Yeah, not bad for $100 dollars! Seriously, drilling 316 stainless with a battery powered hand drill is so not going to happen ever again…
While, no stranger to stationary tools in the workplace, I’ll have to admit that a drill press is a very handy tool aboard. Admittedly finding a dedicated storage place on a 36-foot boat will involve some serious shuck and jive but, I’m pretty sure I won’t have to get rid of my Firebird to do it.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a small shop space in the boat? A work bench, drill press, vice, etc.
For ages I really wanted to build a shoal draft fifty-foot cargo schooner with a serious workshop (table saw, bandsaw, jointer/plane, and drill press) that could earn it’s keep in the cargo hold. In financial terms a cargo schooner actually made sense. I could easily cover our cruising funds just building dinghies.
On a side note back when I was a kid living on Catalina we had two cargo schooners that serviced the island. My first bike arrived just before a long ago Christmas by cargo schooner as they carried whatever needed moving. I even did a paper on the Economics of small craft enterprise viability. It’s still a subject that has my full attention.