Help, Shelf holes splintering

Re: Help, Shelf holes splintering

bill tindal, E.TN

>For sure you have a drill and/or wood problem and I am not sure which.

1. Is just the top veneer layer splintering? I have seen veneer that is poorly glued and given how frail veneer is it may splinter with little force if poorly glued.

2.If starting the drill gently does not work, try a Forstner bit. It has an outer lip that extends more of the drill radius and may therefore put less stress on the veneer.

3. If you are getting splintering down in the hole then either the drill is not ground right or dull, or you are drilling too fast. A soft wood will crush under the force of a dull drill. Might try another drill to see if it is a wood problem or drill problem

Re: Help, Shelf holes splintering

Rick Snyder

>Hi Jeff,

In my experience a brad point bit will tear out most wood at a slow speed.(hand drill) option #1 would be a drill press.

option #2 Forstner as Bill suggested.

option #3 Reg. bit with a shelf hole

jig.

Re: Help, Shelf holes splintering

Bob Fawcett

>I would go with the drill press as suggested above. Brad point bits tend to catch the wood and pull themselves through too fast in a similar fashion to normal twist drills. A drill press can better resist this than you can drilling by hand. You can also put another piece of scrap beneath the good piece to help with tearout on exit.

Blue Painters tape

Chad Pearson

>I have never had problems with drilling holes in plywood veneer...but whenever I have trouble with cutting veneer plywood I lay down some painters tape which usually supports the veneer just enough to prevent splintering.

Re: Help, Shelf holes splintering *LINK*

James Dillon in MD

>Jeff,

I don't think the problem is the Lee Valley brad bit as I find them to be excellent. As pointed out, a higher speed might help. If that is not an option, try putting a small piece of masking tape where the hole will be drilled (or along the whole row). Press the masking tape down really well. Then have at it. The tape might prevent or minimize the tear-out. If nothing works, you could always use those shelf support/sleeve combinations. The one style from Lee Valley has a small lip on the sleeve which might cover up the tear-out. The downside is that this particular one doesn't come in a 1/4 size. Good luck.

Jim


LV Shelf support/sleeve combination

Is the bit getting dull?

Johanna

>I recently drilled many shelf pin holes in red oak plywood. I used a brad point bit, started it very, very gradually, and had no tearout at all.

What I'm doing

jeff

>Hi all again,

I am using a new bit,same happened with an old bit.

Starting and drilling very slow, I can try speeding up.

The shelf jig from Lee Valley has different size guides, but won't use a router and guide. I could go with the smaller guide and switch to the pins, I just won't be able to use the "L" type support that I used on the last batch.

Not going thru, just drilling 1/4" into the wood.

I think most of the splintering is on the surface, not below, but I'll need to look closer tomarrow.

I think I can try the tape idea and not throw the jig off.

Wood is good quality Oak vaneer or Baltic Birch (depends on the location).

I can't use the jig on the drill press, but will need to look.

If necessary (after all, I am getting paid for good work) I'll switch to a router type jig.

Also, I don't know if a 1/4" Forstner bit will fit the jig.

Jeff

Re: What I'm doing

Bob Fawcett

>If you can't use the drill press, try a high drill speed with a very slow feed rate.

Re: What I'm doing

NickB

>I use a Lee Valley self-centering bit (with a 5 mm brad point drill, also from LV) and a shop-made 32 mm-spacing jig for drilling shelf pin holes. Counter-intuitively (at least to me), speed seems to help. I use a corded drill on the high range, which seems to give the least tear out (mostly birch and maple ply).

Hope this helps,

Nick

Re: Help, Shelf holes splintering *LINK*

Pat Barber

>A router will be faster and MUCH cleaner.


http://www.megproducts.com/basic-bore32.html