I got this idea from PeterSealy's comment in Steve DeGroof's "Drill With Built In Levels." Peter said:

"How about a self-righting drill...?"

So how about a drill with a flywheel attachment? When you turn on the drill, the flywheel starts spinning, and gyroscopic stability keeps it straight. Give it a few blasts before you start drilling so you can get the flywheel up to speed before you touch bit to wood. Perhaps there are two flywheels, both perpendicular to each other and the direction of drilling, for z-axis only movement.

Hmmm, is there any gyroscopic effect from the drill motor itself?
-- ejs, May 22 2001

Drill With Built-in Levels http://www.halfbake...20Built-in_20Levels
[ejs, May 22 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Some effect from the motor but not enough to matter. It's too light. You can feel it a bit if you turn the drill quickly while it's on.

Problem is this would make the drill rather heavy, to get an appreciable amount of stability. Two of them would be worse, as the drill would have to be much larger, and might break the bit if it was twisted just right while it was running.

On the other paw, this would help with the torque effect of a bit getting stuck, if it was counterrotating.
-- StarChaser, May 22 2001


a drill drills "straight" by nature of the drill bit, no matter what its orientation to the work piece. if you mean to use the gyroscopic effect to drill at a particular angle to the piece, 90 degress or otherwise, you'd have to set up that angle before starting the flywheel = a lot of work. hand drills were deisnged to be used on jobs where angle tolerances are low. if you really need a hole at a precise angle, you should be using a drill press.
-- mihali, May 22 2001


If you're drilling into something which it would be inconvenient to fit into a drill press - say, a wall - you can get a dowelling jig which attaches to the nose of your drill and ensures that your hole is perpendicular to your work surface.
-- angel, May 22 2001


as noted here, there are tools in place to get this done, and people who know how to use them.
-- Bighongry, May 12 2006



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