drilling 90deg holes with a cordless drill

[siliconbauhaus]

I need to make some jigs for my wife (well one for her and hopefully sell the others) It's a bit like a cribbage board with with nails at 2 different heights for wrapping metal wire around to "knit" the wire. The nails are at 1/4" o.c in 2 staggered rows like

* * * * * *
* * * * *

I could go buy a drill press which I do actually need but would rather not spend that sort of money at this time of year. I've thought about the drill guides but they're about half the cost I could get a 12" ryobi dp for.

Any ideas for a diy jig?

[siliconbauhaus]

nevermind.....I just remembered I have a router base for the dremel

[phrog]

I bought a doweling jig at Sears for about $10 several years ago that would work if your board is not too wide. It has 3 steel inserts for 3 different size bits that keep the bit at 90 degrees. I also have a drill guide I got at HD for about $20 (that may be what you're talking about) but have no idea what they sell for now. You can set the degrees that your bit makes to the workpiece with this guide. They sell some doweling jigs at HF for a reasonable price if the workpiece is not too wide. Here it is: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41345
Worth a look.
Richard

[phrog]

Oops - just saw your "nevermind."
Richard

[atgcpaul]

Don't rule out the drill press. I don't use one very frequently so I bought this
small benchtop one from HF. It sometimes go on sale for $40-$50. I use it
primarily to bore cup hinge holes for cabinet doors.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38119

[phi1l]

If you are going to make a lit of them, you might still want to make jig out of 2x stock, & use the cordless drill. Use the Dremel to make the straight holes in the jig. Then use the cordless for production.

[siliconbauhaus]

I might try and make a jig with the dremel. There are 2 rows of 40 holes so it would be rather tedious.

[LCHIEN]

not to criticize but this project screams for a proper drill press.
Not only will the DP make your holes go in at perfect 90 degrees vertical but you will also be able to use a fence so that your holes line up perfectly ("two rows of 20") AND the holes will be of perfect depth match (using the DP's depth stop) much moreso than you can do with a hand drill. If you are clever you can also index the holes against the fence so they are the exact same distance apart.

If it were me I'd also "micrometer" the pegs and go buy a numeric drill just a 5 thou or so bigger than the biggest pegs (presuming they are all the same) so they fit like a glove in the hole, no friction, no wobble.

You can look up the decimal diameter corresponding to the number and fractions like this here : http://www.engineersedge.com/drill_sizes.htm
and sears hardware stores used to carry the numbered drills sold individually.

its the little details that count...

[phi1l]

I agree completely about the DP. If It was me, this would be the perfect justification for getting one( if I didn't already have one). But, it sounds like he wants to make the first one the hard way, then probably get the DP if he has to make more of them.


But it sounds like he is planning on using nails in the holes, not pegs,(2 rows with 2 different heights) so I expect that the drilled holes are just pilots.

I guess I would make a jig with over sized holes (once the pilots were done), & of the appropriate thickness to make sure that all the nails were at the right height.

[LCHIEN]

OK so you're going to be stubborn and not going to buy a DP.
Take a piece of 2 x 4. Drill two holes in it the distance apart you want. These must be done with a DP or a plunge router to get perfectly vertical or at least make them match. Put a Short dowel into one of the holes.

Now you can index the holes from one to the next by putting the short dowel into the previous hole. Use the second hole as a guide to drill the next hole.
If you draw a line onthe workpiece where the hoels should go then you can drill a matching line through the two holes in the jig and up the ends... line this up with the line on the workpiece to keep your line straight.
Set the bit in the chuck so that when the chuck hits the 2x4 guide block the drill depth will be right. this is your drill stop.

At least now the holes will all be parallel and the same depth.

[phrog]

OK so you're going to be stubborn and not going to buy a DP.
Take a piece of 2 x 4. Drill two holes in it the distance apart you want. These must be done with a DP to get perfectly vertical or at least make them match. Put a Short dowel into one of the holes.

Now you can index the holes from one to the next by putting the short dowel into the previous hole. Use the second hole as a guide to drill the next hole. Set the bit in the chuckso that when the chuck hits the 2x4 guide block the drill depth will be right. this is your drill stop.

At least now the holes will all be parallel and the same depth.

Ingenious idea, Loring.
Richard

[siliconbauhaus]

I'm all for getting a drill press but right now it's not in the budget and would use up my Xmas gift money from my parents. I'm debating about the $ risk as these jigs will hopefully be bought my wife's fellow jewellery classmates and if I sell at least 4 I make the cost of the DP (there's only one jig and the instructor paid $40 for it).

The depth of the holes isn't a issue as I'm nailing through the bottom so I can put a drop of epoxy over the head to make sure it doesn't move. The critical thing is the equal spacing and alignment.

[vaking]

If I understand correctly you are thinking of making these items in certain quantity for sale - that definitely calls for a template/jig to speed up the process.
If the holes are 1/4" diameter - I would use plunge router with spiral bit instead of a drill.
I would have used a router with guide bushing and made a template drilled for that bushing to get perfect positioning and router plunge depth to control the depth. So I would pre-drill a template with say 1/2" diameter holes and used a bushing with 1/2" outside diameter to go with it and 1/4" spiral bit in the router to make actual holes. I am not sure dremel base is a good choice though as I am not sure you can mount a bushing in it. A regular plunge router is probably better.

[sd]

There are special nails (scroll down to page 6) used in laying out wiring harnesses that might be useful in your application. These nails are smooth and chrome-plated, with rounded heads that won't snag the wire, and have a collar to control how far they can be driven into the board. Unfortunately they are quite expensive, but they might be worth it if regular nails damage the wire. They come in several different sizes. You can order them from Newark Electronics.

[phi1l]

As I understand it your are wanting to put nail sised holes regularly spaced about 1/4" apart. At that size it might be easier to just make a 2x4 template of the entire layout instead just a 2-hole-&-index jig. The problem will be making the jig precise without a DP.

If you don't have a router, you can get a drill guide like this one to keep the hand drill perpendicular: http://www.amazon.com/Wolfcraft-Atta...0474202&sr=1-9


As you might expect there is a little bit of play with this device, but it shouldn't be noticeable. Set up a fence with a scale, & put an indexing mark somewhere on the flat side of the drill guide. then you can slide the drill guide along the fence & put holes in a straight line at whatever interval you need. Then for production clamp the 2x4 template to the work piece & go to it with the cordless drill.

A plunge router would be preferable but probably more expensive than a cheap DP. Use a PR, reconfigure the router edge guide so that the flat side is to the outside. & use as above.

Good Luck