AlexR
Active member
About two years ago, sick of cleaning my ever mud-caked drill, I made a cover.
The stitching is obviously less than aesthetic, but it had a nice hole for your hand and generally worked quite well. Surprisingly I never noticed any issue until I had to bolt a right-to-left traverse - the pocket for my hand is on the right, so using the drill in the cover with your left hand is practically impossible.
The cover is still on that drill down a cave where I won’t get to it until next August, good excuse to make a new one.
And as an added bonus I can now see the battery charge, which annoyingly wasn’t possible with the last one.
Instead of taxing my mediocre sewing skills with putting in two pockets so the drill can easily be used right and left handed I went the lazy route: stretch fabric
(quite a specialised one, I wouldn’t generally recommend stretch fabric for this).
A drill cover has got to be the easiest DIY project for any caver, if you have a drill and access to a sewing machine I’d really recommend it. Yes you could use an old dry bag, but it won’t last long.
The best material is something like a medium-weight upholstery fabric, something with a bit of texture so the drill isn’t too slippery. I think the fabric for the first cover was this one.
The exit for the drill bit can simply be a buttonhole stitch or alternatively some heavier duty fabric.
Instructions:
Place drill on fabric, trace with ca. 2cm seam allowance, cut fabric to size, sew on Velcro, make hole for drill bit & cord, sew halves together, turn right side out, done!
Remember you can always make it smaller afterwards, but if the drill doesn’t fit your options are limited
I’d recommend putting the opening at the bottom so it’s easy to change the battery.
Two trips and you’ll have regained the time it took you to sew the cover by not having to clean the drill, and the spare fabric can be used for a drawstring-closure bag for keeping other kit in.
The stitching is obviously less than aesthetic, but it had a nice hole for your hand and generally worked quite well. Surprisingly I never noticed any issue until I had to bolt a right-to-left traverse - the pocket for my hand is on the right, so using the drill in the cover with your left hand is practically impossible.
The cover is still on that drill down a cave where I won’t get to it until next August, good excuse to make a new one.
And as an added bonus I can now see the battery charge, which annoyingly wasn’t possible with the last one.
Instead of taxing my mediocre sewing skills with putting in two pockets so the drill can easily be used right and left handed I went the lazy route: stretch fabric
(quite a specialised one, I wouldn’t generally recommend stretch fabric for this).A drill cover has got to be the easiest DIY project for any caver, if you have a drill and access to a sewing machine I’d really recommend it. Yes you could use an old dry bag, but it won’t last long.
The best material is something like a medium-weight upholstery fabric, something with a bit of texture so the drill isn’t too slippery. I think the fabric for the first cover was this one.
The exit for the drill bit can simply be a buttonhole stitch or alternatively some heavier duty fabric.
Instructions:
Place drill on fabric, trace with ca. 2cm seam allowance, cut fabric to size, sew on Velcro, make hole for drill bit & cord, sew halves together, turn right side out, done!
Remember you can always make it smaller afterwards, but if the drill doesn’t fit your options are limited
I’d recommend putting the opening at the bottom so it’s easy to change the battery.
Two trips and you’ll have regained the time it took you to sew the cover by not having to clean the drill, and the spare fabric can be used for a drawstring-closure bag for keeping other kit in.
