Drill at right angles?

[sacha83]

Morning all, I'm new to joinery and am trying to establish if I'm a Muppet or not. I'm drilling a lot of dowel holes, (they are marked) on various parts of 7-8 inch x 2m strips to make T joints. I have a hand drill and a hand-held Silverline dowelling jig which is no use as it wobbles.

I just want right angled holes (I cant use a bench drill press as the woos is so long and I need to drill bits in the middle say 1m in lengthways and nearly 4 inches in widthways) Is there a simple way to get right angled holes? I have noticed a Axminster Drill Guide and a Axminster Drill Guide Kit would you recommend these?

Regards

Sacha

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I use a router for dowelling and shelfing holes.
Very accurate and easy to control the depth.
With a bit of scrap ply you can make a template that is compatible with the router/collar setup.

 

[sacha83]

Sounds good, can I get 8mm "drill" bits for a router?

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Yes - get an 8mm dia plunge cutter or, if you have the cash, an 8mm HSS spiral cutter.

 

[mtr1]

I have a hand drill and a hand-held Silverline dowelling jig which is no use as it wobbles.

I take it you have this jig, when you say it wobbles, is there any way of clamping it?
If you can hold the jig firm, I think it will improve the results.

PS, if it's wobbling your drill bit might be bent or the chuck out of true, just a thought.

 

[sacha83]

mtr 1, correct this is the jig and I shall try that, the drill is also very old and I haven't thought of that.

However the plunge cutter seams the way forward as I already have a router. Off to the shops!

Thanks everyone

 

[mtr1]

I think the router will be more accurate(maybe), however you will probably have to make some kind of jig to do the end of the rail's to support your router, and make it accurate. A false bed to stop the rail just going into the router and mangling, perspex? Personally I think you have jig for doing this operation already, you need to persevere with it first before going down the shops and spending money me thinks. Dowel jig's once set up right are perfect for what you want to do, if you are spending money for the ultimate tool for this job the domino should fit the bill. But this is the hand tool board so I think you should try the hand toolish method first, they are usually the cheapest, and you conquer the problem you first asked, all IMHO of course .

 

[AndyT]

You can get perfectly good results with those cheap plastic jigs - I've done so.

Assuming you are using a battery or mains electric drill, the biggest factor in getting dowels right is in the drill bit. It really must have a 'lip and spur' point so it can go into the wood at the right spot. The more common Morse twist drill (designed for metal) will often wander around a bit before it bites. And a bent drill is no use!

Lip and spur:

ordinary twist drill