A must have for modelers and handcrafters!
I ordered this small gem by recommendation from a couple mate modelers because I was having problems drilling my styrene model kits with the RTX rotary tool as it spins too fast that the heat of the drill melts the plastic.
Anyway, I have to confess that I had serious doubts that it would work. C'mon... a drill that you have to assemble out of a kit? Surprisingly it works and very well! And I must say that the little beast has a hell of a torque in a considerable low speed that won't melt the plastic (I think I read 400 rpm somewhere). Also it is super-ergonomic, a certain weight that gives some balance and a very comfortable grip.
Let's see the details. It came in a nice 9" x 5.5" card box. Opening the box, you will find three sprues in different colors: a blue one with the tool "hull", a orange one with the gears and bearings and a grey one with the mechanism spare parts. Also it comes still with three bags containing all the non-sprued parts: screws, shafts, washers, e-rings, coils, electric contacts, pinion gear, electric engine, two chucks, one collet and one "thick" 2mm drill. Also it comes with a tiny tube of grease to lubricate the gears. Among the extra parts they send two extra e-rings and one washer (in case of you lose or spoil it along the building) and that will "last" after you finish the assembling and not need to use them.
To build the handy drill it I used a Xuron cutter, a hobby knife, a tweezers, a long nose pliers and a medium watch Philips screwdriver. All tools that any modeler or handcrafter has in his/her toolbox. But if you don't have any of these, trust me, you still can do all the job with a small nail scissors, an eyebrow tweezers and a small screwdriver. The ONLY part of the assembling that will be a bit more challenging to do (and that's where a long nose pliers becomes handy) is the installation of the small e-ring that locks one of the gears to a shaft. Even so with a bit of patience you still can do it with bare steady hands by pressing the e-ring against the table top. Sure that it may pop and fly away to nowhere along the process but this is why they send two extra e-rings!
OK, finishing the whole assembly at the end you will need two AA-batteries to activate the machine and that do not come included in the package.
The instructions manual is exceptional and well drawn as any Tamiya manual. You won't have any problem to understand the steps and also the parts are so well molded that you don't need to force or sweat to fit anything. Regardless a few reviews I have seen in Amazon telling that it is "hard" to assemble, trust me, it is not. Actually it is easy, quick and fun. You shouldn't take more than a half hour to conclude the task.
I had only one part of the assembly that gave me a bit of problem. There is this "trigger locker", a small knob that goes at the right side of the grip which function it to lock the trigger and prevent it to be pushed. It is a small plastic part where you have to drive a small screw to keep the part in place. The screw kind of drill the plastic while you tighten it so I had to apply a bit of pressure to make it screw correctly till the end. I had to try it twice. At the first attempt it entered tilted and spoiled the beginning of the hole but at the second time it went fine. The good news is that IF for some kind of misfortune you spoil the locker irreparably with the screw you don't die because this. First your drill machine still will work without this part because it doesn't do any contribution to its functioning. Second it is a completely useless feature. At least I don't see myself using this "safety lock". Ever. Really, it is not like a nasty industrial driller. LoL.
As I mentioned in the beginning I didn't believe that it would work promptly after done. I imagined that eventually it could work but that it would be necessary to check the assembling, make adjustments, bend something, you know, those things. Surprisingly it was just to snug the batteries in, push the trigger and see it work.
After done and tested — drilled a small hole in my wood workbench — I showed the tool to my wife (she does handcraft) and she loved it instantly. I can see myself buying a second one in a near future unless I don't bother to have it missing from my modeling toolbox once in a while.
As a tool IMO it seems to be sturdy and durable enough for its purpose (delicate stuff drilling) and probably will last for the rest of my life as a modeler. It is definitively a non-regret purchase!
PS: I recommend to buy a keyless chuck to be able to work with really thin drills.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
