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Pin vises are an essential tool for drilling holes with small
drill bits ...
by Jack Burgess
P
in vises are fairly basic tools in our hobby. Although the
name “pin vise” suggests that they are a “vise” designed
to hold “pins”, they actually hold very small drill bits to
let you drill the numerous small holes so common when build-
ing freight cars and sometimes even structures. We typically
use drill bits down to No. 80, 0.0135″ in diameter and you need
to have a pin vise to hold such small drills. I’ve had several pin
vises over the years.
My first pin vise was an X-Acto model. It had a rounded wood
ball head which was intended to let you cradle the ball head in
the palm of your hand to apply pressure on the drill bit when
drilling. This type of pin vise is still available from Mascot.
However, the ball feature should only be used with larger drill
bits (larger than a No. 50). With smaller drill bits, it is too easy
to apply too much pressure and break the drill bit with this
type of pin vise. You would also rarely need to apply force on
the drill bit except when drilling metal.
From the X-Acto pin vise, I graduated to a General Tools Swivel
Head pin vise, a readily available pin vise. This pin vise has two
Pin Vises
The Tool Shed - 1
1: Here are two General Tools Swivel Head pin vises. The one
on the right has been disassembled to show the collar, body,
and swivel head (center) as well as the two double-ended col-
lets (top).
1
double-ended, reversible collets which are stored in the body
of the pin vise. This provides four different sized collets in a
single tool. This lets you use it with drill bits ranging from a No.
80 to an 1/8”.
While the four collets in a single pin vise is an advantage, the
design also has a downside. One collet has the largest collet
on one end and the smallest one on the opposite end. This
means that as you switch from a small drill bit to one a little
larger, you must unscrew the collar, remove the collet, and
then remove the swivel head and retrieve the larger collet, and
then swap out the two collets. Many times it seems that you
disassemble the tool and select a particular collet only to find
a minute later that it is either too large or too small for the drill
bit you need.
MRH-Mar 2013
