Originally Posted by rustexpert (Post 328957)

In ten years heavy boiler work I have never used a drilling pillar; I have watched others wasting their time wrestling with them and getting fair to poor results; but get the job done eventually. Air drills not really that good for drilling; in the same way that ratchet drills before them weren't either but I can manage the big air drills free hand if I need to (but more for bridge reaming or c/sinking than drilling) and the medium ones are useless as they (or at least the ones we have) spin too fast for even a 1/2inch drill which an decent electric pistol drill will handle anyway.