Thread: How to drill a neat hole in pine

Have you checked your drill press for runout? Normally when using a good brad point drill bit the entry is not so much a problem than the exit which is rectified by having a sacrificial piece of wood under the piece you are drilling to avoid tearout. Perhaps you could check using a hand drill and perhaps another bit to eliminate the drill bit also.

Try a "normal" drill bit, Pine is prone to tear-out. Or position a waste bit of wood above your piece so it cops all the tear-out.

Forstner bit? They make an excellent clean entry but labour a bit in deep holes.

Try sticking a piece of masking tape on the surface where the hole is to be drilled. usually prevents tear-out. You could also try starting off with a smaller drill bit and work your way up to the desired size. If there is still a bi of tear-out you could just lights use a counter sink bit to smooth the edges of the hole if you don't' mind the counter sunk appearance.

I just did a test piece on pine with the suggestions I made above and the sticky tape came out ahead. no tear-out.. I used an ordinary drill bit.

Originally Posted by Andy Mac

Forstner bit? They make an excellent clean entry but labour a bit in deep holes.

Yes.

For softwood like pine you must use a forstner bit. There is no other way to get a clean cut.

Hey Jill,

As said above, I use a waste piece top and bottom, when I need to use pine, for the fellows saying use a Forstner Bit, I haven't seen one smaller than 6mm, does your job have to be 5mm ?

Good luck.

HazzaB

many thanks everyone, there are some really good suggestions there.

Unfortunately I do need a 5mm bit, so that rules out the Forstner.

I like the idea of a sacrificial piece above the timber - that seems to suit my situation best - I will actually make a template of the holes I need and have that sitting above, clamped to the workpiece.

Fortunately I don't have to drill through the timber, just 75% of the depth

I like the idea of a sacraficial piece on top as well as the bottom. I just keep learning something new! What a great hobby.

Hi Jill

A backing board is the general rule, but I additionally do the following for clean holes. These should be used together ..

1. S-s-s-sharp drill bits. I cannot emphasise this enough. I use a Drill Doctor. Previously I would freehand them on a disk sander.

2. Use a drill press rather than a hand-held drill. Any wobble will leave the top with an oval hole.

3. Start from a mark using an awl. A pencil point is not enough as the drill will wander. If you wish you can also use paper tape over the mark (tape first, then mark on the tape).

4. The first drill bit should be a pilot, starting in your case with a 3mm. any tearout at this stage will be removed later.

5. Once you have a pilot hole you can drill from both sides of the piece. Drill halfway, then reverse the board. It is often adviable to creep up on your desired bit size, so you could go 3-4-5mm.

6. A countersink is very useful to clean up an edge (other than obviously as a countersink for a screw). The issue is that a drill will spin these too fast, and if you are using a handheld drill, then the problem of centering it and keeping it that way will be additive. I use an eggbeater or brace (handpower), which offers much more control, and the slow speed means you can create a fine chamfer. It is also possible to do this by hand (stick the countersink into a handle like a chisel).

Regards from Perth

Derek

What speed is your drill spinning at? Providing your drill is as sharp as it should be, you could crank the speed right up for a 5mm bit. It's highly doubtful a sharp bit will burn the pine even at high speed. I would also opt for a regular style bit (without a viper bit grind).

Tom.

I to would suggest that speed, or lack there of, might be the issue. What speed are you using?
Cheers

Yes, I have success, largely thanks to Derek's comprehensive post above


There were two keys to my success using a drill press, which runs at 280 rpm:

1. A sharp drill. I ditched the brad point drill bit, too difficult to sharpen, in favour of the twist drill as recommended by Ling1958 and munruben above.

One of the cutting edges on my twist drill bit was a bit burred. Out with the Drill Doctor and sharpen it up - only made a little difference with the upper entry tear out. Tried covering the workpieces with masking tape, duct tape, still no improvement, but I thought the holes looked a bit neater .

Was not game to drill a pilot hole first, as suggested by Derek, as I would not be able to line up the final 5 mm hole, and I have a few hundred holes to drill

But this led on to the 2nd key point:

2. Start the hole very slowly. This made a huge difference to the tearout. All the tearout was done before the bit was fully entered the workpiece, so it was not noticable. Similiar to what Derek was getting at with the pilot hole. Previously I had been virtually punching the 5mm drill bit in to the soft pine timber

On the odd occasion that I forgot to go slowly, the tearout appeared again!!

So, no need for tape or a sacrificial board to drill a neat entry hole in pine.

Thanks Derek, for this lesson in basic woodworking technique, and thanks everyone for all the other suggestions

Brad point drill bits have a long centring tip with two pre-cutting spurs. These spurs score the wood fibres; the internal cutting edges then cut them out cleanly.

After reading this detail about Bradpoint drill bits, I gave mine another go, this time going slowly on entry to let the spurs cut the fibres - 100% success rate.

Jill , how fast is the drill going ?
The holes that we can see in the pic look to have a faint 'thread' / 'riffling' spiraling down them .
The speed of the machine could be too slow .