Description
From the manufacturer
Constant speed
The Constant Electronic system and two gears ensure the PBD 40 always provides optimum power
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal”>
Optimum visibility
The integrated LED light and laser make precise drilling easy
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal”>
Precise and secure positioning
The workpiece can, for example, be held down by the quick-release clamps included with delivery
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal”>
Quick tool changes
Changing the tool is extra quick thanks to the keyless chuck
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal”>
Easy to read
The digital depth measurement makes it easy to read off the current drilling depth
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal”>
-
Comfortable and effortless work
The working height remains the same and drilling is effortless, as the motor block moves with the drill when it is lowered
-
High functionality
Exact and secure positioning of the workpiece thanks to the PBD 40’s parallel guide and large working surface
-
Digital display
Drilling can be perfectly controlled using the continuous speed settings
Technical data
•Power input: 710 W
•Max. drilling diameter in steel/wood: 13 mm/40 mm
•Drilling stroke = 90 mm
•Machine weight: 11.2 kg
•No load speed: 200–2500 min-1
Amazon Customer –
This neat machine arrived just 4 days ago but I’ve spent a lot of time putting it through its paces to see how accurate the positive reviews were that I read before taking the step to buy it. I’d spent a lot of time researching bench drills and was put off many of them partly because of their relatively short “plunge” depth of around 50mm, which would be very limiting. I did find a traditional style bench drill with a plunge depth of 80mm but it was a monster in size – and I’d have had to get the stepladders out to change the belt every time I wanted to change speed. The Bosch PBD40 is half the size of that monster – but it has a plunge depth of 90mm – AND it changes speed by turning a knob, as simple as turning up the volume on a radio.First impressions.Taking the machine out of its box, I noticed that it felt quite weighty – usually a good sign of a well engineered product. Assembly was a piece of cake – the average 10 year old would have managed it blindfolded. The overall “feel” of it gave the impression of quality. Ease of use? – a doddle. The LED display gives clear and precise information on RPM and depth of drilling. The built in work light is more than adequate and the laser guide crosshairs system eliminates guesswork. I was originally planning to bolt it to the bench but after trying it out I decided it didn’t need it – it’s perfectly stable – this also helps its portability as it’s compact enough to store under the bench when not in use. Noise? I watched a review on Youtube where another happy owner said it was quieter than his vacuum cleaner. It’s quieter than my vacuum cleaner too. The included fence and cam lock clamp are useful and very effective. I use a lot of countersunk head woodscrews in my projects and I can now cut an infinite number of countersinks of identical diameter by courtesy of the instantly usable digital depth reading. The chuck is quick and easy to use and any runout (if I could see any) is negligible.I’ve not had this fine machine a week yet so I can’t comment on its longevity but it does have a three year warranty. So far I’m delighted with it. Well done Bosch!Highly recommended.Eric Collett.
M. J. Richards –
The media could not be loaded. I’ve now had this for 4 months, so i would like to think I can now give a sensible, calculated review.The drill arrives in 2 main pieces. All you need to do is attached the base plate to the drill, tighten up the allen screw, and you’re good to go.You can bolt the base plate to your work surface, via the 4 corner holes. It also comes with a clamp that fits on the bottom of the pillar. It’s not really necessary to the work I do, but it seems to work ok.Operation of the drill is super easy. On the right hand side you have a 2 speed selector switch.Speed 1 giving you a speed of 200-850 rpms, and speed 2, 600-2590 rpms.There is a useful little table on the side of the drill, giving you recommended speeds for drilling aluminium and steel. (With wood, you can pretty much drill as fast as you like.) Although I tend to go slightly lower then they recommend, particularly with large bits into steel.(Whenever you are drilling metal, don’t forget to use lots of lovely cutting fluid, to help to keep your bit cool).Adjustments of speed is via the main knob on the front. It’s very good under load, with the drill constantly adjusting the speed as the torque increases and decreases to keep it at your dialled in speed.It also has a very accurate depth stop, which you set with the upper of the two column levers. You can then switch the display from showing rpms to mms. I’ve found it very accurate, with great repeatability. I didn’t think I would be using it much but, due to it’s accuracy I use it a lot.It also has a built in light (very useful), and a built in laser (not so useful, but still nice to have). These are turned on and off by separate switches on the front.It also has a very good emergency stop button, where you can just hit the on/off button to turn off. You may find that like me, you turn it off this way a lot of the time.The chuck isn’t the best, and my original intention was to swap it out, for a more accurate model. However in use, it works well, and as you can see from the attached video, on my drill the run out accuracy is around 0.01mm. Which for a drill at this price is pretty amazing.The only quibble I have with it, is that the smallest bit it accepts is 1.5mm, and I know there will be occasions, where I will want to drill 1mm.The controlling handle is something I don’t particularly like. There is a reason that every other pillar drill has always had a 3 spoked handle, and that’s because it works the best.For drilling wood, the provided handle is fine, but when drilling big holes in steel, you need a lot of downward pressure, and with the wheel type, I find that difficult to consistently achieve. I swapped mine for a traditional 3 spoke, and for me, it works a lot better. It’s an easy swap.Overall, I’m very happy. The drill has a powerful 710w motor, a lot more powerful than any others at this price.Ergonomically it works really well, and certainly in my case, is super accurate. I would happily recommend it.I hope you found this review helpful.A small update. I’ve now had this drill for 2 years, and it is still working wonderfully. I’ve not had a single issue, and its had a lot of use. Very pleased.
Nitsan SimantovNitsan Simantov –
This thing is incredible!Features I love:- SLOW START! It starts slowly and then brings up the speed. In my opinion this is absolutely amazing for some safety aspects of a powerful tool like this. I would have spent the extra money on this tool for this feature alone!- 750w power. I’m sure I’d be fine with less but this is nice to have.- Not very loud, actually really comfortably quiet at lower speeds. I love this about many quality tools from Bosch and Makita, especially 18v tools. See below for my noise measurements.- Perfect speed adjustments! So easy to dial in exactly what you need from 200 to 2500 rpm. I also love that the speed is actually measured by the tool rather than just showing a number based on the position of the adjustment knob. So for example if you’re drilling a tough material you will see the speed decrease on the LCD screen.- Physical depth stop and digital depth gauge on the screen.- The laser and LED light are very nice. Although the laser shines brightly off the metal surface at the bottom which I don’t love.- Really versatile built-in clamp, which is removable. There’s also a separate Bosch vice for £50 or so which to me seems a bit overpriced so I doubt I would get that from Bosch.- As far as I know this can drill much deeper than most others.- Usable for so many things, and I’ve also seen many tricks on youtube for using this in ways it wasn’t intended, although i guess some of them may be unsafe to do.- Good weight for keeping it stable, but still can be moved without a problem.Quality:Looks and feels like superb build quality. I really don’t understand why this is a “green” tool, which is what Bosch consider a “DIY” tool rather than a “blue” tool which is their professional line.Noise: (to me this is important)I measured noise from approx 1ft away (dB meter next to my head). I got these results:78dB at 2500rpm. – Same amount of noise as my Bosch 18V-Li cordless drill at its maximum 1700rpm speed. (The UK government’s health and safety website says your employer should give you hearing protection from 80dB, so I’d say best to wear ear protection for using this at high speed, especially for longer durations and when drilling metals.)68dB at 1050rpm. – Reasonably quiet and comfortable, even for my sensitive ears. This is much less noise than 78dB.56dB at 200rpm. – Roughly the same as my lovely Bosch GS-50 “silent” vacuum cleaner which I measured at 55db. Quiet enough to have a conversation or listen to music (obviously not recommended for safety reasons, you should be paying attention to your tool and material), and likely won’t disturb other people.Chuck wobble:I cannot see or feel any chuck wobble at all. I have no proper device to measure but if I can’t feel it then it’s absolutely fine for me.Chuck play:The chuck does have a bit of play, meaning it can move very slightly sideways if I push it. it’s about 0.33mm (one third of a millimeter) from pushing left to pushing right, measured at the end of an 8cm long bit. This is an extremely tiny movement so doesn’t bother me. If measured from no-pressure to pushing in one direction then it’s about half that much, about one sixth of a millimeter. Other than this tiny movement the entire tool feels extremely solid and accurate.Price:Not cheap but in my opinion it was absolutely worth the investment. It’s a little cheaper from other shops but I love the Amazon customer service and easy returns (for example if there’s an issue) so I was happy to pay about £15 extra (£245 instead of £230).Note: This newer version doesn’t have the clear guard over the chuck as I’ve seen in some photos and videos online. Doesn’t seem to be a problem at all.Conslusion:For me it was absolutely worth it, I’m LOVING this tool! – But to be fair you can also make holes with a £50 drill press, especially if you don’t care about fancy features.If you’re on the fence about buying this I would say, if it’s not going to break the bank, go for it, I think you will love it.Remember to register with Bosch within 30 days of purchase for the extended warranty! See their website for details.
DavidDavid –
I was on the fence about whether or not to buy a traditional style belt driven pillar drill for approx £50 or spend the extra cash on this.I decided that the time saved in not having to change belts to adjust the speed was worth it alone as I am constantly switching between metal work and wood work and changing speed fast is essential for my job as a professional prop builder for the TV industry.The only slight gripe I have with the machine is the Chuck. It’s not awful but it’s also not the best hand tightening Chuck I’ve ever used. It doesn’t seem to have a particularly positive feel to it when tightening up a bit. For most jobs it seems to grip the bit just fine but when fitted with a 35mm forstner bit, and drilling into 18mm ply the bit had a tendency to slip in the Chuck which is less than ideal. The same also happened with some metal bits when a touch too much pressure was applied the bit would slip.I decided the simplest and most cost effective solution was to order a 1/2 inch Shank keyed Chuck and simply swap them over. It was a 30second job and now the drill bits don’t slip and I can get a decent amount of grip on anything I put in the Chuck. I’m not entirely sure why Bosch didn’t supply it with a keyed Chuck in the first place but there you go.Anyway, it’s a more useable tool with the new Chuck.The laser cross is pretty accurate, and accurate enough for quickly locating where to put the wood or center punched metal and then make fine adjustments to make sure the bit goes in the right place. The work light is ok, it could do with being a touch brighter but it’s fine.The depth gauge is excellent and one of the best features on this drill. Very actuate for drilling the same depth hole time and time again and great for countersinking multiple holes to the correct depth. The drill seems relatively square, there is a tiny amount of movement in the pillar when applying a lot of pressure to the workpiece which tends to put the second hole in 50mm box section slightly off but as long as you don’t apply too much pressure the drill is quite square for most of my needs. I’m sure a bit of tweaking with the grub screw will tighten everything up.The steering wheel handle is quirky but seems to work fine for me. Some people complain about it, I think it’s just fine.The clamp is also a very handy feature but if too much pressure is applied this also pushes the pillar back and can put the bit slightly out of square. Again, I’m sure once I’ve tweaked the grub screw this may not be an issue. I may even add someMore grub screws to clamp the pillar from the front as well to belt and braces it.All in all, a thoroughly recommended bench drill, lightweight, great torque for drilling metal and wood with large bits. I absolutely love it and wish I had spent the money years ago as it would have made my life much easier a long time ago….!
MR N D LEE –
This replaced an old belt driven drill press which took up too much space. This is well built, digitally controlled and a pleasure to use. The built in LED light and laser is a nice touch. It looks great in my new workshop
Nick –
Overall this is an excellent drill. Solid, precise, well made, and easy to use. It definitely deserves 5 stars and is head and shoulders above the cheap pillar drill it replaced. Based on my experience of a few hours drilling lots of holes in wood I do have three small niggles where I think Bosch could have tried a little harder to make this an even better product:a) The “quick release” chuck is a pain, frankly I’d prefer a traditional chuck. It’s no faster than a traditional chuck and rather fiddly. Plus on a few occasions it has failed to grip the drill tightly enough. If I could find how to swap it for a boring normal chuck I would. Has anyone done this?b. The workpiece clamp is a touch too tight on the pillar, it often sticks and has to be wiggled around before it can be raised. I tried a drop of WD40 on the pillar but that didn’t seem to help. This is probably the most annoying issue because it makes repositioning the workpiece more fiddly and time consuming than is necessary.c) The laser line is too thick. It really needs to be thinner because I have drills narrower than the laser line. I’m planning some very precise drilling in the future (eg on a PCB) and I’m sure I’ll find this annoying.I have to stress these are only small issues, and not enough to deduct a star. But maybe if the folks at Bosch read this they could tweak the design a touch in the future.
Chris HawkinsChris Hawkins –
If you’re anything like me, you torture yourself with reviewing reviews for days or weeks before making a decision – picking up on every negative comment and looking for patterns. I’m a keen amateur, moderately advanced woodworker and I previously I owned a classic type pulley driven pillar drill – I didn’t change speeds nearly as often as I should have done because it was such a pain. It was a cheap model and suffered from a notable degree of chuck wobble, but I lived with it. As I got more serious with my wood working accuracy of <<1mm became more important and so did using the correct RPM when switching between say a 1mm pilot drill, a 35mm forstner bit and a 20mm spade bit etc. I was looking at one of Axminster's Trade drills, which was a monster - doubtless accurate, but still had the pulley system. Then I found the PBD40 online.Been using it seriously for a few weeks now and can't comment on its long-term reliability, but note it does come with a free 3 Year Warranty of you register the machine online.In sum, I LOVE this machine - it has met and possibly exceeded all my expectations. What about some of the negative comments?Chuck wobble is insignificant - I do have a dial indicator, but have simply not bothered to use it.It's Green not Blue - I have a range of Bosch Blue tools - TBH if this was blue I wouldn't have thought, 'This should be green'.The Laser is spot on and is far more useful than I thought it would be - if you centre punch the location you can simply place the laser cross on it and have no worries. If you're not pre-punching then you're also not going to be disappointed about the accuracy of the drill location. For reference - that's a 2mm pilot hole in the picture. Was then following that up with a 16mm forstner bit in 10mm thick English Oak.The digital depth guide is superb, as is the depth stop mechanism. The built in light is excellent. It has ample power - I use a lot of oak and it does not hesitate. I love the wheel - do not miss the traditional spoke design of my previous drill at all. I don't find it noisy at all, but then I have a lot of really noisy things (like a thickness planer) - I wear ear defenders if I'm drilling for extended periods but wouldn't for a quick job.I don't understand why a gentleman has implemented a braking mechanism (but I am grateful for hime taking the trouble to talk about it) - I have no problems with the device holding its location.It's easy to raise and lower the drill probably as easy as raising and lowering a normal drilling plate with a ratchet system.That's all I can think of for now - feel free to ask questions. Delighted with this as long as it keeps performing as it is.Update November 2019. Still using regularly with no problems. Sorry for not responding to the comments - I did not receive any notifications.
Squirrel –
Getting used to moving the drill head to set the position is easy, just remember to release the depth stop (or put it high) so that you can then move it to actually drill. Love the variable speed and the one-knob controls.Setting the clamp is a bit stiff on the shaft (I want to try some machine wax to see if that helps). The laser cross is good, and the built-in light. Simple safety cut-off, just press the control knob to stop everything. Some complaints about drill bit wobble, but I’ve not found that, and I find the wheel easy to use.The parallel guide works OK, my only complaint is that the high side of it gets in the way of the clamp, if you are working with something lower – I was working with 26mm wood, and the fence is higher, so had to turn it around and use the edge of the flat side. Not a big deal, and no doubt if it was 25mm high, others would have the same issue with 24mm stock…First job was to drill and countersink 42 4.5mm holes 8mm from the edge of the timber – worked a treat and fully justified the purchase, so very happy bunny here.
Alan Petch –
I’ve had this drill for 18 months now and it hasn’t failed me once.I use it for woodworking and it’s as accurate as I need it to be.The variable speed is easy to adjust with no belts to mess around with.I only have a small workshop so it’s handy to be able to tuck it under the bench when not in use and light enough to just bring out when I need it.
Sladey –
Been thinking about a pillar drill for ages.Very glad I got this one