Making holes without an electric drill

https://theplywood.com/holes-without-electric-drill/

by walterbell • 4 years ago

52 74 4 years ago

theplywood.com

d4a• 4 years ago

I would have liked some pictures to know what I'm reading about

amelius• 4 years ago

Yes, this would have been more satisfying and faster to consume as a youtube video.

bussierem• 4 years ago

I recommend the Primitive Technology channel for this! He uses almost all of these to some extent.

tootie• 4 years ago

Primitive Technology on YT has built some of these tools and cut holes with hot coals.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGnWLXjIDnpBancnnrjhxvvXu...

Wistar2• 4 years ago

And punch/punch press, laser, waterjet, plasma cutter, mill, projectile and, of course, shaped charge.

hef19898• 4 years ago

Plus one for the shaped charge! Waterjets are pretty cool so...

walterbell3• 4 years ago

Applied Science made an experimental (dangerous) waterjet abrasive cutter from a modified pressure washer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg__B6Ca3jc

bell-cot• 4 years ago

This being HN, I really expected more how to by Randall Munroe sorts of answers.

(BTW, you forgot the railgun, nano-sized black hole, antimatter beam, and trained termite "drill squad".)

niccl• 4 years ago

beavers, rats, etc.

dmurray• 4 years ago

Training termites seems difficult, but I wonder if you could coat the area to be drilled with something particularly attractive to termites or some other insect. Or coat the remaining area with something particularly repulsive to them.

nyanpasu64• 4 years ago

Electrical discharge milling is so cool, but expensive (tens of thousands of dollars for a machine). It's got to be the most overkill and surgical way to drill out stripped screws though.

Wistar2• 4 years ago

Oops. I forgot about EDM. Should have remembered as I have had EDM stuff done, although a long time ago.

formerly_proven• 4 years ago

Article says you can't plunge with a jigsaw, but you can... not pretty but does work.

falcolas4• 4 years ago

It also takes a bit of skill and gumption, but yeah, its doable.

You tip the saw forward on its table so the blade is above the wood, hold down the “Go” button, and slowly lean the jigsaw back towards flat. It is important that the jigsaw’s table is in solid contact with the wood the, erm, hole time.

jfk13• 4 years ago

I can vouch for the fact that this works, though I'd consider it something of a last resort.

swayvil• 4 years ago

Whatever happened to cutting with a tuned laser?

I heard about it a decade ago. A laser tuned to the resonant frequency of skin. The protein or whatever.

Low power, with no burning, no heat damage. Melted right through, cleanly. Unravelled those little molecules. A wonderful cutting device.

And maybe you could match a laser to any material. Wood? Glass? A very clean cut. Maybe even safer.

jfim• 4 years ago

As far as I know, most laser cutters available to hobbyists for cutting wood are either diode or CO2 based, and both have a risk of setting the wood on fire, as well as generate a fair amount of smoke and combustion gases.

For cutting holes into wood as a hobbyist, a CNC machine with the appropriate tool will give far superior output for the purpose of making holes in wood.

Kinnard• 4 years ago

Gunax• 4 years ago

I like that it's extensive, but a bit too extensive to answer the original question: what is the replacement for an electric drill?

The standard crank drill is clearly the alternative [1]. Most home users should not purchase an electric drill IMO. They dont need it. It will likely never drill more than a few dozen holes.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Frylr-Speedy-Powerful-Manual-1-5MM-10...

thehappypm• 4 years ago

That’s as expensive as an extremely low end electric drill.

mauvehaus• 4 years ago

As a bonus, it's much slower, which leads to fewer fuckups at the ends of projects. They are really only good up to about 1/4" holes though. If you get one with multiple speeds, you can go to 3/8", but you're really much better off with a brace and some auger bits at that point. Auger bits are conveniently sized by the 1/16" down to 1/4" in the US, and have been for over a century.

In all seriousness though, an eggbeater drill will last forever. Mine are probably 70 years old or older. Ditto my brace. Good luck finding batteries for any electric cordless drill in 20 years, never mind a cheap one.

avar4• 4 years ago

Most home owners with any DIY interest should purchase an electric drill, because what they'll be purchasing is almost certainly a cordless model with a torque limiter.

Those are useful for everything from assembling IKEA furniture to taking apart a car. The drilling function is secondary or tertiary.

But sure, if you mean a giant corded impact drill used to drill into concrete almost nobody needs that.

Animats• 4 years ago

"a giant corded impact drill used to drill into concrete, almost nobody needs that"

I had to rent one once to put a conduit through a concrete block wall reinforced with concrete fill and rebar. Not fun.

ars• 4 years ago

giant corded impact drill used to drill into concrete

Tons of people need that - how else do you hang pictures on stone walls? And they are not so giant - they are the same size as regular drills.

mturmon• 4 years ago

You could also go directly to this pretty number: https://bridgecitytools.com/products/pb-2-palm-brace

eropple8• 4 years ago

Attempting to keep an eggbeater drill square to the drilled surface is a considerable ask for someone who isn't practiced, particularly somebody on the smaller side. It's ergonomically working against you the entire time due to its length. I can buy a Black and Decker (budget brand, but it's fine for light home use) corded drill at $25 that's plenty for home use and won't be frustrating the novice user every time they want to set a point.

And that one in particular hates its user specifically; keyless chucks are way better, too, for novices because of the likelihood that that chuck key is going to get lost in a move or the like. They also aren't that expensive--the aforementioned Black and Decker corded drill has one.

avar4• 4 years ago

The router instructions make no sense to me.

Why plunge a router and then switch to a jigsaw to make a large circular hole in a sheet of plywood? Just move the router around instead.

You can use a bit that can follow a template to make this as accurate as you'd like, but freehand is usually sufficient.

Also: A notable omission in the "other powertools" section is the angle grinder. Both to "saw" a hole, and by attaching a drill chuck to the grinder. At that point it's basically an electric drill with another form factor.

falcolas4• 4 years ago

The router won’t cut as quickly, especially with thicker materials. You absolutely can, though.

bombcar3• 4 years ago

This is the correct answer, and router bits are quite the expensive piece of equipment; jigsaw blades are cheap.

https://www.rockler.com/power-tools/routers/router-bits

luma• 4 years ago

Add a Jasper circle jig to your plunge router and you'll have a hard time finding a better solution to cutting arbitrary sized holes in sheet goods

EnKopVand2• 4 years ago

I don’t really like electrical appliances. I use a manual whisk (Google translate turns hjulpisker into auxiliary whisk) for everything “whisky” even though we have a vitamix thing that cost more than my MacBook Air.

So I’m an idiot like that, and you might expect me to use a manual drill (I guess it would be auxiliary drill if Google translate is right), and until I bought a house you would have been right. Now I own both an electrical drill and a drill hammer. So while my whipped cream still takes a few minutes more than an electro mixer you won’t ever find me drilling a hole without a power tool. It’s just not worth it.

Great article though, it’s nice to see all the options covered.

EForEndeavour• 4 years ago

How dumb of an idea would it be to somehow attach your electric drill to your manual whisk handle?

bombcar3• 4 years ago

I've done basically that but with a beater; you have to run the drill quite slow but it works.

evan_3• 4 years ago

There’s an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown chucks a cordless drill onto a pepper grinder to pretty good effect.

EnKopVand2• 4 years ago

The whisk actually works like the electric ones. It has two “whisks” and then it has some sort of wheel that you turn around to make them spin. It’s really astonishing how something so simple can challenge my English so much lol. But you can get drills that work in a similar fashion, I know because we had them at carpentry class when I was in what we call folkeskolen, so maybe the school that you go to before high school?

stickfigure2• 4 years ago

I don't think the whisk technique would work to make mayo. Or you must be much, much stronger than I am.

insaneirish2• 4 years ago

Mayo is really not difficult to hand whisk. It's pretty much the only way I make it, which is once every week or two. Blenders are nice when you need a larger quantity, but for a small amount I find them to be a nuisance.

andreareina• 4 years ago

I've made mayo with a hand whisk, it doesn't require very vigorous beating as it does patience to not add the oil too quickly.

Blackthorn• 4 years ago

It's tough to overemphasize just how good electric drills are. Even the hand tool obsessed people will use them.

nimbius• 4 years ago

weird hn strikes again. I learned about most of this stuff in trade tech school and I think its really neat people on this site are interested.

I use rotary impact drivers and drill presses all day long at work. there's no shame. gimlets see a lot of use in jewelry and my foreman once said you never sharpen them because they're generally case hardened and snap too easily. they're very fine instruments in the hand.

for you drill owners out there the best advice I can offer is always punch your holes first, always wear safety glasses and learn to sharpen your bits.

eropple8• 4 years ago

always punch your holes first

Definitely. And this is why, if you've got the money, why a drill+driver set is pretty handy - you drill with the drill, then you drive the screw with the impact driver, and you haven't had to mess around with switching your bits. (I have two of each in the shop, because sometimes I need a #10 T20 and a #8 T15 screw at the same time, and that means separate drills and separate drivers.)

insaneirish2• 4 years ago

always punch your holes first

Anytime I'm drilling a lot of holes, screwing a lot of screws, or screwing any number of screws but with a high accuracy requirement, I pre-drill with a tapered bit (example: https://www.amazon.com/FTG-USA-Replacement-Countersink-Taper...). They're typically used with countersink bits, but that's not how I use them most often. They're just really good at nailing a hole location quickly and accurately. And for things like framing, they are good at setting pilots for toe screws which can sometimes otherwise be annoying to do.

eropple8• 4 years ago

That's an interesting hack. I typically use brad-point bits instead because I've got multiple indexes of them.

walterbell3• 4 years ago

Some non-generic widgets:

PB Swiss center punch with tungsten carbide point for hard metals, https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand-tools/str...

YG-1 (South Korea) spiral flute tap, evacuates metal chips, useful for custom device enclosures, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F8T4ST2/ & https://yg1usa.com/

Norseman bits (USA), http://norsemandrill.com/

sbierwagen• 4 years ago

PB Swiss center punch with tungsten carbide point for hard metals

I feel like anyone drilling stuff that's harder than 40 HRC, or worse yet, 40+ HRC stainless steel; will be worrying more about bit choice or feeds and speeds than choice of center punch.

skybrian• 4 years ago

I wonder what's good for making holes in plastic? I've had bad luck using drills since it can melt the plastic and gunk up the bit.

bombcar3• 4 years ago

Often for weird materials you either need really low speed or really high speed.

https://ruko.shop/blogs/ruko-shop-blog/which-drill-bits-to-u...

TheRealWatson• 4 years ago

Which type of drill bits you tried? There are drill bits made specifically for plastics.

analog312• 4 years ago

I have had great results with a Unibit... as in, 1000's of holes for a small gadget that I make for my side business. They have zero rake angle, so they don't pull through thin sheet material.

Keep them as sharp as possible to minimize heating. The bit that I use for plastic isn't allowed to touch metal. If coolant is needed, plain water works just fine. Some oils will craze plastic.

Brad point bits also work well. If you're not doing production work, just be patient and proceed slowly to avoid heat buildup.

jasonhansel• 4 years ago

I'm surprised that the article doesn't recommend an ordinary hand drill, like the one Fiskars makes, for creating pilot holes. Are push drills generally considered superior?

analog312• 4 years ago

I have both: A Stanley "egg beater" drill, and an old Yankee push drill. Each has its advantages:

The Stanley has a conventional chuck, and can take any size drill, including a Unibit. It produces a smoother hole and is more controlled when you break through the other side of sheet material. It's a tad more expensive than the Fiskars, but looks to be a lot better made.

The Yankee only requires one hand, so you can hold the workpiece with the other, hang onto a ladder, etc. But it produces a rougher hole, and will break through quite abruptly. But for something like a pilot hole for a screw, which doesn't need super precision anyway, it's fine.

Both are super convenient: Lightweight, compact, don't need any forethought to make sure they're charged, no worry if they get rained on.

If I had to have just one, it would be the Stanley, but the Yankee was given to me by a friend who collects old hand tools. Like the above poster, I greatly prefer hand tools when I can get away with using them.

kstenerud• 4 years ago

I've used most of those alternatives in my life. Here is my advice:

The best way to avoid being caught without the right drill bit is to have MULTIPLE sets. They're dirt cheap and never go bad (unless you leave them exposed to the weather).

Get a spare drill while you're at it. Hell, get two; they're dirt cheap.

All this fiddling about with inferior or not-quite-right-for-the-job tools makes for great HN reading, but is rather pointless in the real world.

Also: Drill a pilot hole first.

The only cases where I'd say older is better would be places where the quality has gone so far downhill that it impacts the work. Things like:

- nails

- screws

- chisels

- axes

- knives (although there are still plenty of good knife makers today)

- heavy equipment like drill presses, lathes, pipe benders, etc

walterbell3• 4 years ago

Where would one find older screws? What do you think of SPAX and GRK screws?

eropple8• 4 years ago

Not OP, but modern screws, bought from reputable suppliers, are absolutely fine. SPAX and GRK are extremely strong in both dimensions; they won't snap when you haul on them with an impact drill and the holding force is extremely...hold-y.

If you buy wood screws on Amazon, maybe they have thinner-than-spec threads and get weird. Maybe. I've done it (I can't get, say, oval-head slotted brass screws here too easily, so the internet's the option) and never had problems when I've drilled pilot holes and countersunk them correctly, even on fairly large pieces.

max_entropy• 4 years ago

Don't forget the pin vise!

eternityforest• 4 years ago

I was about to write this off as a case of "If you do DIY you probably have a drill", but then I remembered that hand tools do have a weight advantage and having some way to drill in a small field repair kit wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Although, perhaps a micro rotary tool would be better in some cases.

I still don't understand the people that say gand drills are more convenient for just one or two drills, unless they are comparing to a corded drill. I don't think I've ever actually used a corded drill though.

Making holes without an electric drill

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