Drilling jigs & aids??

[ian maybury]

Hi all. Wondering what's available out there by way of commercially available and other drilling jigs and aids, and would appreciate hearing of your experience - seems like it may be a slightly neglected area. I'm not specifying a particular requirement as the aim here is to get set up with a range of capabilities to handle most cabinet making and similar tasks. There's lots of stock jigs for placing shelf holes and the like, but I'm thinking more general purpose. i.e. equipped with a range of bush sizes to take multiple drill sizes, and for use in multiple situations.

I've been drilling holes in a cabinet, and made a bunch of clamp on jigs/guides from ply blocks etc. - drilling the latter under the drill press for squareness etc. It's otherwise tough to place a 12mm hole accurately in a location on say the centreline of the edge of a strip of 18mm ply, and then drill the hole accurately square and reliably to a given depth.

One benefit of using jigs is that it enables relatively accurate drilling on large items that won't fit under the press, and combined with high quality drills (e.g. Famag HSS-G) it works well. it's a little troublesome though - it'd be nice to have some stock jigs to reach for when needed. One alternative is perahps to buy some drill bushes and go the DIY route.

Even some simple sort of basic clamp on flanged bracket/plate with reference edges to measure/space from and set up to take a range of sizes of drill bush could be useful. Likewise drill bush sets (there's one type that mounts in 3/4 ply) and depth/ stop collar sets that actually work - the basic set screw type of stop is not great.

Bridge City do the DG-2, but it's very expensive and designed to handle very specific tasks within specific dimensions. Shelf drilling jigs are reasonably widely available, but probably all not equal. Dowelling jigs seem to be fairly dedicated to that task, and hence not a lot of use for other jobs.

All input on methods and devices appreciated. Thanks...


ian

[randy boughton]

I bought these a while back and have been very satisfied with them so far.
http://www.biggatortools.com/products.html

[Chris Padilla]

Those are pretty darn nice, Randy, and the price seems quite reasonable. Thanks for the link and lightening my wallet!

[Chris Padilla]

...high quality drills (e.g. Famag HSS-G)

Those do look nice, Ian, but I don't see anyone distributing them here over the pond.

[Rich Engelhardt]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ght=shelf+pins

Don't forget using a router to "drill" holes...

[ian maybury]

I buy the HSS-Gs from Dieter Schmid in Germany Chris: http://www.fine-tools.com/holzspiralbohrer.html A quick search for a US supplier just now brought up these guys who have them listed as their 'best' brad points - over and above Colt Twinlands and the like which i can confirm are good but not in the same class: http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com.../products/383/ Is it possible that the issue is that they are not available in inch sizes, and are consequently no widely sold in the US?

Whatever the story I can safely say that while i nearly wet myself buying them (not cheap) they do an incredible job and have been a great buy. Just handling them you can tell by the feel and the 'ring' that you are dealing with a very hard steel - and they are so sharp that they will cut you in a moment. (care needed) They cut so precisely - you can slowly lower the drill on to the surface of a piece of flaky old ply, and if you go carefully it will first scribe a circle, and then peel a circular shaving out of the veneer. No tear out whatsoever. I have a set of everyday brad points, and keep the Famags for Sunday best.

Thanks for the input on using a router (Rich) - i have to try it. Also on those drill guides Randy - those are exactly the sort of thing i had in mind. Well made and practical, but not complicated - and available in the full range of hole sizes.

Keep them coming.....

[John Coloccia]

One much overlooked technique is to make your own jigs with drill bushings. You can buy them from Mcmaster-Carr. That opens a world of possibilities where you can precisely align parts to each other with pins (steel or otherwise), or you can set up pins to facilitate lining up additional jigs for additional steps. A typical jig might have a couple of bushings in it, maybe in a piece of plexiglass. You can bring it over to your work, clearly see what part of the board you're lined up on (optimize for best use, figure, whatever), and drill your alignment holes. Then you can use those holes to line up additional jigs to do additional steps.

It's a huge time saver if you need more than one part, or (like guitar work) if part of the building process tends to blow away the nice, straight edges you'd love to have in order to take further measurements down the line.

[ian maybury]

Thanks John. +1 on drilling jigs, guides and stops. When you have a lot of work invested in something its often worth making a jig even for a one off hole.

I'm consistently amazed at the range of stuff available from McMaster Carr - we unfortunately don't get them over here. Finding a good source of cheap drill bushes in the full range of metric and imperial sizes is a key step when repetitive stuff is involved. The problem with a lot of the woodworking guides is that they come with only a few common hole sizes, which is fine until...

Lee Valley it turns out (as ever) have quite a few guides on offer - although subject to the above: http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...=1,180&p=42311