In addition to being an online editor for MAKE Magazine, Michael Colombo works in fabrication, electronics, sound design, music production and performance (Yes. All that.) In the past he has also been a childrens' educator and entertainer, and holds a Masters degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Drilling holes isn’t just a matter of putting a bit in the chuck and pulling the trigger. There are finer points to this often under-examined skill. From preventing blow-out, to not burning up your bits, and keeping your wrists unbroken, let’s take a look at some ways to make drilling holes better and easier. While I’m not wearing eye protection on these demonstration photos, donning protective eye wear should be the first thing you do.
The image above may be an exagerration, but the message is that you should let the drill do the work. Your bit can actually work less efficiently if you put too much force on the drill, and you run the risk of breaking your bit.
If you’re looking to get the cleanest hole possible, start with a small bit and work your way up to the desired diameter. This might take a little longer with wood, but it results in a much cleaner hole. With metal it’s often a faster process to start with a small bit and work your way up.
When drilling metal, make sure your drill is set to a slow speed, and use oil as you go. The oil acts as a lubricant and regulates the temperature of the bit and material. There are special types of cutting oil meant to be used for different processes, but usually any household oil with a decent viscosity will do for small projects.
A properly used and maintained bit can last a long time, so know which bits are appropriate for which job. From left to right: small wood bit, high speed steel bit, spade bit, hole saw, cobalt bit, masonry bit.
When using a high-powered hand drill such as this Milwaukee Magnum, be careful when drilling into dense or hard material, as the torque of the drill can actually rip it out of your hands. Use a right angle attachment if you have one, and grip the drill firmly, but not too tight. If the bit gets caught up as you’re going, be prepared to let go — it’s the safest thing to do sometimes. I’ve sprained my wrist in such situations, and have known others to even break their wrists.
A dull drill bit is no fun. Avoid it by only using your bit for its intended material, and not letting it heat up too much. If it’s smoking, stop! When a bit gets that hot you can actually remove the hardness and tempering in the metal. Also consider investing in a drill sharpener like the Drill Doctor to keep those bits going for years to come.
Sometimes you don’t want to drill clean through a piece of material. Here’s a handy little trick to plunge in just the right amount. Measure your intended depth starting at the tip of the drill bit, then wrap a piece of tape around where you want to stop. I use pink gaff for high visibility, but many tapes will do. When you’re drilling, just stop when the edge of the tape is flush with the edge of the material.
If you drill straight through a piece of wood, you’ll often experience what’s known as “blow out.” This is when the bit comes out the other side and creates nasty splinters and chips. It’s unsightly and dangerous. Avoid it by putting a piece of sacrifice board underneath the piece you’re drilling through. It will make the back end of your hole come out a lot cleaner. This is a good habit when using both hand drills and drill presses.
When working with a hand drill, it’s common to lean in close when you pull the trigger. Being so close can give you a lack of perspective as to whether you’re drilling in straight. Take a moment and step back to gauge your angle, and then lean in to cut the hole.
Don’t just stick that bit into the chuck, make sure it’s going in right. A bit that’s not set properly will rotate with a wobble, make your work difficult, and risk breaking the bit. Often bits will have flattened edges at their base. Align these with the jaws of the chuck for a good grip.
84 thoughts on “Ten Tips for Drilling Better Holes”
trkempsays:
I can’t view the slide show, but a larger issue is that in the two images I can see there is no eye protection being used.
J.R.says:
Once again, slideshow = dumb. Just put the article up as one page.
Jason Brownsays:
Slide shows are awful, and this one does not work.
Wally SirFattysays:
Slideshow is problematic… and the lack of eye protection is such an obvious misstep, you should retake the pics.
Drew Bensonsays:
Please, I really want to read this information… but the slideshow is impossible and completely inappropriate for the content!
pfriedelsays:
Oooh, an auto-advancing slideshow that makes lousy use of my screen and doesn’t even seem to fill the usual advertising quota for pagination. *golf clap* Well done!
Jamessays:
I can start the stupid slideshow, but i cannot pause it long enough to actually read. Please – PLEASE – ditch this follishness.
When your flashiness gets in the way of actually accessing content in a useful way, you’re failing your readers.
I cannot even *begin* to imagine how this must wreak havoc for accessibility by things like screen readers and magnifiers.
Michael Colombosays:
Hi folks. We’re aware of the auto-advance issue with the slideshow and are deploying a patch to fix it. Sit tight, and thanks for your patience.
Alan Dovesays:
The auto-advance bug is the least of the problems. Are you (and more importantly the bean-counters who put you up to this) noticing that every single slideshow garners a slew of comments about how much web slideshows suck? Seriously, stop.
Vulpestruments (@Vulpestruments)says:
Slidshow works fine for me!
The drilling up through the sizes is probably my favorite newly learned method. I learnt it when a luthier at work needed help drilling holes in a £20,000 cello! it helped reduce the risk of the wood cracking or splintering around where the drill site was.
davenelsondotcomsays:
This format is AWFUL!
Bensays:
Slideshow only shows 1 pic for me. “next” and “previous”-arrows don´t work
Stevesays:
Every time there’s a slideshow used lots of people have problems with it. I have never been able to view these slideshows. No matter what computer or browser I’ve used, and this has been going on for years now. And what’s really annoying is every time a slideshow is used it’s actually something I’m interested in.
So come on MAKE stop trying to be script savvy, and just let us see the pictures in a flat, simple, everyone can use page style.
Michael Colombosays:
Ok it looks like a fix has been put in. If you want it to stop auto-scrolling, click on one of the arrow buttons and you can advance it manually. As all you makers know, sometimes a bit of troubleshooting is necessary. We appreciate your constructive criticism and thank you for holding out.
David Rysdamsays:
Nope, the buttons don’t work either. And why is text information being presented as a slideshow anyway? One big page with text captions FTW!
trkempsays:
It is at least broken differently. :-)
Davesays:
Sorry, Michael, still can’t pause, still unreadable.
Text overflows the slide frame, very poor use of screen space, all around bad idea…
Can’t agree more with the comments about lack of eye protection!
And the #1 slide – Start Small is all well and good, but it should be #2.
First, use a centerpunch!
Dave
Michael Colombosays:
Hi Dave. I added a note in the post about the importance of using eye protection. Also, the center punch is DEFINITELY a good idea when drilling into metal, but the tips weren’t meant to be sequential. If there were 11 tips on drilling holes using a center punch would be one of them. ;)
This guysays:
Center punching isn’t just for metal, especially when hand drilling. It helps keep the bit from wandering and gives you a “feel” of where the bit should be on any material. It should be one of the top items and not #11 since a clean hole in the wrong spot is just as bad as an incorrectly drilled hole.
Gareth Branwynsays:
BTW: All of our slideshows have a View All Slides link below the images. Click on that you want to see all of the slides on one page.
And we apologize for today’s stumble. This is because we’re at work on a new slideshow design which will ultimately make the experience much better.
trkempsays:
The “View All Slides” link doesn’t work either.
ronniesays:
Clicking the arrow buttons still do anything for me with the normal slideshow. Opening the “view all slides” link starts a new tab, and clicking the arrows from there only makes step 1 pop up in further new tabs.
Gareth Branwynsays:
So sorry for the continued frustrations folks. We’re working on it ASAP and will have it functioning as it should ASAP.
Jake Spurlocksays:
Hey folks, if you turn off adblock plus, the slideshow will work fine.
RichardKsays:
still borked!
scrap these stupid slide shows
Five Fingerssays:
SFw
Jeffrey A Ballard Jr.says:
You missed one of the most important tips “peck drilling” to keep chips short and clear of the hole.
Also safety Nazis need to get a life.
Safety Second!
Cybe R. Wizardsays:
A note on torquing your wrist. This pertains mostly to right-handers. A leftie has the drill jerked out of the hand instead. The lesson? Learn to drill left-handed.
Aurocksays:
Where’s the link to view the entire article at once, instead of the slide show?
t-birdsays:
I skipped the slide show and had no problems reading the comments!
Alan S. Bluesays:
Use a drill press if your piece will fit. Centerpunches. Clamping. Number and letter drill bits. Reaming is fun. Deburr your hole. Countersinks rock.
chucksays:
The slide show appears to have it’s own imbedded comments thread too… or has it opened a dimensional portal? Either way they’re complaining about the same crap.
If you do a slide show about black makers printing 3D guns the whole internet will explode.
Alan Dovesays:
If Make was still the awesome operation it was when it started, they would post that last line in the weekly “Your Comments” post.
rocketguy1701says:
The problem is that you’re allowing your need to “do something cool with software” outweigh smart content delivery.
This content is only somewhat smart to begin with, but the presentation is a fail.
-Slideshow is needlessly complex, difficult to deal with, and breaks accessibility from both ADA and normal human perspectives. Plus, annoying and bad information design.
On to the content issues:
-Safety glasses fail. You are setting yourself up to be an example, and then providing a poor one. This is worse than none at all. Editorial needs to grow a spine on this.
-Could have gone into just slightly more depth on any of these points to increase the value immensely. Pictures are great, but text is also.
-No references to additional resources to make up for this lack.
I say with much love, dudes, you can do better than this. You have, and you will again.
Briansays:
Looks like a bunch of trolls and flamers on here that are hammering this guy for how he published the info. This is why I’ll never post another article…too many haters that want to put others down
. There are ways to give constructive criticism, but blasting someone like you guys are is absurd and childish. Anyone here ever been called a bully before? Let’s grow up and enjoy the info as it comes out. If you think you can do better, then you post something.
By the way, I never had any issues and took something from the article.
trkempsays:
You make a good point. However, aside from the safety glasses issue (which has been addressed in the description) most of the comments have to do with the website and not this article. In general, once I turned off AdBlock and could read it,
I think this article is good. I hope Michael didn’t take any of the complaining about the slideshow personally. It’s certainly not the first article here that uses this slideshow code and I never thought he was responsible. It was just a topic that interested a lot of people and not being able to see it was frustrating. I hope that he will write more articles in the future.
Michael Colombosays:
Thank you for writing this. Slideshow issues aside (which we are still working on,) I put in a decent amount of time into this article and hope people got some good info out of it. And OF COURSE I’ll be writing more articles in the future. :)
practicalsays:
OMFG every time a click a freaking post on this site, it provides no additional info, an impossible to find link, or some stupid degree of obfuscation like this slide show. You know we’re all running ad block right? this is a blog for tech savy people. You’re not getting any more revenue by annoying us.
Waynesays:
I had to scroll past all the negative comments about slideshows to add my comment.
Slideshows suck and they are the scourge of content delivery. I am dropping your feed so don’t change for me.
Meatbingosays:
Folks – this slideshow is just dire. The pop out window clips the text on the iPad, plus, you have to close the window to escape from that hell. Try some testing before going primetime.
Mikemikemikesays:
Slideshows are never good things to have, my grade school shop teacher drilled this into everyone at the drill — “eye protection because I am not pick up bits of eye off my shop floor”, make it into a readable article, there are slides without any wording, no talk about alternate types of lubrication anywhere (or are those the slides without words?), and why no love for step bits? Step bits work wonders on sheet to 16 ga. (the thickest I have needed to drill through) stainless and they make real nice round holes.
Chriswsays:
I agree the slideshow was poorly done. Reminds me of Instructables which had promise, but I never visit anymore.
Already mentioned, but centerpunch if you care where the hole goes.
Here’s one a lot of people don’t know. When using a keyed chuck, you are supposed to tighten using all three holes in the chuck. It helps grip the bit tighter and center it better. It isn’t as important for wood or small bits, but in metal I always tighten at least two holes.
In addition to being an online editor for MAKE Magazine, Michael Colombo works in fabrication, electronics, sound design, music production and performance (Yes. All that.) In the past he has also been a childrens' educator and entertainer, and holds a Masters degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
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I can’t view the slide show, but a larger issue is that in the two images I can see there is no eye protection being used.
Once again, slideshow = dumb. Just put the article up as one page.
Slide shows are awful, and this one does not work.
Slideshow is problematic… and the lack of eye protection is such an obvious misstep, you should retake the pics.
Please, I really want to read this information… but the slideshow is impossible and completely inappropriate for the content!
Oooh, an auto-advancing slideshow that makes lousy use of my screen and doesn’t even seem to fill the usual advertising quota for pagination. *golf clap* Well done!
I can start the stupid slideshow, but i cannot pause it long enough to actually read. Please – PLEASE – ditch this follishness.
When your flashiness gets in the way of actually accessing content in a useful way, you’re failing your readers.
I cannot even *begin* to imagine how this must wreak havoc for accessibility by things like screen readers and magnifiers.
Hi folks. We’re aware of the auto-advance issue with the slideshow and are deploying a patch to fix it. Sit tight, and thanks for your patience.
The auto-advance bug is the least of the problems. Are you (and more importantly the bean-counters who put you up to this) noticing that every single slideshow garners a slew of comments about how much web slideshows suck? Seriously, stop.
Slidshow works fine for me!
The drilling up through the sizes is probably my favorite newly learned method. I learnt it when a luthier at work needed help drilling holes in a £20,000 cello! it helped reduce the risk of the wood cracking or splintering around where the drill site was.
This format is AWFUL!
Slideshow only shows 1 pic for me. “next” and “previous”-arrows don´t work
Every time there’s a slideshow used lots of people have problems with it. I have never been able to view these slideshows. No matter what computer or browser I’ve used, and this has been going on for years now. And what’s really annoying is every time a slideshow is used it’s actually something I’m interested in.
So come on MAKE stop trying to be script savvy, and just let us see the pictures in a flat, simple, everyone can use page style.
Ok it looks like a fix has been put in. If you want it to stop auto-scrolling, click on one of the arrow buttons and you can advance it manually. As all you makers know, sometimes a bit of troubleshooting is necessary. We appreciate your constructive criticism and thank you for holding out.
Nope, the buttons don’t work either. And why is text information being presented as a slideshow anyway? One big page with text captions FTW!
It is at least broken differently. :-)
Sorry, Michael, still can’t pause, still unreadable.
Text overflows the slide frame, very poor use of screen space, all around bad idea…
Can’t agree more with the comments about lack of eye protection!
And the #1 slide – Start Small is all well and good, but it should be #2.
First, use a centerpunch!
Dave
Hi Dave. I added a note in the post about the importance of using eye protection. Also, the center punch is DEFINITELY a good idea when drilling into metal, but the tips weren’t meant to be sequential. If there were 11 tips on drilling holes using a center punch would be one of them. ;)
Center punching isn’t just for metal, especially when hand drilling. It helps keep the bit from wandering and gives you a “feel” of where the bit should be on any material. It should be one of the top items and not #11 since a clean hole in the wrong spot is just as bad as an incorrectly drilled hole.
BTW: All of our slideshows have a View All Slides link below the images. Click on that you want to see all of the slides on one page.
And we apologize for today’s stumble. This is because we’re at work on a new slideshow design which will ultimately make the experience much better.
The “View All Slides” link doesn’t work either.
Clicking the arrow buttons still do anything for me with the normal slideshow. Opening the “view all slides” link starts a new tab, and clicking the arrows from there only makes step 1 pop up in further new tabs.
So sorry for the continued frustrations folks. We’re working on it ASAP and will have it functioning as it should ASAP.
Hey folks, if you turn off adblock plus, the slideshow will work fine.
still borked!
scrap these stupid slide shows
SFw
You missed one of the most important tips “peck drilling” to keep chips short and clear of the hole.
Also safety Nazis need to get a life.
Safety Second!
A note on torquing your wrist. This pertains mostly to right-handers. A leftie has the drill jerked out of the hand instead. The lesson? Learn to drill left-handed.
Where’s the link to view the entire article at once, instead of the slide show?
I skipped the slide show and had no problems reading the comments!
Use a drill press if your piece will fit. Centerpunches. Clamping. Number and letter drill bits. Reaming is fun. Deburr your hole. Countersinks rock.
The slide show appears to have it’s own imbedded comments thread too… or has it opened a dimensional portal? Either way they’re complaining about the same crap.
If you do a slide show about black makers printing 3D guns the whole internet will explode.
If Make was still the awesome operation it was when it started, they would post that last line in the weekly “Your Comments” post.
The problem is that you’re allowing your need to “do something cool with software” outweigh smart content delivery.
This content is only somewhat smart to begin with, but the presentation is a fail.
-Slideshow is needlessly complex, difficult to deal with, and breaks accessibility from both ADA and normal human perspectives. Plus, annoying and bad information design.
On to the content issues:
-Safety glasses fail. You are setting yourself up to be an example, and then providing a poor one. This is worse than none at all. Editorial needs to grow a spine on this.
-Could have gone into just slightly more depth on any of these points to increase the value immensely. Pictures are great, but text is also.
-No references to additional resources to make up for this lack.
I say with much love, dudes, you can do better than this. You have, and you will again.
Looks like a bunch of trolls and flamers on here that are hammering this guy for how he published the info. This is why I’ll never post another article…too many haters that want to put others down
. There are ways to give constructive criticism, but blasting someone like you guys are is absurd and childish. Anyone here ever been called a bully before? Let’s grow up and enjoy the info as it comes out. If you think you can do better, then you post something.
By the way, I never had any issues and took something from the article.
You make a good point. However, aside from the safety glasses issue (which has been addressed in the description) most of the comments have to do with the website and not this article. In general, once I turned off AdBlock and could read it,
I think this article is good. I hope Michael didn’t take any of the complaining about the slideshow personally. It’s certainly not the first article here that uses this slideshow code and I never thought he was responsible. It was just a topic that interested a lot of people and not being able to see it was frustrating. I hope that he will write more articles in the future.
Thank you for writing this. Slideshow issues aside (which we are still working on,) I put in a decent amount of time into this article and hope people got some good info out of it. And OF COURSE I’ll be writing more articles in the future. :)
OMFG every time a click a freaking post on this site, it provides no additional info, an impossible to find link, or some stupid degree of obfuscation like this slide show. You know we’re all running ad block right? this is a blog for tech savy people. You’re not getting any more revenue by annoying us.
I had to scroll past all the negative comments about slideshows to add my comment.
Slideshows suck and they are the scourge of content delivery. I am dropping your feed so don’t change for me.
Folks – this slideshow is just dire. The pop out window clips the text on the iPad, plus, you have to close the window to escape from that hell. Try some testing before going primetime.
Slideshows are never good things to have, my grade school shop teacher drilled this into everyone at the drill — “eye protection because I am not pick up bits of eye off my shop floor”, make it into a readable article, there are slides without any wording, no talk about alternate types of lubrication anywhere (or are those the slides without words?), and why no love for step bits? Step bits work wonders on sheet to 16 ga. (the thickest I have needed to drill through) stainless and they make real nice round holes.
I agree the slideshow was poorly done. Reminds me of Instructables which had promise, but I never visit anymore.
Already mentioned, but centerpunch if you care where the hole goes.
Here’s one a lot of people don’t know. When using a keyed chuck, you are supposed to tighten using all three holes in the chuck. It helps grip the bit tighter and center it better. It isn’t as important for wood or small bits, but in metal I always tighten at least two holes.