Here's a problem I always encounter when trying to drill end grain, particularly if trying to put a hole at dead center of a dowel or a board.
As you can see the drill bit deflects off the hard edge grain and in this case a 1/8" drill bit is about 1/16th off the location.
I used a drill press with a 1/8" brad point bit, clamped the workpiece in a vise, I carefully pressed the bit to the marked X and it made a prick right at the intersection before I tried to drill.
I tried leaving just a half inch of the bit showing from the chuck but it still walked off.
One thing that sort of works is to drill a template in metal or a crossgrain piece of wood and put two guides on it that can be clamped to the side of the piece being drilled to locate the template hole precisely.
One thing that just occurred to me is maybe I should try a higher drill RPM?
How do you guys handle this problem? - I'd really like to drill accurately into endgrain.
As you can see the drill bit deflects off the hard edge grain and in this case a 1/8" drill bit is about 1/16th off the location.
I used a drill press with a 1/8" brad point bit, clamped the workpiece in a vise, I carefully pressed the bit to the marked X and it made a prick right at the intersection before I tried to drill.
I tried leaving just a half inch of the bit showing from the chuck but it still walked off.
One thing that sort of works is to drill a template in metal or a crossgrain piece of wood and put two guides on it that can be clamped to the side of the piece being drilled to locate the template hole precisely.
One thing that just occurred to me is maybe I should try a higher drill RPM?
How do you guys handle this problem? - I'd really like to drill accurately into endgrain.
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