Drilling Holes

We are going to talk about the pros and cons of electric hand drills.  The main ones we will talk about today are single speed, variable speed, reversible and battery powered, that’s enough for now so let’s get started.

First off there is the 1/4 inch single speed non reversible. A 1/4 inch bit is the biggest size you can use. There are not many of these on the market anymore.  However if you are drilling holes in wood sparingly around the house, the 1/4 inch might be right for you.  You don’t want to be drilling metal with these drills they just run to fast and burn your bits up.   You can buy these units dirt cheap, and you get what you pay for, they work all right but they are just so limited in  performance.

Now we come to the 3/8 inch , again the size of the drill chuck.  These are probably the most sold and used units around.  You get these in variable speed and reversible.  This means that you can run them slower for drilling holes in metal thus saving you from burning up your bits.  Now we come to the reversible part as your bit gets stuck, you just flip the lever to reverse and presto your bit backs right out.  But the best part of the reversible drill is taking screws back out when you screw up. I know that you would never do that but I have.  Now a days every thing is put together with screws.  Driving and taking screws out is probably what the 3/8 inch  is used for the most.  Most variable speed units have a knob on the trigger that screws in or out and this controls the speed that it will run.  Handy for driving screws or drilling holes in metal.  So dollar for dollar, if you are only going to have one unit, I would get the 3/8 inch.

Now we come to the 1/2 inch, they have the same features as the 3/8 inch.  They just have more power.  If you are going to be drilling holes 2 inch or bigger, then you need a 1/2.  As for driving long screws 2 inches long or more, use this drill, but you have to turn your speed down or you will just break your screw heads off.

We now come to the cordless or battery powered units.  They have all the features of the above.  What I have against these is the battery’s, they are fine for small jobs.  Other than that the guys that make them tell you all the great things you can do with them and you can for about 20 minutes so if you are lucky enough to have another battery on the charger then you have 40 minutes.  So there answer to all of this is bigger  battery’s. So you buy that 18 volt unit, you now have a drill that’s bigger than a 1/2 inch one with a cord. The battery alone weighs more than most 1/2 inch drills.  You can buy another battery but they cost more than a 1/2 one with a cord.  Guess what, you may get 2 hours tops out of your battery’s.  The drill with the cord hanging from it will work 24 hours every day.  We have both kinds in our shop they all have a place.  So if you can get a corded one and cordless one you will be drilling holes to your heart’s content. Thanks for reading, there will be more from me soon Uncle Mel

wood drilling bits

I want to talk to you about how you should go about drilling wood. First off we need to talk about the many types of drill bits there are for you to choose from. There are regular old metal twist bits, paddle bits, forstnter bits, counter sink bits and hole saw bits. Thats enough kind of drills for this blog.

Lets start off with the good old twist drills. They are primarily for drilling metal, but they are probably used as much, or more, for drilling wood as they do metal. You should have a set of twist drills from 1/16 inch to 1/2 inch. In metal you run these bits at slow speed, but when drilling wood they should be run at a faster speed. Twist bits tend to tear out wood on there exit, but they are great for drilling small holes to feed your scroll saw blades through for internal cuts.

Paddle bits as the name implies, are flat across there face. They have a center point to keep the bit going straight. There is a point on the outside of the paddle, these are the filed cutting edges. The flat part of the paddle are also filed sharp thus taking out large shavings similar to what you get from a wood lathe. For drilling wood the paddle bit is fast but to crude for good finish work.

Forstnter bits are the best for drilling flat bottom holes that don’t go all the way thru the wood. ” For instance, chair legs that you don’t want to come through the seat”. These bits have a pilot to guide the bit, it has a fluke around the outside that cuts a nice clean edge as the chips are cut out. These bits cost more than twist or paddle bits but they are the best for good finish work.

Counter sink bits are for making your wood screws flush with the surface of your work. When you drill your pilot hole for your screw without counter sinking, that will leave your screw head above the surface. Alot of guys just torque it on down which crumples the wood “OK for your deck, not so good for that shelf you just built for your wife”. A counter sink bit is shaped to match the taper of your wood screw, you simply ream the top of your pilot hole and your screw head goes in flush and neat.

Hole saws are as the name says, they are round with saw teeth that saw as they advance into the wood. Hole saws have a twist drill bit in the center that drills the pilot hole as the saw teeth do not pull the bit into the wood. When you are done drilling wood you will have a round plug inside the drill bit that you have to take out before you can drill another hole. These bits are only good for 2 inches thick or less.

That is it for now but there is so much more about drill bits. So I will talk about some more in another blog thank you so much for taking time to read my stuff hope to talk to everyone soon Uncle Mel

Lets talk about scroll saw blades there are hundreds of blades on the market today.

So how does a guy know which  blades he should buy and use. There are thick, thin, spiral, reverse, skip tooth blades, ect, ect. So lets get down to it, first off  reverse tooth scroll saw blades are the most used today. Most of the older scroll saw blades cut on the down stroke, this will cause the wood to tear out on the bottom side of your work.

 Reverse tooth blades have teeth at the bottom of the blade that cut on the up stroke as well. This makes the scroll saw  blade cut on the top and the bottom side so you get a splinter free top and bottom. This means that if you use the right speed and feed rate you will have almost no sanding to do.

 Thick and thin scroll saw blades are numbered using numbers from #0 to #12 the smaller the number the finer the blade. TPI stands for the number of teeth per inch. The higher the number the thicker and wider the scroll saw blade thus making tight turns much harder to do, so that is why you should always round the backs of the thicker scroll saw blades with a wet stone or sandpaper on a block of wood to help them turn better.

 The smaller blades can burn your work when turning tight corners.  If you are running at to high of a speed, don’t worry because you won’t do it for long before your thin scroll saw blade will get to much heat and break.

 Moral of the story, slow that speed down and let that nice thin blade keep on keeping on. Numbers #9 to #12 blades should be run at faster speeds, you will get sand free cuts and heat is not a real factor with these bigger blades.

Now we get to the spiral scroll saw blades.  Everyone I know including me have a love hate relationship with these little critters. The spiral blade is as its name infers are round with teeth on both sides.  If you are cutting small odd shaped patterns in thin wood then there is no better blade to use. Some guys will tell you that you can do just as well with fine reverse tooth scroll saw blades, don’t belive it, with a spiral blade you can go in any direction without turning your work around. But if you have long straight lines to saw, then you are not going to like these guys, so use them where they belong and you will love them.

 There are pin end and plain end scroll saw blades. The plain end blade are pretty much the blade of choice of most wood workers today because you don’t have to drill large holes for the plain end blade when cutting internal cuts. The pin end blade has a cross pin on each end and most of the new scroll saws don’t except pin end. scroll saw blades. Well that is part of the story, there is so much more and I will talk more about scroll saws in coming articles because the more you know the more fun you will have. So from all us at Uncle Mel’s wood shop thank you for reading and hope to talk to you again…Uncle Mel