Rolson 59159 Archimedean Drill

This drill is great for making tiny holes in materials for jewellery making where a powered drill might not be delicate/fine enough. You can get really tiny drill bits to go with it, and the fact that it's hand-powered makes it easy to control. I have had no problem changing the bits, and find this quite easy. The bits stay in place one fitted, but are easy to remove if you want to use a different size bit. I love the simplicity of this little tool, and it is very useful for those fiddly projects where you want to make a tiny hole in something to thread it on an earring or necklace. The drill itself is made of solid-feeling metal and has a good weight to it which makes it feel good quality.

It's not made stunningly well but for the money it does exactly what it should. If you want to pay four times the price you might get a precision made version of the same thing but for mere mortals, this drill does all you'd want it to. Now all I need to do is to find a set of micro drills that are made of vibranium and don't break!

I love these little drills. What a cool action they use! And to think this tech goes back to the days of the Ancient Greeks, at least in terms of mechanical principles.I was always borrowing one of these useful little doodads off my dad, for use in my (and our) model-making sessions. In the end I knew I really had to get my own. So I bought this one, hoping that, as it wasn't the cheapest, it'd probably be ok. I also bought a Rolson branded set of fine bits, for use with it.The drill and the bits are all doing their job fine. Though I would note that, as others have also observed, the spring and the action on this particular model feels a bit stiff initially. It's certainly not got as smooth an action as my father's, but then his is a lot older. I'm hoping in time mine will develop a slightly more relaxed action!But, so far, at any rate, so good.

Slightly shorter (about 10mm) than the type I am used to but is still an effective piece of kit. Needs using a few times to get a smooth run but this is the same as my previous drills. Would I buy again, yes I probably would.

this is a well made little drill, it has a nice solid quality feel, but I would just say that if your buying it, note that it only accepts bit UP TO 1mm, don't make the mistake I made, thinking it would be good for drilling holes for fretwork blades to pass through, but that was entirely my fault for not reading the spec properly and relating it to the only Archimedean drills I had ever used some years ago which were bigger.

Good little drill. I'm using it for model making It's nice and precise. Takes a little getting use to. I would suggest trying it on something not too important to start with.

For what it cost can't complain. handy little bit of kit. I found it works best if using 1.00 mm drill (bit) as anything smaller slips in the collet chuck and requires constant retightening. Ideal for model railway use.

It is of limited use ,each push would only give a fraction of a turn and there is too much side movement for fine drills they would soon break