Hi,
I'm about to put up a curtain pole, but the size I wanted wasn't available, and the one I have is quite a bit too long. It has pre-drilled holes down either end into which the finials screw.
The instructions say to cut it square and re-drill the hole. How do I go about drilling into the pole making sure the hole is parallel? I don't have a lathe :)
Thanks
- Ian
I've done this - I just went by eye - possibly more accurate if you use someone else's eyes as well. From memory being out by a few degrees shouldn't matter, though it will depend on the pole and the finials.
Edward
This is quite easy if you've a friend to help. Clamp the pole horizontal ant postion your drill so that you're looking down onto it. You can now get it in line in the horizontal plane. Now get someone else to sight it up from the side. They can position the drill in the vertical plane. Then drill the hole.
John
ps, I'm near Abingdon. pm me if you need help.
It's one of those jobs that may go better using a hand drill (i.e. you spin the handle round, and the bit goes round).
Have an assistant watch and direct you to stay parallel.
Reason for a hand drill is things go wrong more slowly and your assistant has time to correct you before you're "in too deep".
You might be able to use the hole in the original cut off bit as a drilling jig instead (say cut off a 1" slice to act as your guide) - giving you both the centre and direction.
Remember also, for a good fit, that saw cut must be square - chop saw, mitre box or a fair bit of handsawing skill.
As I have a range of these its probably not viable option to you?
I had the same scenario when I bought curtain poles,they had to be cut and needed the finals rescrewing so...
I got a scarret cutter from my tools that slotted over the near enough thickness of the pole,inserted a drill bit shorter than the scarret cutter so that it did not protrude outside the scarret cutters body. Slipped the scarret cutter over the pole and then carefully started to drill the hole,the scarret cutter acted as a guide over the pole to keep the drill from wandering off center.
If you use a drill with a built-in spirit level, you can do it single-handed.
First mark the centre position in the cut end [1]. Then clamp the pole horizontally in a workmate. As stated above, you can see that the drill is in line in the horizontal plane by looking down from above. And if you hold the drill so that its built-in spirit level reads level, you'll be in line in the vertical plane too.
[1] There are various geometric ways of doing this, but the simplest is probably to use a pair of compasses to draw a circle the same diameter as the pole. Then cut it out, place it on the end of the pole and stick a pencil point through the centre hole.
Tape a 2ft length of 1/4" dowell to the top of the drill so it's parallel with the drill bit and clears the curtain pole. That should make it easier to align the drillbit by eye.
Clamp the pole perfectly horizontal and confirm it with a level. Fix a level on the drill such that it shows level with the drill bit level, then just keep the bubble level as you drill - for the side to side part just use your eye to ensure it goes in straight.
Excellent! What a cunning plan.
TA
Thats the old way I've found a new way now for different thickness poles...
Take a 2x2 piece of square wood about 4" long,mark an X across each end to give us the center of the wood. At one end drill out the dowel size using a bench drill to keep it true and go in about 3". At the other end drill a 1/16th or 1/8th hole so it comes out of the inner larger hole on the other side,again using the bench drill for trueness.
Fit piece of wood over dowel then drill the hole at the other side.
A range of sizes can be made using this method.
The large black rectangles represent the auger bit sized drilled out of the
2x2 wood and the smaller rectangles represents a 1/16th or 1/8th drilled hole.To do this you need a bench drill for a perfectly aligned drilled holes.
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