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Clever Mirror Hack for Drilling Straight Holes With a Power Drill

By Rain Noe - January 2, 2013

in Hand Tools

What I really wanted for Christmas was a drill press. Being able to drill a hole that's dead-nuts perpendicular to your material is a crucial DIY skill, and one that I can manage most of the time by eyeballing my power drill—but I tend to screw it up when it really counts (i.e. on the last, or most crucial, hole of a project).

In an effort to solve this I wasted my money on the Rockler bushing-based drill guide above, which has way too much slop to be accurate, and the other two get crappy reviews, so I won't be ordering either. But until I can afford the money and space for a drill press, I'll just have to make do.

One of the problems with eyeballing a hand drill is that you can only see the bit from one angle. I just came across this Instructable designed to solve that problem:

Pretty freaking brilliant, I say! Much easier to eyeball if four drill bits are parallel than to guess if just one is crooked. You can probably figure out how to make this on your own, but the full Instructable is here.

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Tom

11 years ago

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I think you're right Michael! But, I think what Steven is saying is that you can still check the angle between bit and reflection and know that it's correct. Try it with a CD and pencil.
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Michael Long

11 years ago

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Ummm... with the CD cover, if you're looking at it and the bit and reflection line up, you know you're not off side-to-side, but you could still be off front-to-back.
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matt.

11 years ago

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The traditional method of drilling perpendicular holes with a manual (eggbeater style) drill is to put your drill bit in the corner of a box.

Cut about a 2" cube out of a cardboard box, punch a hole in one of the 3 sides so you can find the place to drill, and then use the 2 vertical sides to align your drill bit properly. Pretty much foolproof.
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Steven

11 years ago

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I use a CD. I place the CD over the spot I want to drill and place my bit in the hole of the CD. To keep it aligned I look at the bit and the reflection and if they form a straight line I know that I am perpendicular to the surface that I am drilling.
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