Shopsmith Forums

Have you ever had a job that you needed more than an 8 inch reach of the Shopmith drill press or just wanted to drill a hole or two with the accuracy of the drill press but not want to tear down Shopsmith that is setup in another mode. I find that issue all the time and until now there just have not been acceptable alternatives. That changed a few weeks ago when Rockler came out with this drill guide. To get an overview watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzSyi4u4P1Y

They sell the guide for $150 and the vise for $50 but I got the combo for about $160 on a promotion they had a few weeks ago. If it had not been for the promotion I probably would not have gotten the vise but I am sure glad I did. First off the guide is really heavy duty with an outstanding chuck and very smooth sliding action. The vise is very solid and adds a lot of mass and stability to the guide once installed and it does not interfere with any drilling operations. In the photo here I have chucked up the largest fostner bit I own and as you can see it clears the vise jaws when open.
Even when using my largest ½” handheld drill the guide is stable enough to hold up both the guide and drill with no assistance. Once you put it in place it stays there due to the heavy duty rubber bottom material.
It has a lock to lock the drill in place anywhere on its travel and very nice stops that can be set for the desired hole depth. The centering vise is handy for drilling holes in the end of dowels or the ends of standard stock, things that you would normally set the shopsmith up in a horizontal boring mode for but the center vise makes set up faster and easier.
After a week or so of using it I have yet to find any flaws and use it frequently mostly with my smaller hand drill but also have the large one for big bits.
I would highly recommend this to anyone in need of a portable drill press.

Steve,

Good to know you have this one and it works well. This new one from Rockler looks like someone has finally produced a good drill guide. I needed this for a panel a few months ago and purchased the best one I could find (see link below) at the time. It was a Japanese made one by Kanzawa. This worked so much better than the cheap $40 drill guides on the market. However, the chuck wasn't great on it, so I replaced that with a better, but inexpensive Jacobs chuck. If I had just waited this Rockler one would have been perfect. It looks beefy and sturdy so shouldn't flex, but it also has the ability to drill at angles if needed. Also looks like it has a decent chuck on it too. I haven't seen the Rockler one yet in person, but based on my search before I would recommend anyone in the market check it out first before considering any of the other ones out there.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043 ... UTF8&psc=1

Pretty nifty. Thanks or posting.

Thanks for posting Steve. I've been wanting to pick up a drill guide for some time, but have seen so many bad reviews/comments on the cheap ones and not enough commentary on the Japanese guide. This looks like just the ticket. Hopefully I can snag a sale with the drill and vise.

roy_okc wrote:Thanks for posting Steve. I've been wanting to pick up a drill guide for some time, but have seen so many bad reviews/comments on the cheap ones and not enough commentary on the Japanese guide. This looks like just the ticket. Hopefully I can snag a sale with the drill and vise.

Roy,

Yeah, I had a similar problem...I looked at all of the cheap ($40) drill guides and the reviews were terrible. Given the overwhelming negative reviews I didn't want to take my chances with them especially for the project that I needed it for had to be drilled perfect the first time. I believe the Rockler drill guide is the same one that UJK makes, but it is only sold in the UK and Europe from what I can tell. I saw the UJK drill guide in one of Andy Klein's YouTube videos when I was searching for one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any place to sell it to me and ship to the US. My guess is Rockler is selling a re-branded or licensed version of the UJK drill guide (see pic below for UJK one). It is expensive, but if you really need one of these, I highly recommend checking out this Rockler one first before looking at other brands. Like I said, I have the Japanese brand one and it works well, but if I could have waited, I am sure I would have gotten the Rockler version instead. From the pic below you can see that the UJK one looks very similar to the Rockler one...in fact some of the aluminum pieces look exactly identical - either identical tooling or it was copied.

UJK Drill Guide:
https://www.axminstertools.com/ujk-tech ... uck-106072 Rockler Drill Guide:
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-portable-drill-guide

You can buy it from TSO.

https://tsoproducts.com/tools-equipment ... ill-guide/

FYI Axminster ships here to the USA and I have purchased more then a few things from them. So far the shipping has been pretty fast and I have been very happy with items from them.

They even have a catalog they will send you:
Ed

sehast wrote:You can buy it from TSO.

https://tsoproducts.com/tools-equipment ... ill-guide/

Steve,

Thanks. It has been maybe six months or so since I bought the other brand. I think I remember seeing it on the TSO website and I tried to purchase it. However, it is one of those websites where once you put in your shipping address it won't complete the order with US address. I may be getting the TSO website mixed up with another one, but I did try to buy the UJK back then and I couldn't find anywhere that would sell it to me in the US at that time. A lot has changed in 6 months. Glad you got the new Rockler one...it looks nice.

UPDATE:
Actually looking at the TSO website again now, it shows that it is NOT in stock. You can put your email in and be notified when it is in stock again. I think I actually did this 6 months ago and never got notified by TSO for it. Guessing TSO is not selling/shipping this item to the US since it probably hasn't ever shown in stock or notified me. I remember trying to buy it from another website, maybe Axminster, and they would not ship that item to the US either back then.

I placed my first order from Axminster on 05/03/2017 so I have no idea when they started taking orders from the USA but it had to be from before then.

Ed

I just checked and their drill guide is in stock and no prohibition against shipping to the US. I wanted the UJK version but they were out of stock forever. A week or so after I ordered the Rockler version the UJK showed up in stock and available for US shipping. The Rockler version is great. Beefy, smooth action, accurate, etc. I ordered the drill guide vise from Axminster cause it was $80 shipped and Rockler wants $99 plus tax etc. Should have bought the vise with the drill guide I guess. https://www.axminstertools.com/us/ujk-t ... uck-106072

Jack