Draper 710W Recip Saw – Very U
Aimed at: Light trade, DIY and Garden use. Pros: easy handling, longish cord and quick release blade system.
It seems to have taken us in the UK a long time to catch up with the potential uses of reciprocating (“recip”) saws compared with the US. Maybe, because more US- Style construction methods and materials have been adopted here, more recip saws will be found in the back of white vans. Certainly, no uPVC window fitter I know is without one, and a friend bought a cordless one recently to do pruning and cutting in the garden. When choosing a recip saw I look for a number of things – the most important
being a quick release blade system. Close behind comes a well-balanced body with the ability to use the blade facing up as well as down and a decently arranged trigger and rear handle. The Draper 710W recip saw (stock number 28809) has all of these and after
using it for a week or so I was more than happy to add it to my “wants” list. When I tried to analyze quite why I liked this saw so much it amounted to a number of things that all came together to make a tool that is not only easy and
safe to use, but is also capable of a wide range of jobs depending on the blades that are fitted. Compared to many recip saws I have used, the Draper is light – only 3Kgs –
and its handling is very much aided by a lozenge-shaped rear handle with a black overmould on the back of it, and generously-sized trigger. The trigger is speed sensitive – the harder you press it the faster the motor will go. This is important because metals generally require slower cutting speeds compared with softer materials. Although much of the weight is in the front – where the gearbox and motor
are situated the front handle is also generous and shaped for easy grip for left and right-handers. A black and grippy overmould enables even gloved hands a secure hold. By applying pressure in the cut with the front hand and guidance from the rear handle – generally accurate cuts can be made – despite the fact that recip saws are not generally used for their accuracy. A standard quick release blade system is used to attach and remove sawblades.
A simple anti-clockwise twist of the ribbed collar releases the blade ready for a new one. This system is an industry standard, so pretty well all recip saw blades on the market will fit this saw – almost every metal, wood, plastic etc. will have a specialized blade for optimum results. If you don’t want to waste a lot of time, my suggestion is that the right blade for the right material is a necessity. Supplied as standard is a hex
key that is used to adjust the blade shoe forwards and backwards so that the full extent of the blade can be used. With a typical internet price of
around £70, the Draper 710W is competitively priced for a quality product. It will cut up to 115mm in wood and 10mm in mild steel – very much in the range for light professional users and DIYers.
Draper 5 Speed Hobby Bench Dr
Aimed at:- DIY and Hobby users Pros: Accuracy, safety and lots of rigid cast iron!
For even slightly ambitious DIYers, a bench drill soon becomes a necessity because of the need for greater drilling accuracy in more ambitious projects. Even with a steady hand, drilling accurate holes with a cordless drill is much more difficult than it looks. With a typical price of around the £90 to £100 for this Draper bench drill, (stock number 38255) the cost is around the same as a decent DIY cordless drill – but bearing in mind all the cast iron you get with a bench drill, it seems very good value. It wouldn’t tax the skills of even a new DIYer to unpack and assemble this drill
because the instruction booklet clearly shows and explains what to do and most tools needed are supplied, apart from a 12mm spanner. I took a very leisurely thirty minutes to unwrap and assemble the drill to ensure
that I did it properly. Since most of the individual pieces are wrapped or coated to protect against rust in transit, it helps to have a solvent cloth to clean off grease etc. before assembly is started. Assembly also gave me time to appreciate a few of the benefits that this pillar drill would bring to the workshop. The cast iron base is easy to fix to a benchtop with a couple of bolts and the
tubular steel column is rigid enough for the kinds of drilling tasks within its capacity. The worktable is simply slid up and down the column to adjust for work height by using the toggle bolt on the back of it. It can also be tilted up to 45 degrees by undoing a bolt under the worktable and using the small scale as a guide to the angle required. Five spindle speeds can be selected by removing the screw that holds the
pulley cover and then adjusting the belt from pulley to pulley. The speed range is from about 580rpm to 2650rpm. These speeds are enough to cover drilling hard and soft materials with the range of drillbits that the 13mm chuck will hold. Used conventionally, the depth range of the drill is 50mm, but the drill head can be rotated, so more flexible options are available to more imaginative users. There is also an accurate depth stop setting for repeat drilling of holes. I found that the motor needed about ten minutes of a run to bed in, and it was
4 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE
largely quiet and smooth – much smoother and quieter than a standard cordless or corded hand drill- and with more torque and power too. The reasons why a bench drill is a must in the workshop. My only slight
problem was with the transparent chuck guard. This drill has the usual sliding guard that moves down as the drill is moved into the workpiece. MY experience of these guards – mounted on the cheapest drills on the market to the most expensive – is that they are discarded and the operator wears safety glasses instead. I used the
Draper pillar drill in my indoor
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32