drilling tiny holes

[marcros]

Hi,

I need to drill some holes that are 1mm + a bit of superglue in size, and probably about 30mm deep. Does anybody have any recommendations for suitable kit? I was wondering about an Archemides drill, or a small hand brace, but possessing nor having ever used either, I don't know how suited they would be.

TIA
Mark

 

[RogerP]

Get something like this to hold the drill bit then the whole can be mounted in an ordinary drill.

 

[xy mosian]

Pin chuck that's a good start. Trouble is, drill bits that diameter break if the wind's in the wrong direction or you happen to give them a sideways glance. I have had some success using very fine nails with their heads cut off. A 40mm pin with its head cut off with a pair of pliers presents a rough chisel edge. Starting with a centre point mark, to avoid slippage, a very acceptable hole can be drilled, working fresh edge first. Now it isn't a very well drilled hole but as a pilot hole for nailing beading, to prevent splitting, it has worked well for me.

HTH, xy

 

[No skills]

Think I've seen something like a small yankee spiral but with a collet/chuck on it, dont know what the propper name is. Maybe the educated here do??

 

[RogerP]

Pin chuck that's a good start. Trouble is, drill bits that diameter break if the wind's in the wrong direction or you happen to give them a sideways glance. I....
HTH, xy

Yes tiny drill bits are delicate and the pin-chuck is best held in a pillar drill. I have drilled zillions of 1mm holes in circuit boards and the breakage rate drops dramatically with experience. Must admit 1mm x 30mm deep holes would be challenging.

 

[custard]

Trouble is, drill bits that diameter break if the wind's in the wrong direction

Agreed.

In fact it's usually with fine diameter bits that you discover the reason cheap pillar drills are so incredibly cheap is because their run out is horrible, and any bit less than 2 or 3mm breaks off unless you're drilling holes in Kraft cheese triangles.

 

[No skills]

Hmm, removing broken drills 25mm into a piece of wood without ruining the work piece will be interesting. Is there another way to do this? bigger holes and a 2 part filler to take up the slack??

 

[JakeS]

In my teenage years I used to do a lot of plastic kit modelling, and despite owning a couple of Dremel-like devices I've always used a pin vice set for tiny holes:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalo ... CG4Q8wIwAA

They're used with a similar action to those tiny little glasses screwdrivers; the hexagonal brace at the end goes in the palm of your hand, and you use thumb and fore/middle finger to rotate the shaft.

In my experience it's far easier to break drill bits when you're using a power tool than with something like this, I think it's only happened to me a couple of times. Admittedly I don't think I've drilled anything so deep as 30mm, though - but I have drilled a fair depth (10-15mm) through pewter miniatures, which are a hell of a lot harder than your average hardwood!

(Not to mention that by pin vice standards, 1mm is a medium-to-large drill bit! The ones I've broken have been more the 0.5mm size.)

 

[marcros]

maybe 30mm is overdoing it. deep enough to secure a 1mm wire into the handle.

I just held my fingers apart at about what I thought reasonable and thought "that looks about 30mm"!

 

[marcros]

Think I've seen something like a small yankee spiral but with a collet/chuck on it, dont know what the propper name is. Maybe the educated here do??

That is the archemedes drill i think

http://toolmonger.com/wp-content/upload ... sDrill.jpg

 

[MickCheese]

I really don't think you could hold and push a hand held drill without wobbling and breaking the bit.

I think a Dremel type drill held in a Dremel drill press will give you the accuracy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-26150...QG94/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1327912528&sr=8-7

Mick

 

[Jacob]

Trouble is, drill bits that diameter break if the wind's in the wrong direction

Agreed.

In fact it's usually with fine diameter bits that you discover the reason cheap pillar drills are so incredibly cheap is because their run out is horrible, and any bit less than 2 or 3mm breaks off unless you're drilling holes in Kraft cheese triangles.

I've got a cheapo pillar drill (Nutool ebay £50). It drills 1mm dia x 30mm with no difficulty at all and runs really accurately. For that depth you'd have to dip it in and out a few times to stop it seizing up on the drill dust, but other than that - no probs.
NB highest speed necessary, and firmly held workpiece.

By hand 1mm HSS bits are too fragile. The craft archimedes screw type drill uses softer steel with a v chisel ends, so maybe buy these or make something up with a steel sewing needle or something?

 

[TheTiddles]

unless you're going into ebony or something else that binds up I can't see it being a problem, just back it up ever mm or two and you'll be fine. However, glue to grip the wire may be tricky, can you put a counterbore on the back to allow you to put a bend in the wire to act as a shoulder?

aidan

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The model engineers do this sort of thing, but usually with the job in a lathe and the drill in a tailstock chuck. The usual advice is to start with a short-series drill, and drill to it's full depth with a pecking action to regularly clear the cuttings. Then change to a jobber length drill, and same again. Then change to a long-series drill and same again until the hole is to depth.

A really good handbrace might do to hold the drill, but you'd need care and a steady hand. One of the small high-speed hand-held Dremel-type drills might do, but steady hand again. The 'ideal' solution is a high-class drill press used with great care, but as others have said, the cheap drill presses have too much play in the spindle and will break a drill this size almost instantly.

 

[JakeS]

I really don't think you could hold and push a hand held drill without wobbling and breaking the bit.

Isn't this the "hand tools" forum? Naturally, I took this as a challenge! ;-)

I had a vaguely-appropriate scrap of sapele lying around - it's actually only 20mm deep, but to be honest I doubt it makes much difference (and I expect it's probably enough to bury a wire in that it'll make no difference to drill an extra 10mm). First I drilled a hole clean through without breaking the bit:

Then I realised that I'd used a 1.5mm bit so I did it again with a 0.9mm one just to be sure:

The only problem I had was that every 4-5mm I had to back the drill out to clean the wood out from the drill thread. That said, to be fair the smaller bit is only about 35mm all told, so a 30mm hole may actually be a bit beyond it.

 

[bugbear]

The only problem I had was that every 4-5mm I had to back the drill out to clean the wood out from the drill thread.

The flutes on small jobber bits don't clear wood very well, and (in any case) the flutes on small bits don't cover much of the length anyway.

So frequent "back out and clean" is always going to be called for, as you say.

BugBear

 

[Alf]

Think I've seen something like a small yankee spiral but with a collet/chuck on it, dont know what the propper name is. Maybe the educated here do??

Push drill, I suspect. Wondrous tools, but difficult to work the action and drill absolutely accurately at the same time.

For a hand tool solution, I'd opt for something like this, just because I have to justify having it for something...

 

[marcros]

Think I've seen something like a small yankee spiral but with a collet/chuck on it, dont know what the propper name is. Maybe the educated here do??

Push drill, I suspect. Wondrous tools, but difficult to work the action and drill absolutely accurately at the same time.

For a hand tool solution, I'd opt for something like this, just because I have to justify having it for something...

I have a union one of similar style

 

[Scouse]

For a hand tool solution, I'd opt for something like this, just because I have to justify having it for something...

I have a union one of similar style

This is my preferred option too for small stuff, slow but sure.

 

[bugbear]

Think I've seen something like a small yankee spiral but with a collet/chuck on it, dont know what the propper name is. Maybe the educated here do??

Push drill, I suspect. Wondrous tools, but difficult to work the action and drill absolutely accurately at the same time.

For a hand tool solution, I'd opt for something like this, just because I have to justify having it for something...

Did you really manage to drill small holes in wood with that? I've got one, and find that it needs quite significant "back pressure" from the drill bit to function, so (in practice) I've only found it useful for large-than-3mm holes in metal.

Edit; more detail in old thread: post611885.html?hilit= back pressure #p611885

BugBear