alaska

I'm looking to purchase a new drill for my shop to speed up wheelbuilds. I will be using it with a PS Holy Driver or Unior nipple driver. I'm currently using a standard cordless drill we have various purposes and I'm finding it too large/heavy for this more delicate task. I have found numerous "electric screwdrivers" that seem to be the right size and power, but they all seem to be one set speed. Unior/Lifu nipple driver options open the door for non-chuck drills, but variable speed seems to be absent for these options.

Anyone using a drill for wheelbuilds? What do you use and what's your experience?

Andrew R Stewart 

We tried an electric screwdriver way back when but found it far more awkward to use then the tried and trued Bicycle Research nipple driver. I've also tried a Yankee but it too was awkward to use. Andy

Le Mechanic

I've had pretty good luck with the smaller Black and Decker 2 speed cordless screwdrivers. It looks like a smaller size electric drill. I also have a cheap Harbor Freight drill that cost $9.99. It works pretty well, but it's only 1 speed, so it's a little slower.
Basically something that accepts a 1/4" driver bit is what you want to look for. I would go and try a few out and find what feels best in your hand. I've built thousands of wheels since the 1980's, and for me the electric driver is by far the fastest method.
I've always made my own nipple driver bits by grinding the corners off a standard flat head screwdriver bit as well.

alaska

A little bit more searching tuned up exactly what I'm looking for at Melody Wheel Works.

Except the Festool TXS is $329 CAD for me. So now the question is, what's like the Festool but cheaper?
Festool TXS

CliffordK

There are a bunch of cordless drills on the market.

Milwaukee makes a good cordless, both impact driver, and drill, although hopefully you won't need to be using the impact feature on your nipples. I know the drill is variable speed, I don't remember about the impact driver, something was slightly different with it.

However, for your shop needs, I wonder if there would be something a lot lighter? Simple cordless screwdriver, with several spare batteries.

I saw one that was slightly over-sized, halfway between a screwdriver and nut driver. I thought Ryobi, but I don't see it.

It looks like DeWalt makes a mid sized cordless screwdriver. 7.2V.

https://cordlessdrillzone.com/best-c...driver-review/

Hoopdriver

I'm wondering if a power driver will really speed you up much. I happen to have laced up 2 wheels this morning and used a manual driver to do the initial tightening. This took me less than 2 seconds per spoke. If a power driver saved me 1 second per spoke, that would be only bit more than a half a minute saved per wheel. That would mean you would have to lace 120 wheels to save an hours time. Assuming that you pay the builder $25 per hour, you would pay for the Festool drill in 10 hours - equivalent to lacing 1,200 wheels. Build that many wheels? I will attest to the quality of other Festool products.

Power drivers are great for taking a wheel apart, though.

calstar 

+1

Sal Bandini

Bosch 12V. It's the smallest driver out there.

fietsbob

I, like Andy, go around my wheel counting turns of the crank screwdriver, a little at a time , to bring all the spokes up equally .,

As a Result, I have wheels that are still round and true, & 30 + years old..

have a big production run? invest in a machine that also turns the nipples , but does all of them at once..



Agree .. You may speed up in the tear down, replacing a damaged rim.. & save spokes...

Vs Bolt cutter and recycle the metal..




...

Hoopdriver

On my ride this morning I thought to myself that perhaps I was a bit too hasty in questioning the actual need for a powered nipple driver. As thoughts do, mine diverged into other experiences with other power tools. Being an amateur woodworker and boat builder, I have 5 power drills, 3 of them cordless, yet despite doing a lot of work in my shop this week I used none of them. Instead, whenever I needed to bore a small diameter hole, I would reach for my favorite "cordless" drill, a early 20th Century German-made eggbeater. I had never thought about chucking in a nipple driver bit and using it for wheels; however I have another set to build up this week so I plan on giving it a try. Anyhow, the reason that I like this so much is that it 1)works great, 2)never needs charging, and 3) sounds like a bicycle when I'm cranking it. These old eggbeater drills are commonly available on ebay for as little as $20. They may need a bit of work, but they are easy to restore.

Sal Bandini

^^^ the problem with the "eggbeater" is you need 2 hands to use it.

markwesti

Here is a little guy with a friendly price , and it's a vari . speed .
https://www.amazon.com/Neiko-10529A-...76736873&psc=1

fietsbob

I use the eggbeater drill for tiny sized twist drills .. like numbered sizes....

alaska

This is exactly the type of suggestion I was looking for, thank you. This is now my top contender.

Thanks for suggesting a Close Quarter drill. I hadn't heard of this category but it seems like the right stuff, albeit corded.

This is exactly what I want to avoid. I'm eliminating tasks that take precision and attention to detail that can be skipped by just having the right tool. As a shop procedure I need to insure that all my mechanics do it uniformly and saying "carefully count each rotation" is stupid. An adjustable length probe driver speeds up the ACCURACY of the process.

fietsbob

But that is why hand built wheels take rime and are better for it.. want mass production?


.. Buy a wheel production tensioning machine.... (they're a few K$) they use those in wholesaler's warehouse wheelbuilding..


https://www.hollandmechanics.com/machinery/







.....




..

wschruba

Yes, but a corded drill will be lighter than almost anything else of equal size. Weight matters when you're holding something for me than a few minutes.

$0.02

alaska

I agree about the weight being important, but this Bosch drill is 1.8lbs and this corded close quarter is 3.2lbs so....

Sal Bandini

Did you see the size of that corded drill? It's huge.

kingston 

I'm just a hobbyist building a few wheels a year so I'm pretty slow, but tightening the nipples is one of the least time consuming steps for me.
I made this little nipple driver out of a flat-blade screwdriver and a file handle. The tip is 3mm long so it tightens every spoke exactly the same then disengages.

fietsbob

Why bottom our the nipple on 1 spoke before moving on to the next? how will you keep the rim round that way?

kingston 

When I lace the wheel all the nipples are engaged a little differently because I thread them on with my fingers, so the tool gets all the nipples to the same thread engagement while making the wheel close to radially true. If the spokes are the right length the driver disengages easily before the nipples are too tight.

fietsbob

Automated, stepper controller so it turns only a full turn.. or less?

Foredom flex shaft drive
+ jacobs chuck + foot controller ?

You wont have motor weight to support , just the tip.

Jewelry maker's tool ..






....

woodcraft

Those close-quarter drills are remarkably un-useful. Surprised that they're even still on the market.

I use the small Makita tool pictured (no longer made) for cabinet pulls, electrical devices, etc.- handy,

but also don't see how using one would result in a radially true wheel.

wschruba

They're actually pretty good for drilling holes for braze-ons /in-situ/ inside the triangle of an otherwise assembled frame, if you use a "mechanics" length bit. That said, due to the transmission required to change the motor's driving plane, they are heavier than a standard drill.

A modern, light duty (3/8" capacity chuck) corded drill with no hammer function and a simple 1 speed transmission should easily come in at 1.5 pounds. The funny thing here is that a cheaper tool will be lighter than a high quality tool, since the more expensive one is built to last. An air-powered tool can be there same weight, or lighter; If attached to a ceiling mounted retractable hose, even that weight can be mitigated. The downside, of course, is the cost of such a tool.

JohnDThompson 

I've built hundreds of wheels and never felt a need to use power tools. The Bicycle Research nipple driver mentioned above is a time saver in getting all the nipples to the same starting point for tensioning. I'm not sure that a drill would do it any faster.