This is a great tool to have at our disposal and will definitely help one of my groups of students with their project. The group is working on something they started last year, but had a little trouble with it. The drill press will allow them to drill holes in the PVC pipe and steel they are going to use for their exoskeleton. While drilling holes freehand with a regular drill last year, the group found that lining up the PVC and drilling were somewhat challenging. The drill or the PVC would move and either way, it would produce holes that were not lined up properly and thus, did not allow for the bolts they used to line up properly. This all resulted in the exoskeleton not moving the way they anticipated.
I found this to be a great teaching experience. By the students not being able to create exactly what they anticipated, they needed to continually attempt to make better iterations of their exoskeleton. Ultimately, the were able to make an arm for the project and attach it to a steel backbone, but that was as far as they got as we ran out of time as summer approached. Now that we are back in school and we have a drill press, the students can now see how much better the holes are lining up. The drill press is also cutting down on the worry that I have the a hand-held drill will slip off place and catch a finger or part of the table. The drill press allows the students to secure the pieces to the plate and then drill in a smooth motion.
I also showed the students how to change the speed of the drill press. This is important, as the harder the material and the bigger the drill bit, the slower you want the drill speed. Vice versa, softer materials and smaller drill bits require faster drill speed.
Here is a little video of one of my students using the drill press.
It was a great week coming off of a holiday weekend.
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