Drilling dilemma

[WonderWoman]

Im drilling small holes in some wood blanks but around the hole small wedges of wood have come off.
Is there anyway to prevent this happening?

 

[LyNx]

try masking tape over the timber first, and drill through, should stop some of the splintering

 

[woodbloke]

If they are ordinary drill bits (designed for metal) they won't produce a clean hole in timber - better to use 'lip and spur' drill bits for wood - Rob

 

[dedee]

Are you using a sharp wood drill - lip and spur? If you are drilling right through the wood then make sure you have a backing piece held tight up to the exit hole area.

Andy

 

[WonderWoman]

Yep I use backing wood.
I shall take note of the masking tape and the lip and spur thingy.
Thanks

 

[woodbloke]

WonderWoman wrote:

lip and spur thingy.

have a trawl thru' the Axminster catalogue here to see a selection of lip and spur bits - Rob

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

If it quite a crucial hole that has to be very neat, you could try going through fist with a small drill bit, and then going from both sides with the correst side.

 

[Colin C]

Here is some thing that I do some times so I dont get tearout which you can get with a lip and spur bit if it has not been sharpened right.

I start the drill in reverse so that the spurs mark the wood below the surface and the start drilling, you should get a clean hole.

Plus you can do it with a metal bit too ( just have to push harder )

 

[WonderWoman]

Thanks.

 

[Losos]

Lip & spur are usually best.
If the ones you've done are to be keept a small countersink bit may tidy them up, but will enlarge the opening which you may find unaccetable.

Hows the soldering and wirework thingies going