Right angle drills...

[PeteTheRookie]

Need to find/buy right angle drill to attempt to drill out a broken bolt on my Camry.

Anyone know what is the lowest profile right angle drill that is reasonable priced?

Straight on I got about 4 inches of clearance.

Its a 3/8 bolt into the block that holds on the idle pulley for the timing belt.

Tks

Pete

 

[Phil9N3667]

Pete, it"ll be difficult to find anything other than a specialized industrial unit with a real low profile head/chuck! I"ve got the common old Campbell-Hausfeld unit that the MAC tool guy sold me years ago with a 1/2" chuck on it. If I need clearance for tight quarters, I"ve got a few bits shortened up to do the job. A Grainger catalog may have something. Your 3/8" bolt is actually 10 MM, as the car is all metric . Good luck. You may want to check to see if the bolt is L.H. thread too.

 

[Ray(MO)]

Harbor Freight

 

[Russ from MN]

I have a air one that is really short, and they make short bits, I think they're called sheeters bits I think. I also have some LH drill bits, sometimes they will screw the piece right out!

 

[Chris(WA)]

If you need an electric I recommend Makita. Mine has done great every time I needed it.

 

[WvaJim]

I know the body is angled, I got a Milwaukee like this one:
angle drill

 

[NCWayne]

With only 4 inches of clearance your gonna have a really hard time finding a drill and a bit with that short of a profile. I ran into a similar situation some years back and couldn't find anything readily available to do what I needed without moving into the relm of the specialized drills. By that I mean one of the ones where the bit itself has a threaded shank that screws into the drill vs it having a chuck. With nothing available and my customers machine down I improvised and got the job done without having to special order a drill, and the bits to fit it, or spend a gob of money doing so.

What I wound up doing was buying a set of countersink adapters from Home Depot. The things I am taking about are designed to countersink a piece of wood for a flat head screw. They have a double stepped nose to provide the clearance for the wood screw's head and shank, and set screw in the side of them that holds about a 1/8 pilot bit, and a 1/4 hex drive.

What I did was cut off as much of the nose/stepped end as possible. With the ones I bought it was the small part that drills for the screws shank all the way back into the part that countersinks for the head. Basically cut off as far back possible and still be able to put in a bit and clamp it with the set screw. I also cut off any part of the hex that was longer than the depth of the socket I used to drive it. That socket was a standard 1/4 bit driver that had a 3/8 square drive ( or 1/4 if you have a 1/4 drive air ratchet).

With the bit cut off a short as I could get it, the lenght of the countersink, the drive adapter, and the thickness of the head of my air rachet, I was able to achieve a total length of around 2 1/2 to 3 inches, either of which is well within the distance you have to work with.

By doing this, the bad thing is you are limited to the size of the bit you can use but it does get you the clearance you need. It's been nearly 10 years since I had to do this but I believe I was able to go a bit larger by grinding down the diameter of the next size or two larger to fit. As slow as the ratchet turns the bit it doesn't have to be perfectly rounded, etc to be able to use it.

One good thing is that you can also use a carbide bit if needed. That's what I wound up having to do with the exh manifold bolts I was drilling as they were too hard for a regular bit to make a dent in.

Given that a small right angle drill isn't something that's needed every day it's a big expense to buy one just to do one job. In my case what I did not only worked and saved me alot of money, it also got my customer back up and running with out me having to pull either the head, fuel injection pump, or both off of his excavator. Because of that he was back up and running alot faster than he would otherwise have been.

Good luck....

 

[MarkB_MI]

You can use one of these:

<a href="http://www.yardstore.com/browse.cfm/4,5465.html">http://www.yardstore.com/browse.cfm/4,5465.html</a>

They take special 1/4 x 28 drills. As far as I know, they don't go bigger than 5/16", which should be plenty if you intend to use an easy-out.

<a href="http://www.yardstore.com/browse.cfm/2,422.html">http://www.yardstore.com/browse.cfm/2,422.html"</a>

 

[johndeere720GA]

Here is a kit that you use with your existing drill. It uses the threaded drill bits as above but does not break the bank at around $45.

Tight fit drill

 

[Paul from MI]

I had a 1/4" Skil angle head reversible air drill at work about 30 years ago. It was handier than a pocket, don't know what happened to it after I left the company, but it was an excellent tool. I sure wouldn't try an easy out on a broken bolt unless it's already loose. I've taken out dozens by drilling and re-tapping but had no luck with easy outs. They just force the broken bolt tighter in the block by expansion. Then you'll break the easy out and have a REAL problem on your hands.

 

[504]

I have this set works great, mine came from the Matco truck.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Those are fine if you have enough room for your drill motor. I opted to buy a used angle drill off ebay.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Nothing good comes from Harbor Fright.

 

[Old Timer in Ohio]

I agree about that millwaukee drill. As a carpenter by trade I had, and used mine for
about 15 years. VERY handy tool for cabinet
work in tight spaces.

 

[Bus Driver]

My Makita is the smallest electric angle drill I could find. It is not especially powerful. Unplug it if installing or removing anything from the chuck. Very easy to hit the trigger by accident.