Making holes without an electric drill
theplywood.com
theplywood.com
So I’m an idiot like that, and you might expect me to use a manual drill (I guess it would be auxiliary drill if Google translate is right), and until I bought a house you would have been right. Now I own both an electrical drill and a drill hammer. So while my whipped cream still takes a few minutes more than an electro mixer you won’t ever find me drilling a hole without a power tool. It’s just not worth it.
Great article though, it’s nice to see all the options covered.
The Stanley has a conventional chuck, and can take any size drill, including a Unibit. It produces a smoother hole and is more controlled when you break through the other side of sheet material. It's a tad more expensive than the Fiskars, but looks to be a lot better made.
The Yankee only requires one hand, so you can hold the workpiece with the other, hang onto a ladder, etc. But it produces a rougher hole, and will break through quite abruptly. But for something like a pilot hole for a screw, which doesn't need super precision anyway, it's fine.
Both are super convenient: Lightweight, compact, don't need any forethought to make sure they're charged, no worry if they get rained on.
If I had to have just one, it would be the Stanley, but the Yankee was given to me by a friend who collects old hand tools. Like the above poster, I greatly prefer hand tools when I can get away with using them.
(BTW, you forgot the railgun, nano-sized black hole, antimatter beam, and trained termite "drill squad".)
The best way to avoid being caught without the right drill bit is to have MULTIPLE sets. They're dirt cheap and never go bad (unless you leave them exposed to the weather).
Get a spare drill while you're at it. Hell, get two; they're dirt cheap.
All this fiddling about with inferior or not-quite-right-for-the-job tools makes for great HN reading, but is rather pointless in the real world.
Also: Drill a pilot hole first.
The only cases where I'd say older is better would be places where the quality has gone so far downhill that it impacts the work. Things like:
- nails
- screws
- chisels
- axes
- knives (although there are still plenty of good knife makers today)
- heavy equipment like drill presses, lathes, pipe benders, etc
If you buy wood screws on Amazon, maybe they have thinner-than-spec threads and get weird. Maybe. I've done it (I can't get, say, oval-head slotted brass screws here too easily, so the internet's the option) and never had problems when I've drilled pilot holes and countersunk them correctly, even on fairly large pieces.
I use rotary impact drivers and drill presses all day long at work. there's no shame. gimlets see a lot of use in jewelry and my foreman once said you never sharpen them because they're generally case hardened and snap too easily. they're very fine instruments in the hand.
for you drill owners out there the best advice I can offer is always punch your holes first, always wear safety glasses and learn to sharpen your bits.
Definitely. And this is why, if you've got the money, why a drill+driver set is pretty handy - you drill with the drill, then you drive the screw with the impact driver, and you haven't had to mess around with switching your bits. (I have two of each in the shop, because sometimes I need a #10 T20 and a #8 T15 screw at the same time, and that means separate drills and separate drivers.)
Anytime I'm drilling a lot of holes, screwing a lot of screws, or screwing any number of screws but with a high accuracy requirement, I pre-drill with a tapered bit (example: https://www.amazon.com/FTG-USA-Replacement-Countersink-Taper...). They're typically used with countersink bits, but that's not how I use them most often. They're just really good at nailing a hole location quickly and accurately. And for things like framing, they are good at setting pilots for toe screws which can sometimes otherwise be annoying to do.
PB Swiss center punch with tungsten carbide point for hard metals, https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand-tools/str...
YG-1 (South Korea) spiral flute tap, evacuates metal chips, useful for custom device enclosures, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F8T4ST2/ & https://yg1usa.com/
Norseman bits (USA), http://norsemandrill.com/
I feel like anyone drilling stuff that's harder than 40 HRC, or worse yet, 40+ HRC stainless steel; will be worrying more about bit choice or feeds and speeds than choice of center punch.
You tip the saw forward on its table so the blade is above the wood, hold down the “Go” button, and slowly lean the jigsaw back towards flat. It is important that the jigsaw’s table is in solid contact with the wood the, erm, hole time.
I still don't understand the people that say gand drills are more convenient for just one or two drills, unless they are comparing to a corded drill. I don't think I've ever actually used a corded drill though.
Why plunge a router and then switch to a jigsaw to make a large circular hole in a sheet of plywood? Just move the router around instead.
You can use a bit that can follow a template to make this as accurate as you'd like, but freehand is usually sufficient.
Also: A notable omission in the "other powertools" section is the angle grinder. Both to "saw" a hole, and by attaching a drill chuck to the grinder. At that point it's basically an electric drill with another form factor.
You can also spend a lot of money on drill bits if you're seeking perfection over the perfectly adequate.
- Lower quality metal, meaning they need to be sharpened more often.
- Looser tolerances, more vibration for you/the router to compensate for, and a lower quality finish.
- Consistency between blades will be low.
Perfectly adequate is ok for low frequency and low expectations, but not for anyone expecting high output or high expectations.
Never noticed vibration issues with router bits from AliExpress, though I do use a 1/2" router and don't tend to use huge bits so it would have to be pretty far out of whack to make a difference. Same for tolerance. That said, I also wouldn't reach for a power tool as the last step to a very nice surface finish or very high precision fit.
I also use cheap router bits on occasion, but the second one misbehaves even slightly I go ahead and buy an Amana or similarly high-end one, because obviously I've used it enough for it to be worth it.
Yes, anecdote, but I also have some not-cheapies that came with used tools, inherited from woodworker family, etc. and so don't feel like this is a case where I just don't know what I'm missing. The volumes of work I do are way too small to justify a real comparison test, basically it's hobby stuff, but pros probably aren't going to be taking router bit advice on HN anyway...
I heard about it a decade ago. A laser tuned to the resonant frequency of skin. The protein or whatever.
Low power, with no burning, no heat damage. Melted right through, cleanly. Unravelled those little molecules. A wonderful cutting device.
And maybe you could match a laser to any material. Wood? Glass? A very clean cut. Maybe even safer.
For cutting holes into wood as a hobbyist, a CNC machine with the appropriate tool will give far superior output for the purpose of making holes in wood.
https://ruko.shop/blogs/ruko-shop-blog/which-drill-bits-to-u...
Keep them as sharp as possible to minimize heating. The bit that I use for plastic isn't allowed to touch metal. If coolant is needed, plain water works just fine. Some oils will craze plastic.
Brad point bits also work well. If you're not doing production work, just be patient and proceed slowly to avoid heat buildup.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGnWLXjIDnpBancnnrjhxvvXu...
The standard crank drill is clearly the alternative [1]. Most home users should not purchase an electric drill IMO. They dont need it. It will likely never drill more than a few dozen holes.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Frylr-Speedy-Powerful-Manual-1-5MM-10...
In all seriousness though, an eggbeater drill will last forever. Mine are probably 70 years old or older. Ditto my brace. Good luck finding batteries for any electric cordless drill in 20 years, never mind a cheap one.
You can also find third-party adapters to convert between basically any two battery platforms.
Even if the existing 18V/20V-max format doesn't survive another 20 years--an assertion I don't really expect to be true, see for example DeWalt's in-progress switch to stacked cells without any tool deprecation--the world will not be without 18650 cells in twenty years. And you can buy a corded drill if you really want to.
I own a bit and brace and to me it's useful for exactly one thing: compound angles during chairmaking. Literally everything else, from low-and-slow picture-framing tasks to boring out Euro hinge holes, is faster, more accurate, and (for me) more enjoyably done with a tool fit for purpose and with modern affordances--a cordless hand drill and drill press, respectively.
Those are useful for everything from assembling IKEA furniture to taking apart a car. The drilling function is secondary or tertiary.
But sure, if you mean a giant corded impact drill used to drill into concrete almost nobody needs that.
I had to rent one once to put a conduit through a concrete block wall reinforced with concrete fill and rebar. Not fun.
Tons of people need that - how else do you hang pictures on stone walls? And they are not so giant - they are the same size as regular drills.
And most homes are wood stud and drywall, where you don't even really need a hammer drill or the impact bit of an impact driver.
I hang pictures on walls with a kit gun and fast drying kit usually.
You can buy kit (or glue) that could easily hold your bodyweight if applied to an area the size of your palm.
Of courses you're gluing it to the paint, but that's usually strongly bonded.
I'd drill into brick to put a structural anchor in, but not to hang a picture.
And that one in particular hates its user specifically; keyless chucks are way better, too, for novices because of the likelihood that that chuck key is going to get lost in a move or the like. They also aren't that expensive--the aforementioned Black and Decker corded drill has one.