Drilling

Drill acrylic without buying special bits

When a recent project called for drilling holes in acrylic, I turned to my regular twist bits.

Low-cost way to put light where most needed

At some machines, such as a drill press, bandsaw, lathe, and scrollsaw, fine work requires clearly seeing what you’re doing.

Drill Press Basics

Let's start with the basics.

Eliminate crank-handle crankiness

My auxiliary drill-press table adds a lot of surface area for better stock support than the small factory-supplied table.

To make matching mortises, set limits

I love using my benchtop mortiser to plow lots of slots quickly, but laying out all of those mortises can be a nuisance.

A soft touch prevents scarring

When drilling holes, the bit suddenly breaking through the workpiece can cause the chuck jaws to bump into the workpiece.

Drill-press mount controls unruly dust-collection hoses

I struggled to find a good way to hold a shop-vacuum hose to capture debris generated by my drill press. So I built this swiveling hose mount, and it does the trick perfectly.

Drill down on angled faces

One of my projects required drilling a recess for a magnet on an angled face, so I came up with this little trick to do it without tilting my drill-press table.