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You&#;re going to need a square. Six-inch is fine, it&#;ll be needed to mark out your holes, and square up your table if you&#;re using a drill press.
Buy a quality square. You&#;ll use it a lot. This is a good unit.
Just buy your drill bits from your favourite retailer. These are cutting tools, so buy the best you can afford. If they go blunt or break quickly, buying cheap ones a second time makes them expensive.
I&#;ve ended up with sets of both metric and imperial sizes up to 12mm or ½&#;. Sizes above that, I purchases as needed.
Here in Australia I will only buy Sutton. In other places, I would look for a reputable supplier like Bosch.
For the really large holes that don&#;t have to be super accurate, you can use holesaws. You can use them in a handheld drill, but a drill press makes is easier.
Holesaws can be bought most economically in sets, then can be expanded with additional sizes as required.
The arbors are generally common, so holesaws from other manufacturers will usually fit.
I use these Lenox-branded ones in Australia and it seems they are available on Amazon too. This kit has both the arbors you&#;ll need.
I&#;ve only got one step drill, which is a Bosch metric item that&#;ll drill 4mm to 20mm holes.
Again, being a cutting tool, buy the best you can afford.
Ask your local hardware store or tool retailer for more advice if necessary, but many places only carry one manufacturer of step drill. Or maybe one &#;premium&#; brand and one &#;el-cheapo&#; import version.
This particular Irwin bit ranges from ¼&#; to 1-?&#; and would be what I would purchase if I needed another one.
Stainless steel rules, six-inch and 12-inch, are very useful. The ones pictured have both metric and imperial measurements, which is helpful.
I&#;ve picked them up for a dollar each in the stationary aisles in some of the variety stores. When you get them for a dollar, I buy five or six and just leave them around my shop, so I&#;ve got one handy all the time.
They&#;re not very expensive, and they&#;ll be accurate enough for the sort of work we&#;re doing on our motorcycles.
Double-ended scribes are a few bucks each in the hardware store.
I generally use this style when I&#;m welding, and when they get damaged they&#;re only a few bucks so I&#;m not too worried about them.
A center punch is essential to locate the start of your hole and guide the bit in the right direction.
You&#;ll need one center punch, around 100mm long.
If you want to spring for a dot punch, this helps a little. It has a sharper point, which helps to pick up on the scribed lines compared to the flatter point on the center punch.
Of course you could buy another center punch and regrind it to a sharper point if its cheaper!
Get a hammer. You&#;ll need to strike the punches with it.
Suggest you go to the store for the hammer. I prefer a 24oz weight, but that&#;s pretty heavy. You might want a lighter hammer &#; 16oz is another common size. Pick one up and swing it around. Watch out for other people while you do this. And don&#;t upset the security people swinging a hammer around in the store.
Buy the one that feels more comfortable.
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A deburring tool or countersink will let you finish the hole off beautifully.
I use a Noga countersink similar to this one, but Noga are a premium brand &#; their tools are excellent &#; but the price is premium too.
Also, this style is only good up to the diameter of the countersink. For larger holes made with a holesaw, you need this style.
Yes its expensive, but its really useful. Has the drilling speeds table plus tons of other stuff. I&#;m dumb enough to have bought two. One stays in my shop and one is in my office next to my computer.
This is critical. Use the scribe, rule and square to carefully layout the location of the center of the hole.
If you have a dot punch, find the intersection of your marked holes, and strike the punch lightly with the hammer. Check the location. If it&#;s good, strike the center punch in the same location and open up the punch mark to locate the start of the hole.
I&#;ve put this step second, as the location of the hole might limit what tools you can use to make the hole.
The spot between 13mm and 20mm is the hard part. Twist drills for sizes in this range are expensive. Smaller holesaws are available but the hole is very inaccurate.
You&#;ll need to weigh up the cost vs accuracy you need for your project.
If you&#;re starting a large hole, select a pilot drill big enough to accomodate the centre web of the main drill size.
If you&#;re using a handheld drill, you&#;ll need to calibrate your trigger finger &#;
Secure the work in a vice or use clamps to hold it down.
Put it on a scrap of wood if you need to drill through and don&#;t want to damage the surface underneath.
Use a cutting fluid or some oil (this isn&#;t critical, use engine oil if its all you have) to cool and lubricate the drill.
Chips will go flying. Don&#;t be a dick. Protect your eyes.
If using a handheld drill, position your body so you can keep the drill steady and straight.
When using a drill press, be sure you can reach the stop button in the event of a mishap.
Start your chosen drilling machine and apply steady pressure.
If you use too much pressure with a small drill bit, you&#;ll snap it.
If you don&#;t use enough pressure, the drill bit will rub and not cut, just generating heat.
This is a &#;feel&#; thing and you need to do it to learn.
Use a deburring tool or countersink. Press it against the hole and twist. It should cut off any burrs. Then it should start to cut a nice chamfer on the hole. Keep going until you get the desired chamfer depth. Totally up the you.
Synopsis: Here is some time-tested guidance on drill bits for the woodworking shop: which types to buy, and how to save some money when you&#;re buying them. There are many different kinds of drill bits out there, but with this advice from Fine Woodworking tool guru Roland Johnson, you won&#;t go wrong.
No matter what kind of woodworking you are doing, eventually you&#;ll have to drill a hole in something. Tasks can range from drilling pilot and clearance holes for screws to mortising for chair legs. There are a few basic requirements for drilling accurate, concentric holes: The bit must create a clean entry, run concentrically so that it produces an accurate bore, and have appropriate cutters and geometry for the material being cut. Finally, it should clear away waste during the cut.
There are many types of drill bits out there, and it can be tough to make the right choices, especially if you&#;re just starting out as a woodworker. But don&#;t worry. I&#;ve been woodworking for decades, and I&#;ve drilled holes in all sorts of materials and in every situation imaginable. So here I&#;ll give you some time tested guidance on which bits you need and why. Before I get to the recommendations, though, here&#;s some moneysaving advice.
I purchase bits in sets because it&#;s a good value. Buying a single bit gets expensive, especially if shipping costs are involved, and invariably the one bit you don&#;t have will be the one you urgently need in the middle of a project when time is of the essence. Yes, I have bits that have never been captured by a drill chuck and may never be, but having full sets of bits in my shop, ready for use, gives me peace of mind. Another big advantage to buying sets is that most come with a case that will keep your bits organized and protected. By the way, all of the drill-bit sets I&#;ll talk about here are readily available at most woodworking-supply stores.
Brad-point bits look like slightly modified twist bits. The bit has spurs machined on the tips of the flutes (some designs simply have the tips sharpened at an angle, resulting in a point at the outside edge) and a centering spur that is slightly longer. The spurs cleanly shear the fibers and the helical flutes efficiently transport waste from the bore. Brad-point bits create clean bores both on entry and during the cut.
Brad-point bits have a downside. They aren&#;t very good at drilling end grain cleanly. They will cut most angled holes cleanly and efficiently, but if the angle is too shallow (5° to 10° off center), you won&#;t get good results.
A jack of all bits, the common twist bit does a good job at cutting a variety of materials&#;wood, plastics, and sheet goods. However, these bits excel at drilling shallow, small-diameter holes in wood (for hinges and hardware) and for drilling clean holes in end grain.
There are limitations, too. First, unless you&#;re cutting into end grain, these bits leave some tearout. Twist bits also can meander at the start of the cut if there isn&#;t a starter hole or center point for the bit to register in. Plus, they&#;re not great at evacuating chips because of their rather small flutes and they tend to scorch the wood, on occasion creating enough heat to damage the bit. That means they&#;re not great for deep holes&#;use brad points for those. Twist bits also are not good for cutting flat-bottomed holes or drilling at angles over 45°.
The ideal wood-cutting bits, Forstner-style bits circumscribe the rim with a slicing cutter and follow the scribe with low-angle shearing wings that leave a flat, clean bottom and a smooth wall. They can be used effectively for overlapping holes and can produce clean, accurate angled holes even when the bit enters the board at a steep angle.
A drawback with Forstner-style bits is the lack of chip extraction in deep bores. As the bore deepens, the chips tend to clog around the bit shank. If the bit isn&#;t retracted from the bore at regular intervals, the detritus packs tight, sealing the bit in the bore.
Toothed Forstner-style bits are excellent for boring large holes. Sawteeth cut into the rim do an effective job of shearing the end grain, and gullets between the teeth help control the debris. Toothed bits cut much faster than a continuous-rim Forstner but don&#;t leave as crisp a shoulder.
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