evening lee
had a quick closer look at it in the dark, the handle does look removable, its spring loaded so you can pull it up and fold it in , held in place with a screw, the spindle is also lockable with a thumb screw if you tighten it down, whether or not the collar that the handle screws onto is too big to go in a drill I would not know. I could take a pic for you tomorrow if you like ?
I have found it to be a very robust reel, its heavy and is only suitable to being bolted down as a van mount, but has a very smooth action.
The only niggle is that the screw heads that hold the sides on sometimes cause the hose to snag on them (microbore) when unreeling but I think this is more down to making sure when you reel it back in its tidy and even from side to side (if that makes sense)
Simon