Drill Guides

Aaron Beaver

Member
Messages
427
Location
Missouri
I bought an adjustable drill guide from a local store, and well it stinks. The thing is made out of plastic and wobbles like crazy. If you want a certain size hole you have to downsize because of the wobble.

Anyway, I am going to take it back. Does anyone have a good drill guide they use?
 
I never thought about dowel guides like Dowelmax and others. Even though you can't do angles I think I would mostly use straight. Not sure if those will do small drill bits though.
 
I never thought about dowel guides like Dowelmax and others. Even though you can't do angles I think I would mostly use straight. Not sure if those will do small drill bits though.

Yes, mine are straight dowel guides. Smallest guide is 1/4". For small bits, you might want to check out gunsmithing supply catalogs. Suggest Brownell's as the most complete. I know they have guides for such things as drilling tap holes for installing scope rings, etc.
 
The best guides I have used are hombebrew.

I use a piece of thick maple or hickory and drill the initial hole with a drill press. Then you pull the bit and put it in your hand drill and use the hole as a guide for drilling additional holes.

If wear is an issue you can drill the hole in the wood slightly oversizes and put in a piece of brass tubing as a bushing, but this is more work than it is really worth IMHO.
 
I worked with metal and was always fascinated with steel joining systems for large timbers. I read FHB and pored over the details of steel joinery designed by architects. I wondered how, had I been the contractor, I would have solved the hole transfer problems. I knew a lot of architects and builders, so I also knew that the front line builders saved the architects’ you know what regularly. ‘Nuff said.

Finally an opportunity arose for me to play with the data I was gathering for my avocation; home construction. Some friends of mine invited me to help them construct an off the grid, earth sheltered, passive and photovoltaicly powered country retreat.

The roof beam was to be from a great oak they felled on their land. The local sawmill could only handle 16ft. logs, so the beam needed to be spliced in the center. 8” x 12” beams.

Using an old book (still in my bookcase), Simplified Design of Roof Trusses for Architects and Builders, I designed steel splice plates of ½” x 12 steel for green oak wood.

First I drilled the staggered hole pattern in one plate on a Bridgeport vertical mill. Then we clamped the two plates on the beam sections, which were laid out with a chamber.

Then we clamped this jig to the assembly and drilled a 3/8” dia. hole with a 12” bit through the oak and made a mark on the non-drilled plate.

drill guide 001.jpgdrill guide 002.jpg

I took the marked plate to my workplace and drilled it on the mill. Just for the heck of it, I dialed in each true position and noted how close the marks were.
The furthest any hole was from true was within a 1/32” circle. Rocket science? No. Good weekend accomplishment? I thought so.

My friends snugged up the bolts regularly as the wood dried, and the house is still standing! I’d have felt really badly had it fallen down.

Frank
 
It's not something I need to used a lot, but I've had good results with this type
http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11122

Or is the kind you bought and don't like?

Doug, that is the kind I bought (returning today) and it was way to unstable. I would hit the trigger on the drill and the thing would wobble like crazy. The whole thing was made out of plastic (not sure if it is reinforced fiberglass like yours) and not very precise. Even the guides where made out of plastic and moved around when you turned the drill on and you could see the bit wobble around.
 
Well, I've got one that is like the one that Doug has linked to, it is made from steel and aluminium, it works well, not a drill press, but works.

one thing about mine, the two shafts that the drill assembly slide on, well they work loose after a while, so I had to put some Loctite on the threads.

I guess a poorly made cheap copy of a good tool can suck.

Cheers!
 
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