Imagine the situation: you need to drill a round hole large diameter in a log or tree that is located in the forest or in another place where there is no way to connect to electricity (or simply there is no electric drill and a suitable bit). What should I do?
There is one way in which you can drill a large hole in wood and logs without power tools, using only hand strength. However, to do this you will first need to make a simple device.
The first step is to make a homemade wood drill. To do this, cut off a piece of suitable size. steel pipe. The diameter is selected depending on the diameter of the hole that needs to be drilled, and the length - accordingly, on the depth. Then the cutting teeth are set.
Main stages of work
At the end homemade drill it is necessary to drill a hole for an M12 or other diameter stud (depending on the pipe diameter used). After this, we cut off a piece of the stud of the required length and weld a self-tapping screw or screw to its end. The larger it is, the better.
It is necessary to weld 2 metal rods (round or square) to the top of the pipe to make it easier to turn the drill. If necessary, more rods can be welded.
Small diameter holes (up to 10-12 mm) in wood and chipboard are most often drilled with ordinary metal drills. They cope with their task quite successfully. But if every millimeter is important for the position of the hole, then you need to use special drills.
When entering wood, a metal drill may deviate slightly to the side, even if a recess is made with an awl at the site of the future hole.
In general, drilling wood can be done even with an ordinary nail or a piece of wire with a flattened end. Special drills for wood have to be resorted to only when it is necessary to drill a hole of large diameter, or when increased demands are placed on surface cleanliness and accuracy. There are several types of such drills:
- spiral (a);
- twisted or single-spiral (it is sometimes also called spiral) (b);
- feather (in);
- annular (crown) (d);
- Forstner cylindrical drill (d).
Wood drills are made from alloy tool and carbon tool steels; metal cannot be processed with them.
Twist drill drill holes of small and medium diameter. It can easily be replaced with a metal drill bit, although the hole will be cleaner if you use a wood twist drill bit.
Single twist drill It has a sharp cutting edge and a screw shape that removes chips well. It is used when you need to get an accurate deep hole with a clean surface of the walls.
Feather drill They are usually used when drilling holes with a diameter of 10 to 25 mm, although there are drills with a diameter smaller than 10 and larger than 25 mm. This drill is the simplest in design and the cheapest, so it is reasonable to use it in all cases where high demands are not placed on the quality of the hole. The disadvantages of a feather drill include poor direction, low diameter accuracy, rough surface of the hole walls, and the need to periodically remove chips by stopping drilling and removing the drill from the hole. The advantages are simplicity and low cost.
Crowns used when drilling large diameter holes - up to 100 mm or more. The kits contain one mandrel with a shank and a centering drill and several bits that are inserted into the mandrel.
Forstner drill has a centering point and a sharp scorer. Thanks to the latter, it is distinguished by precise cutting geometry. Typically used for drilling blind holes with exact dimensions in soft wood, chipboard or laminate for the installation of furniture canopies.
Forstner drill bits can be short or long pointed.
A Forstner drill with a long point is more difficult to make blind hole for a hinge in a thin door, since the point can make a through hole. But a drill with a short tip is more prone to moving to the side. In addition to differences in the length of the tip, the Forstner drills shown in the photo above differ in their maximum rotation speed. So a drill with a short point has welded knives made of high speed steel and is suitable for working at high speeds, and a drill with a long tip has a maximum rotation speed when working with soft wood equal to 1000 rpm.
There is another tool for cutting large holes- This ballerina, designed for cutting large (up to 300 mm) holes in thin pieces of wood, chipboard, fiberboard and other materials.
The ballerina consists of a centering drill and two cutters that are used to cut out a circle. The displacement of the cutters along the guide sets the diameter of the circle being cut. To rotate the ballerina, use a brace or drill with a low speed. You can also rotate it manually.
How to drill wood and chipboard
To prevent the drill from going to the side at the very beginning of drilling, you need to make a small depression in the center of the future hole with an awl. Drilling wood is carried out at low and medium speeds of the drill. The main problem when drilling through holes, are chips at the exit of the drill. There are two ways to deal with them. First drill a thin hole and drill along it from both sides of the part to the middle with a drill of the final diameter. In this way, it will be possible to avoid chips that occur at the exit. The second method is to firmly press a piece of wood onto the side where the drill comes out, which is removed after drilling.To make the drill perpendicular, jigs are used. The latter are especially convenient for making holes in cylindrical parts.
Requires special attention drilling chipboard- due to its fragile structure. The presence of laminated or veneer coating complicates the task. To avoid their peeling, use drills with a sharp edge (in particular, a cylindrical Forstner drill) and a backing plate at the exit. To mark holes, be sure to use an awl.
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For high-quality execution Even such a simple procedure as drilling holes in wood products requires the correct mode and the appropriate tool. When choosing a wood drill, you should take into account the characteristics of both the material being processed and the hole that needs to be made. On modern market There is a wide variety of drills designed for making holes in wood, so choosing a tool to solve certain technological problems will not be any particular problem.
Main types
The main parameter, depending on which wood drills are divided into different kinds, is the design of the working part. Based on this feature, wood drilling tools may fall into one of the following categories.
FeatherDrills of this type are used to make holes of medium diameter in wood - up to 25 mm. It is advisable to use such a tool in cases where the requirements for the accuracy of the geometric parameters, as well as for the quality of the holes, are not too strict. Among the most significant advantages feather drills It should be noted the low cost and ease of maintenance.
Core type tools are designed for drilling large diameter holes. In my own way design Wood crowns resemble a metal glass with a shank, the working end of which has cutting teeth. When such a drill rotates, its cutting teeth, interacting with the workpiece, cut out a circle of the required diameter on its surface.
Spiral
Spiral wood drills are also called screw drills. Their working part resembles a screw. They are used for drilling small diameter holes in wood. Due to the special drill designs related to screw type, when used, chips are effectively removed from the processing zone. The twist drill also ensures high precision and exceptional high quality processing being performed.
These are tools with the help of which, in products made of wood, they create not through, but blind holes with a perfectly flat bottom. In addition, if you use such a wood drill with additional accessories, can be drilled into wooden product square shaped hole.
With the help of such tools, it is possible not only to drill wood, but also to make grooves of various configurations in wood products. Drill of this type Most often, they are used in cases where it is necessary to perform complex processing of wooden parts, and in order to drill a regular hole, a spiral drill, a feather or core tool is used.
Milling drills are designed for drilling a round hole and then boring it to the desired shape. Used when working with wood and thin metal
The tail part of drills intended for wood processing usually has cylindrical shape, but manufacturers also produce them with shanks of other configurations. So, on the modern market you can buy drills for woodworking, the shanks of which can be:
- triangular, optimally suited for fixation in a three-jaw chuck (tools with a triangular shank are ideally transmitted torque, and even very significant loads are not able to turn it in the chuck);
- hexagonal (tools with such shanks can be installed in both a standard and a three-jaw chuck, but there is a very high risk of the drill turning when subjected to heavy loads);
- conical (tools with shanks of this type are used primarily for equipping production equipment);
- tetrahedral (a rarely used shank shape, which, however, provides high stability tool against rotation in the chuck).
Areas of use and design features
As mentioned above, in order to drill a quality piece of wood, it is very important to choose the right drill bit. When making this choice, it is necessary to take into account both the characteristics of the material being processed (in particular, its hardness) and the type of hole that needs to be made. That is why home craftsmen and specialists whose activities are related to processing wooden blanks, it is very important to understand both the varieties and functionality wood drill.
Twist (screw) drills
A twist or screw drill can be produced with two types of working tips: conical and with special scoring tips. If we compare both types according to the degree of their effectiveness, then it is almost at the same level. However, they differ in the load taken by the tool during wood processing. Thus, in the design of the working head of a drill with a scoring tool, there is a jumper, which causes significant loads to be transmitted to the entire body of the tool. They do not have this drawback, which, in addition, are much better centered on the surface of the workpiece. The conical head immediately enters the material, and the drill does not move to the side. Meanwhile, spiral drills with scoring tools, due to their design features, allow you to create holes in wood with higher precision.
Drilling wood using a spiral tool allows you to get precise and neat holes with smooth edges and smooth surface internal walls. Tools of this type can be used for drilling wood of any species and almost any hardness, as well as materials made on its basis (chipboard, MDF, plywood, etc.). If the drill is driven into the material being processed at a low speed, there will be no need to frequently remove the tool from the hole being created to remove accumulated chips.
When designing and making drills screw, much attention is paid to them geometric parameters. This, in particular, includes the angle of inclination of the helical groove, as well as the ratio of the dimensions of the elements of the working part in the cross section. The angle of inclination of the helical groove and the degree of its roughness work surface influence the efficiency of chip removal during processing. Geometry cross section the working part determines the strength characteristics of the drill.
The most vulnerable from the point of view of breakdowns are long wood drills, the diameter of which does not exceed 3 mm. The risk of breakage increases with incorrect selection of drilling modes, as well as careless use of the tool. All long wood drills should be handled with great care. A long drill, the cross-section of which can be any size, is used to create holes whose depth is 20–30 times their diameter.
The category of spiral drills also includes Lewis auger drills, used to make deep holes of significant diameter in wood. Structural elements, of which such an auger drill consists, is a massive spiral (auger) encircling the central rod of the tool.
In order for such a drill to plunge into the material being processed in given point, on its working part there is a threaded tip. Because the outside surface screw is processed to mirror shine, the inner walls of the hole being made are also perfectly smooth. One more distinctive feature The design of this tool for woodworking is a small angle of inclination of the groove, through which chips are removed from the processing area.
Spiral type tools designed for drilling wood are available in a wide range of working diameters. If you need to drill large-diameter holes, you should carefully select the equipment with which the drill will be used. In these cases, it is necessary to use a low-speed device, and not a regular drill, which is not designed to work with large-diameter tools.
Feather type drills
For making deep holes of large diameter, the dimensional accuracy and quality of which are not too demanding high requirements, you can use inexpensive feather-type drills. They are produced in the range of diameters 10–60 mm and various (including significant) lengths. If the length of the feather drill is not enough to make a deep hole in the tree, it can be increased using a special extension. However, when using such a device, which allows you to increase the processing depth by another 30 cm, extreme care should be taken, since the junction of the tool and the extension is not very rigid.
When drilling holes in wood using feather drills, you should also not apply strong pressure to the tool, which is a rather fragile structure.
Forstner drills
Only a Forstner drill can cope with such a difficult technological task as drilling holes with a flat bottom in wood products. His cutting edges located on the rim and side surface. Thanks to this design feature The fibers of the treated wood are trimmed before the main drill blades come into contact with them, which helps to obtain a hole with straight edges and a smooth inner surface.
Drilling a hole with a feather drill
At first glance, when the question arises about how to drill a hole in wood, most people have no doubt: just think, wood is not metal and can be drilled easily. Yes, this is partly true if you want to make not a hole in the wood, but a banal hole. And in order to drill a hole in wood correctly and efficiently, you need to listen to the advice of processing experts wooden structures, who are also called wood modelers.
Rules for drilling holes in wood
The rules are definitely simple, but following them will help you save your time, nerves and Consumables in the form of wooden blanks and already finished parts. So, what you need to pay attention to:
- Before drilling, you need to accurately mark the location for the hole.
- Choose the right cutting tool. This refers to drills for working with wood, countersinks, pen drills with a drill depth limiter and annular cutters required diameter.
- When drilling, the tool (mostly a drill) must be held strictly vertically.
- Use drills designed for specific materials only.
- Wooden parts must be firmly secured in a vice.
- The cutting tool should be pressed firmly, but with uniform force.
Techniques for drilling holes in wood
Countersink hole for screw head
Let's start drilling simple holes for a screw or. Usually these holes are small in diameter and drilling them is not difficult. The only thing you need to do is to countersink the hole before drilling, that is, turn the surface of the wood under the screw head. To do this, firmly fix the wood and use a countersink to make a recess in it slightly larger than the height of the head of the screw or self-tapping screw. After this, firmly pressing a drill of the required diameter to the surface, drill the hole you need.
There are situations when you need to drill a “blind” hole for finger joint. To do this you need to use feather drill with a limiter that fits onto the drill according to the size of the drilling depth
It is more difficult to make holes in large diameter wood, since the use of conventional cylindrical drills chips the surface of the material, damaging it appearance. To successfully cope with this task, feather drills and annular cutters are used.
Drilling with feather drills
Feather drill
For successful work when drilling feather drills secure the wood firmly in a vice and press the tip of the drill bit against the surface of the material. Then drill (at low speed) the hole until the tip of the drill appears at the bottom of the wood. Stop drilling and remove the feather bit from the hole, then turn the wood over, clamp it in a vice and drill the hole on the other side. This will prevent the block from splitting when drilling.
Drilling with an annular cutter
Wood annular cutter
An annular cutter is used for drilling holes in wood with a diameter greater than 38 mm. Drilling begins with a small-diameter guide drill, structurally connected to the cutter in one piece. This guide serves as a guide for the annular cutter.
Here are some tips from professionals that will surely help you when drilling holes in wood:
a) for vertical drilling, you can install a square parallel to the drill;
b) if you often have to do carpentry work, purchase a special stand for a drill, which allows you to hold the tool strictly vertically and controls the depth of the holes;
c) be sure to use a vice when drilling to avoid splitting the wood;
d) so that the outlet hole does not have chips, place it under wooden part unnecessary block and drill them together. This is especially applicable when making holes in a thin board;
e) if you do not have a drilling depth limiter, wrap the drill in the area of limitation with bright electrical tape or masking tape.