Twist drill bits are actually fairly complicated cutting devices. First there is the cutting angle. Although most bits you buy at the hardware store all have the same cutting angle, specialized bits will have a steeper cutting angle for soft material like wood than for hard material like metal....
Broken your last small drill bit and you need a pilot or clearance hole in wood?John from Bancroft, Ontario suggests simply taking a nail of the right size and poping it into your drill chuck. You will find that most chucks will permit the head of the nail to settle behind the jaws, allowing a g...
Years ago Black & Decker sold a special jig to attach to your drill which caught the dust as you drilled into the ceiling. Apparently it wasn't that popular because I can't find it in the stores any more.So, simply push your drill through the bottom of a transparent plastic food container, s...
My guest was Charlie Harte from DeWalt. We took a look at some of the accessories you can use with portable power drills.Of special interest was the new QUICK CHANGE chuck that allows you to chuck a small hex shaft special chuck into your drill's chuck. Then any 1/4 inch hex shaft drills, dri...
Drilling into metal requires a few little working tricks.First you need to punch a starting point if you don't want the drill to wander all over your work. On the right you will see the slightly pointed centre punch, made specifically for denting into metal. On the left is a "pin punch" made...
With the advent of biscuit joinery we may do less dowel work that we once did, but there is still the need to get that round stick of wood into a hole. When drilling the holes, use a brad tip bit, it will cut the grain cleaner on the walls of the hole and allow for a better fit with the dowel. ...
Once a year I get to roam around the massive National Hardware Show in Toronto where the manufacturers show off all their new stuff to the store buyers. In this segment, I drop in on three of them to take a look at things that will be showing up on your store shelves in the months to come.Th...
This rather fancy bathroom renovation had the dumbest soap dish I ever saw -- no drain holes and it was installed in a bath/shower. So of course the soap would float and melt away. The renovation was new and we thought we would probably do some damage to the marble on the wall if we tried to re...
When you want to hide a screw in woodworking, you need to either use a series of drill bits to make first the plug hole, then the clearance hole for the screw to go easily through the first piece of wood, then the pilot hole for the threads to grip in the second piece of wood. Or you can use...
The right bit for the right hole can make all the difference in getting the job done well.The first photo shows a power auger. You can't see in the photo but this particular drill is 18 inches long. The key to it working well is that screw head that actually pulls it into the wood for you. D...
