Drilling vs Boring

[crokett]

Is there a difference between drilling a hole and boring a hole? And for the latter I don't mean talking it to death. I was drilling some holes to mount my vise last night and the question occurred to me.

[LarryG]

Linguistically, no difference. But in the shop, I think of myself as drilling holes when I use my handheld power drill, drill press, or eggbeater hand drill; and boring holes when I use my brace and an auger bit. My impression is that many other WWers think along the same lines.

[Tom Slick]

I believe all hole making is considered boring, drilling being the specific process. In a machine shop boring usually refers to making the hole accurately using a boring bar/tool.

[BobSch]

I've always considered boring as using either a bar or a non-pointed bit to enlarge an existing hole. As opposed to drilling where you're making a new hole. Don't know why, just the images that pop into my head when I hear the words.

[leehljp]

In my youth I heard the word "bore" used in conjunction with a bit an brace - the D-handled hand tools for "drilling" which was called "boring" years ago. "Drilling" became a more popular term with the advent of electric drill usage.

"Boring" was done with spiral bits that had 4 or 6 sided shanks and self feeding screw entry points. If one used a bit and brace regularly, it was called "boring", if an electric drill was used, then it was referred to a drilling.

A definition from my dictionary: • a tool in carpentry having a crank handle and a socket to hold a bit for boring.

[pacwind3]

I think it's the same as the difference between a rock and a stone.

[crokett]

I have a brace and bit and I always thought the same way. I just wondered if there was an actual difference in the terms.

A stone I can hold comfortably in one hand. A rock is anything larger than that.

[LCHIEN]

out of curiousity i looked it up in the on-line dictionaries.
They both had very nearly the same definition, basically making a hole in a solid object, but either definition referenced the other, oddly enough. Boring seemed to have the additional connotation of slightly enlarging a hole.

I think they are interchangable with drilling being a more modern use.

Oddly one of the dictionaries referred to drilling as mking a hole with abrasive action of the bit. most wood and metal drilling with modern twist bits to me involved shearing or cutting off thin sections, abrading is to be avoided at all costs.

[shoottx]

I was unsure about the proper language usage todoy when I used a 3/8 inch forstner bit to cut a small hole in my fingernail today. While I was trying to decide if it was drilling or boring I was pretty sure it was going to leave a mark. And I think I said "Goodness Gracious. I wish I hadn't done that".

A little blood, badly torn Finger Nail, Sore finger and still unsure as to the proper usage.

Be careful out there!

[leehljp]

I have a brace and bit and I always thought the same way. I just wondered if there was an actual difference in the terms.

A stone I can hold comfortably in one hand. A rock is anything larger than that.

A rock is anything larger . . . like Stone Mountain.

[LinuxRandal]

While I would agree with the power/non power argument, I have heard one more different opinion/use.


I've heard from family members over the years, that my father was the ONLY person they ever knew, that could bore a hole in stone, with a star drill, that was curved. (from a period where he was 8 and boring holes in rock to blast it out for the cabin).

So in my family, boring doesn't have to be a straight line (like insects, they can curve).

[niki]

I'll be the last to argue with you guys about the English language but...

As you know, English has many, many "imported" wards from almost every other language in the world...

The word "Bore" came from Hebrew and in Hebrew it means "large hole"...for example, the Mice hole is called in Hebrew "Chore" (read the Ch as in "Loch ness").

Joseph brothers (that became later the 12 tribes) put him in the "Bore" (they hated him because Joseph was the "loved one" by Jacob - their father).

But I'll continue to drill the holes....

niki

[crokett]

A rock is anything larger . . . like Stone Mountain.

We need a thbbbppppt! smiley.