Kanzawa Drill guide DX K-802

No drill guide, no matter how high quality, will replace a drill press. It's important to remember this. That said, this Kanzawa drill guide is by far the highest quality guide on the market. Made in Japan, the base and chuck holder are aluminum, the guide bars are steel. The DX 802 is the upgraded version of the 801, but I don't have the 801 so I don't know what the differences are. Their website is in Japanese, but google translation does a decent job of translating the site. From their website I can glean that this drill guide comes in several different flavors: DX802-1 has a 3/8" (10mm) chuck DX802-2 has a 1/2" (13mm) chuck and has longer guide bars. DX802-3 has an impact driver head DX802-4 has an adjustable angle base As of this writing (7/13/20) only the 802-1 seems to be available in the US. Older 801 versions are available at various sites around the web. Is it worth the price? You can tell as soon as you take it out of the box that it is a high quality tool. Extremely well machined and finished. The 90 degree hole it drills is perfectly square. The chuck support moves smoothly up and down the steel guide bars. The chuck is of decent quality. If your toolbox is filled with Starrett, Incra and Woodpecker tools and you need a drill guide, then this is the one for you. If not, then it is tough call. If you appreciate fine tools as I do, then it is worth it. Most drill guides come with some v supports in the base to drill round stock. (pipe or dowel) A nice feature on the Kanzawa, is that these v supports are screwed on and are removable, which makes clamping the base in place much easier. The base also has a very good rubber non slip bottom to help hold the base in place on the workpiece. This company really needs to engage a good marketing firm in the US. They make good products, but their marketing efforts are poor. There is minimal information on their Japanese website.

I was creating an indoor play set for my child, which has wooden ladders and monkey bars using rods. I needed to drill a series of 1" holes at even intervals for the rungs. I bought the Kanzawa drill guide because it's more versatile than a drill press. The guide seems quite solid in construction. I like that the angle can't be adjusted - one less thing to become loose. I bought this guide because it has better reviews than other guides, which are filled with complaints about imprecision. I was very disappointed to discover that the drill head has a slight give, which resulted in about 2-3 mm of movement at the tip of the drill bit. This means the distance between each hole that I'm drilling can be off by as much as 5 mm. The rungs on the ladder won't be parallel. The rungs might not even fit together. I also had to drill holes through the diameters of the rods. Because of the give, the holes were off significantly, even after creating guide holes. I ended up borrowing my neighbor's cheap drill press, which produced the exact holes needed for the project. I really wanted this drill guide to work because it seemed well made. I am returning this guide, and use the money to buy a drill press instead. Very disappointed.

read the stars

This is a well made tool. I needed a better option for make perpendicular holes for a floating shelf that I was making. The drill guide is significantly more accurate than the “hand held eyeball” technique. That being said, this drill guide does not have the accuracy of a drill press. I made a jig that would allow me to hold the drill guide more firmly...photo enclosed. I’m happy with the product.

This would otherwise have been a great tool, but the chuck wobbles so much that it's useless. Based on the other reviews here it seems that this is just a feature of the drill guide. I don't know how useful a drill guide is with a chuck that wobbles? I'll unfortunately have to return it and go with another brand. It's a shame, it's very well built, other than the useless bearing holding the chuck.

I USED IT TO DRILL SEVERAL 4X4 POST USING A 1/2 PADDLE BIT. A PIECE OF CAKE AND SPOT ON. I USED 2 CLAMPS WITH THE RUBBER BOOTS TO CLAMP IT TO THE 4X4.. ID SAY IT PROBABLY COULD GO AS LOW AS A 1/32 HOLE AND BE ACCURATE, MAYBE EVEN LOWER JUST A GUESS. BEFORE BUYING THIS ONE I READ ALL THE REVIEWS ON THE OTHER BRANDS, AND SEEN THAT KNOBS WERE BREAKING OFF, HANDLES WOULD BREAK, THEY WOBBLED ALOT. LOTS OF PLASTIC USED IN MAKEING THEM, JUNK! SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY IF YOU WANT SOMETHING THATS WELL BUILT AND WILL LAST AND DO A GOOD JOB EACH TIME.. OTHER WISE SAVE MONEY AND BUY SOMETHING ELSE AND TAKE A CHANCE ON MESSING UP YOUR PROJECTS. WELL THATS MY 2 CENTS.... I WOULD RECOMMED THIS ITEM TO ANYONE.. THX

This unit has the potential to be good but comes up short. The drill chuck has a fair bit of play, so the accuracy in how straight it guides the bit is compromised. Also, the base has 2 rubber inserts on the bottom that cause it to not sit completely flat on the surface. Instead it rocks slightly. I returned it and purchased a similar unit from Rockler which is of superior quality and worth the extra money I paid.

Sort of a poor-man's drill press or plunge router, but does a good job for us. We use it with Forstner bits to rout out leash cups for surfboards. We had the the bits and didn't want to buy a whole new plunge router, so this filled the bill.