Need help with drilling jig

Mundele

Mundele

Joined
Aug 5, 2000
Messages
403
Hey Guys...

I make stick-tang knives and have hardly any power tools, except for my Dremel and hand drill. I have had trouble drilling straight (plumb, whatever) holes through handle blocks. I've made a jig out of an old shelf that works passably well, but not great. Basically there are two pieces of wood fastened together, one is perpendicular to the other. I drilled a hole through one and clamped my handle block to the other. When I drill, the bit goes through the hole and it keeps it a little more straight than I can by hand. I still have trouble though, especially drilling harder materials. Does anyone have ideas of how I might build a better jig for my type of drilling?

HELP!!

--Matt
 
Hi Matt.If you have a drill press, try this. Take a piece of wood say a piece of 3/4" plywood. Put a 2" or 3" nail through the center but have a relief for the nail head so that the board will sit flat. Now, mark the centers of the entrance and exit holes of your piece of handle material, and punch mark these. Place the board with the nail on your drill press table and position it so that the point of the drill bit you are going to use and the point of the nail meet point to point.Place the butt end of the handle material punch mark on the nail point and hold it so that you can bring the turning drill bit down on the other punch mark.Slowly and carefully start your hole. Once you have the hole well started you will then be able to place the handle piece in a drill press vise align the hole and continue. If necessary remove and finish hole with electric hand drill.Frank
 
Matt, get a board close to the width of your hand drill and as long as the body of the drill where the chuck starts. Attach a board to each side of it, basically making a channel. The two side boards should be wide enough so they go about half way up the handle of the drill. Now attach a block to one end of the channel, this will be the butt end for the drill to set against. This jig will be used to hold your hand drill steady and parallel to the workbench top. If you can, pick a handy spot and screw the jig to the work bench for stability. Put the drill in the channel and use a clamp to lock it down. Chuck up what ever size drill bit you use for the tang hole. Now to drill the hole all you have to do is lay some wood under the handle block to raise it to the proper height. Crank up the drill and slowly push the block onto the drill bit. If you wanted to make sure the block stayed lined up right you could make guide fence by attaching a length of wood onto the sheet of wood the block is riding on. Just have to make sure it's paralel to the bit. Lol, it's not near as complicated as all this must sound. Hope it works out for you.
 
Thanks for the responses so far. I thought of that sort of thing first, L6Steel, but the top of my drill is curved so it won't stay flat if I set it like that. I might have to build it up with a little sliver of wood. (I was afraid I'd block the vent holes though).

About the Grizzly drill guide, I am drilling a block that's only 1.5" X 1.5" on the end, There's not enough to mount the guide or let it rest on the handle block.

--Matt
 
Check out Ebay's metal working tools section.
You can almost always find a bench-top drill
press for under $30.
 
Well, I was trying to stay away from a drillpress because I dont really have room for it. I live in a townhouse and I do most of my work on a backporch or in the house. My other concern was that my holes sometimes are up to 4" in length (or is it depth) and most drill presses, especially the "benchtop" ones only have a travel depth of about 2". Will this be an issue with drill presses, or is there way around it?

--Matt
 
Matt,
I have a Harbor Freight bench top drill press with the two inch spindle travel.
I have drilled deeper holes in dowels and square stock. I do this by spining the head around over the back of the base (you have to loosen two set screws to do this)and moving the base to the edge of my work bench. This gives you about two inches of clearence to work with. I then clamp a piece of angle iron to the bench so that it is lengthwise and parallel to the axis of the spindle. I clamp the stock to be drilled in it and move the press to center it. I then drill the two inches, unclamp and raise the stock up onto the bit and drill another two inches, and so on.
You could also go to this link off the page that Mike gave you: http://www.2mm.org.uk/fonly/fonlydr.htm and build the drill stand they have there. You can make it to whatever scale you need and to fit your drill.
Good Luck, Greg
 
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