Drilling with a router

[Anonymous]

I need to drill some right-angle holes. They are right in the middle of a large-ish work piece, so a pillar drill or similar drill stand is not good becaused they don't have enough throat clearance.

Is it possible to use my router to plunge a right angle hole straight in if I put a drill bit in the collet?

 

[Aragorn]

Hi Steve L
Welcome to the forum.

If the drill bit is ½" or ¼" it may be possible to chuck it into the router, depending on what collet you have. This will only give you a choice of two sizes of hole though - what diameter do you need? You might need to be careful about the router speed. I'd have thought it should be slowed down a bit.

Why not use a straight cutting router bit to produce a nice clean hole? The choice of diameter is then only as small as your router bit selection, and this could be an excuse to buy another router bit (or two!). You could use batons clamped to the workpiece to secure the router base from moving about.

Alternatively, just use a hand drill! A right angle held next to the drill and parallel to the drill bit can help guide you to make a straight cut.

Cheers
Aragorn

 

[Anonymous]

steve you can drill holes with the router providing that the the drill bit shank is 1/4 or 1/2 also you willhave to look at the end of the shank of the drill because if the drill bit has been used in a drill the end of the shank could be marked from the drills 3 jaw chuck just watch it doesnt damage the collet also turn your router to the lowest speed.

rich

 

[mhannah]

If you have a small pillar drill, can't you rotate the head of the drill at 90 degrees to the base, lower the drill head down the pillar a little and make your accurate holes that way?

Rotating the drill head like that will upset the balance of the machine a little, so you would need to clamp the base of the drill to the workpiece.

Mark.

 

[Alf]

Hello, Steve, Rich, welcome to the forum.

Well I dunno, but I always thought using drill bits in routers was an absolute no-no. I think I'd favour using a straight cutter instead, with bottom cut of course. An acrylic base plate with cross-hairs would help line things up, it occurs to me. Or a hand drill (you meant one of those with a wheel on the side, right Aragorn? :wink: ). If you have a drill press or stand you could always bore yourself a guide block to keep your hand drill square.

Cheers, Alf

 

[sawdustalley]

Cordless drills....aren't they great

 

[Aragorn]

Or a hand drill (you meant one of those with a wheel on the side, right Aragorn? :wink: )

What else!!

BTW, your guide block idea is the way to go! Why didn't I think of that?

Aragorn

 

[Anonymous]

To do this I use one of those old drill stands that hold your power drill (oriiginally Black and Decker). I have one from B&Q which holds my Bosch very nicely. Worth considering.

Toony