[Recommendations] Line Boring

[Todd Leback]

Greetings. I own a small cabinet shop with limited square footage, and I'm in the market to replace my line boring system. Until recently (well, technically, we're still using it) we've been using the Hafele Variantool aluminum jig (it's about 42" long, has guide holes spaced for 32 mm and a drill bit with bushing, so it doesn't wear out the hole) and I've been very pleased with it. However, it is showing its age, and unfortunately Hafele no longer makes this or anything similar, and I cannot get replacement parts for it. It seems the only other comparable job I can find is the Festool jig, but the dollar signs make my hackles raise and it looks like I have to get their specific drill motor as opposed to being able to chuck a bit in any only drill.

So! Does anyone have any recommendations for line boring they'd like to make?

Thanks!

[Peter Kelly]

Pneumatic hinge machine with a line boring head? Throat depth is a little limited but they're much faster than router jigs as you're drilling 7 holes at a pass. I have a Grass Ecopress that I picked up used for $650. Great little machine.

Festool system is nice as it doesn't take up any space.

[peter gagliardi]

Having used, and cursed the Grass eco press line bore for more years than I want to count, I would suggest not going there! I tried adjusting mine with digital calipers, but you can't escape the fact that you are indexing from 4 different corners- accumulated error is real.
So, a stand alone unit is what I got, after much, much searching.
Ayen, and Gannomat are THE gold standard! You ideally would want a double row machine. There is zero possibility for error between holes, as you always reference 1 end. Usually they are 21 or 23 spindles in a row- enough to do a base cabinet in one shot.

[Peter Kelly]

I've never had accuracy issues with my EcoPress. Were you using the fence with built-in stops or index pins on the drill head?

Heard these are decent, simple machines as well: http://www.conquestind.com/boring_machine.php

[Todd Leback]

The major issue is that, a month before my jig started to get wonky, I got my finisher a fancy new pump setup, so I'm looking to keep costs down. I really like how the Variantool (and the Festool jig, I suppose) takes up virtually no room at all and makes it relatively easy to make short runs of bores, for instances when I don't want the holes to run the whole height of the cabinet.

[Bradley Gray]

I looked at the Veritas system 32 for a job I was anticipating but the job didn't come through. Here's the link: http://www.veritastools.com/Products/Page.aspx?p=164

[Erik Loza]

Heard these are decent, simple machines as well: http://www.conquestind.com/boring_machine.php

Conquest are very common in small shops. Never personally used one but based on what I have seen, they must have a good track record. Or, try to find a used Ritter.

Best of luck in your search.

Erik

[Bill Neely]

If you're looking for something to drill shelf pins, the True Position TP-1935 is pretty nice. It wouldn't really be suitable for drawer slide holes but it does hardware holes nicely as well. Hardened steel bushings too.

I bought new on Ebay at a significant discount to what it sells for on Amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/True-Position-TP-1935-Hardware-Extensions/dp/B003E46SWS

[Phil Thien]

Until recently (well, technically, we're still using it) we've been using the Hafele Variantool aluminum jig (it's about 42" long, has guide holes spaced for 32 mm and a drill bit with bushing, so it doesn't wear out the hole) and I've been very pleased with it. However, it is showing its age, and unfortunately Hafele no longer makes this or anything similar, and I cannot get replacement parts for it.

I don't have anything helpful to add but I'm curious how your existing jig is showing wear?

[Mike Heidrick]

Where do you live. Springfield IL has a line bore machine cheap on cl. Jeremy is selling it.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I prefer a line boring jig that uses plunge router. I don't think MEG is still in business, but that's what mine is based upon. They are easy to make, but hard to make accurately. Mine symetrical along center line with stepped index hole at either end, which means I can move it up. First one was made on a Bridgeport mill with digital readout. I made both inch and 32 mm versions.

[peter gagliardi]

I've never had accuracy issues with my EcoPress. Were you using the fence with built-in stops or index pins on the drill head?
Mine had no index pins on the head. Getting the holes "close" is easy, getting a perfect fitting "no rock" shelf was harder.
Not to mention how slow 5 holes at a time is, or if your holes are a different measurement from the front than the back.
No matter how you slice it, the hinge machines are a "make do" at best.
Time is money.

[Martin Wasner]

So! Does anyone have any recommendations for line boring they'd like to make?

Thanks!


I recently picked up an old Ritter R-46 line bore for $650. It was a little rough though. I made a new fence with gravity stops from 80/20 extrusions that fold up vertically to get them out of the way as my shop is tiny, and packed full. I had to replace a bunch of airlines on it. I had to adjust the ways so it would travel smoothly. I had to replace all 46 bits because they were 1/4" instead of 5mm. I'm still waiting on new belts to arrive. Lastly I had new drive pulleys made since the knurling on the original pulley's was worn more or less smooth and it'd slip. I should have less than $1500 into it all said and done, and a boat load of tinkering on it. A little here and there in my spare time to get it working properly. It's a pretty decent machine now. The footprint is about 40" wide, and 35" deep with the fences folded up. With the fences down it eats up 14' of wall space.

My old line bore was a pneumatic Delta 13 spindle. Not a great machine, but it served me well. I sold it to the shop next door to mine for $600, which is what I think I paid for it at an auction about seven years ago. They're thrilled with it. They were using a plunge router and a template previously. I think a Festool template, but I'm not certain of that.

If you've got $20k to burn, the Gannomat Proline 50 is an awesome machine. It's capable of through drilling so you can effectively drill 100 holes at a crack. It's got a nice digital counter for the distance between the heads. If it made sense for me to spend that kind of money on a linebore, that's the one that I would get.

I would not recommend the head for the minipress. It works, but that's about all you can really say for it. The cumalitive errors add up quickly when you are only drilling a few holes at a time and indexing off of the old holes.

Deals are out there. My ancient Ritter is a relic, and a bizarre one at that being belt driven versus a gearbox, but for the money I really couldn't go wrong. Drilling 46 holes at once, instead of 13 at a time has vastly decreased the amount of time it takes to drill shelf holes. I can do a 8' bookcase side in about a minute now. I can't say what it took with the Delta, but it took a while. Three or four times indexing off the last hole, and having to flip the part to the opposite edge.

[Justin Ludwig]

I have a Conquest 13 Standard with the optional hinge boring attachment. After I got it initially set up, I get repeatable results very quickly. The change over from line bore to 35mm hinge bore takes about 3-5 minutes. I wrote down all my settings on the MDF table and then put polyurethane over the writing so it wouldn't erase. I think I paid $3500 for all of it including shipping. It's paid for itself in spades. The old hand jigs is for the birds.

[Todd Leback]

I don't have anything helpful to add but I'm curious how your existing jig is showing wear?

The big problem isn't so much the template itself -- although over time I've slowly lost a number of the specialty screws that hold the flap stop in place -- but with the drill assembly. It's a hard plastic sleeve with a couple of bearings, set screw, etc., and just over the past five years of hard use (I think I got a new one about five years ago) it's started to be less accurate. Plus the indexing pin that came with it ended up in the pocket of someone I subsequently fired, so it's gone.

All in all, there's nothing wrong with it that some tinkering and creative solutions wouldn't fix, but anything I do will be a short term fix. Plus, we're so busy that I really can't spare the manpower to fiddle with it for a few hours.

[Bill Adamsen]

+1 to Bruce's suggestion. I too made my own that is similar to the extremely well thought out MEG Pro-Bore. I've had several opportunities to buy quality used 32mm systems (frequently available cheap as production shops move to CNC) but thinking about the use and space, stuck with my more compact MEG clone. I've made several, primarily to improve accuracy, and as Bruce mentions, accuracy is surprisingly difficult to achieve. Most magazine articles suggest using an incremental boring method (registering off prior hole) but in my experience, that does not work satisfactorily (at least for me). Because you are doing both the front and back of tall units, they need to align exactly in both directions, and need to index, and need edge adjustment (and center panel indexing).

I just looked up the MEG page, and the price is lower than I recall. I may just order that aluminum pro-bore unit.
http://www.megproducts.com/shelfpinholes.html

[Peter Kelly]

I think MEG are out of business.

[Bill Adamsen]

I think MEG are out of business.
No response to my e-mail, so you may be right. Still the idea is relatively easy to implement and with a plunge router the solution works quickly, accurately and takes little space.

[peter gagliardi]

No response to my e-mail, so you may be right. Still the idea is relatively easy to implement and with a plunge router the solution works -------, accurately and takes little space.
Fixed it for ya Bill !
There is nothing quick about drilling shelf pin holes with a jig and a hand drill, to say nothing of having to use a plunge router!
I certainly do appreciate the "make do" accuracy and simplicity of the unit though.

[Peter Kelly]

There's the Woodpecker shelf pin jig. Somewhat like the MEG one: http://www.woodpeck.com/shelfpintemplate.html

Not a expensive as the Festool system but probably not as accurate.

[Phil Thien]

The self-centering shelf-pin bits can be a PITA. I'm thinking of getting a couple of the Kreg jigs and ganging them together, just so I no longer have to deal with those self-centering bits, which always seem to clog and jam-up with sawdust.

After reading all the responses though, I sorta want a line boring machine.

[Peter Froh]

I've made this jig and it works pretty slick... Fast and easy.

http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchive99/4_23holejig.html

[Bill Adamsen]

Fixed it for ya Bill !
There is nothing quick about drilling shelf pin holes with a jig and a hand drill, to say nothing of having to use a plunge router!
I certainly do appreciate the "make do" accuracy and simplicity of the unit though.

Haha ... your perspective of quick is just different from mine!

Seriously, I have never had more than a few (mind numbing) hours worth of holes to drill ... and typically just a few minutes. It takes longer to think about where the holes go (and don't) than the actual operation. And it is a very limited and specific part of the construction process. That was my deciding factor. I just felt that with my limited space, the equipment hole drilling required was best minimized. Personal choice for sure. And I have gotten really fast at moving that router down the line.

[Bill Adamsen]

Very cool Peter ... hadn't seen that. That approach makes it possible to vary distance between pins ... but the height and width flexibility would appear compromised. Still it is a great approach that would likely eliminate some of the issues related to templates binding in round holes. Thanks for sharing.