory price) since it's not listed as a OTT. It may stand a chance of making it to the UK.
 
I will wait to see the price of the new Bridge City Tools MJ-3 which John posted on the Harvey Site to determine which to buy.  I know the BCTW one will most likely cost more.  Nice to have different choices for those of us that have a very small shop.
 
JD2720 said:
The email I got had a price of 219.99

I got the email today too, same price.

No mention of extensions for the guide rods, but it looks like they may be tapped to accept them.

I would like to see a couple holes to allow the base to be screwed down to the work in cases where you are working on the vertical or in the middle of a large piece and can't guide or clamp it from the edge. they could be added easy enough if I bought one I guess.

I was also looking at the cutout in the center of the base and thought that's looks about the size of a PC style router guide bushing. If you could use a guide bushing in there you could easily center the base on an oversize hole and drill a concentric hole.  But it looks like the opening is oblong not circular which may give better view of the work but since the base is 90 degrees only (which is fine by me) I wonder how much it adds to usability.

I wonder how hard it would be to make a T-square head and an adapter so the base could be mounted to a single track saw parallel guide which could then be used to index off the edge and reach much further than the guide rods allow.

Using a guide bushing that fit the width of a dado you could drill a series of holes centered in the dado.
 
The Woodpeckers seems overpriced to me for what it is, but then I guess that standard for them.
Just like all the other options, Ill wait till theyve been out a while and all the hype/paid reviews thin out and we start getting real reviews from people who have lived with the tool for a bit and learned its issues.
 
Machinists and ironworkers have had magnetic base drills for years.  Undoubted quality, but very expensive.  (And for those of you that were not aware, magnets do not stick to wood. [eek]
https://www.amazon.com/Unitec-MABasic-450-Portable-Magnetic/dp/B0721MPV71
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Pricing is now included at $220 introductory / $240 thereafter and an expected ship date of June 30, 2021.
 
Packard said:
Machinists and ironworkers have had magnetic base drills for years.  Undoubted quality, but very expensive.  And for those of you that were not aware, magnets do not stick to wood. [eek]

I bought this for metal working, however I needed to drill many straight holes through several 20' long 6x6's. So, I just cut some 1/4" steel plate a bit longer & wider than the base of the drill, clamped the drill to the steel plate and then clamped the steel plate to the 6x6.  [smile]

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I would have pulled the trigger on the woodpeckers one but it is limited to 2" holes.  I don't have an immediate plan to use it, but one of the use cases I see is for 2 3/8" puck lights.  The Rockler jig is 2 7/8".  Thankfully, there is no OTT pressure to get it now and I can spend slightly more later when I have an immediate need and can read some reviews.
 
Looks like the woodpecker "only" supports up to 2" forstner bits. I need 55mm (2-1/4'') for Loox LED lights. Would have been nice with the fence...
 
I just sent my thoughts to Woodpeckers regarding their Auto-Line drill stand. In particular, I'd love to see the outrigger being upgraded such that it can be captured by and ride along a Festool/Makita/Triton guide rail. I'd also like to see some allowance for dust collection, a larger footprint base (featuring four countersunk holes for jig making) and the hex shaft being upgraded so as to be CentroTec compatible. I'm definitely digging this Ohio-made drill stand so I'm hoping that the changes I've urged will end up in the final version. I'll upload Woodpecker's response when I receive it.
 
The other thing that I think WP missed the mark on is not being able to do 35mm "inline" without going to what I expect to be the more clumsy outside approach.  Like a dummy I assembled a cabinet before drilling my holes for flap hinges and ended up using my cheapo drill stand to fix it this weekend.
 
The Wolfcraft drill guide will handle the 36mm forstner bit for $35.00 (and also 8mm, 10mm and 12mm bits.)
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It does not specify, but with other Wolfcraft drill guides the bushings are made from hardened steel.  I expect that these are too. 
 
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