How to drill straight pin holes?

M

MT Borg

Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
224
Am a bit frustrated in getting straight pin holes in handle materials that are not flat. There must be a "trick" to getting it right... I just cant figure it out.

Thank you for your advice.
 
First, flatten the mating surface of the material if it's a scale. Then place it flat-down on a work surface. Get your drill press vice, open it up larger than your handle material, turn it upside down and place it over your scale and tighten. When you flip your vice back over, the flat of your scale will be even with the flat of your vice and parallel to the bottom of the vice. Set the vice on your drill press and drill away. :)

Oh, and to prevent chip out, take some good tape and tape over the other side of the scale and go SLOW when you're about to break through.

Picked that up from Terry Vandeventer at the ABS show this weekend.

--nathan
 
Or, you can practice, develop a good eye, and drill by hand.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Or, you can practice, develop a good eye, and drill by hand.
Click to expand...

WHAT!!!?:eek: I didn't re-wire, shim up, lubricate, polish, overhaul, and rejuvenate my old Atlas drill press just so I could drill by hand!!!:D

Seriously though, drilling by hand might be a good place to start in order to get the fundamentals down. If you are going to stick with power drilling, here is a pic of a quick setup I made for my press to keep everything lined up.

DSCN2239.jpg
 
My drill press is the least used piece of machinery in my (cluttered) shop. I only use it for holes that are 1/4" or larger. Everything else is drilled by hand-with a flexible shaft machine.
 
Bill us correct that you drill tang holes before tapering, but I think the question is how to drill straight pin holes in the handle material after tapering the tang so that verifying lines up. There are several ways you can do it. One is to shim up one end of your handle material. The other way is to clamp the blade at the ricasso which should still be parallel. So clamp at the ricasso with the blade parallel to the drill table and use a piece I'd scrap to support the free end.

Or if you're really good, you can eyeball it. I'm just not that good ;).

--Nathan
 
One other piece of advice... When putting things in the drill press vise, use a bubble level to make sure things are lined up the way you expect. Assuming your handle (or scales) are not flat, attach them to the blade, put the whole thing in the vise, and lay the bubble level on the blade. Get it straight and level, then tighten the vise. Make sure it is level on vertical and hirizontal axes.

That's what I've been doing lately and the results are far superior to attempting to do it by sight alone, especiallt for non-flat materials.
 
great tip with the tape on the exiting side. Got to try that on my next one. I always make it a point to sharpen the drill bit every time I drill through the handle material. That way, it wants to cut more than push through the back of the material
 
I did something dumb before. I attached and sanded one side of the scale before drilling. I still attach the scale, but I leave it plenty thick and sand after drilling. Now the holes come out perfectly tight.
 
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