any suggestions on drilling a straight hole without a drill press

Build a jig to support whatever tool you're drilling with.

Which is...?

Straight bit? Couldn't resist. Drill a block and clamp it on as a guide.

Something equivalent to a post level? There's smaller units that this one on the market.

You might be able to use a router, depending on the size hole...

If you can't drill a straight hole how do you get the straight hole in the block?

The catch here is, you have to drill the block strait.

Try searching (hardware store, Menards, whatever) OR internet search for a "drillmate". Used one for years till I could afford a drill press. Handy enough that I still occasionally use it...

You might be able to use a router, depending on the size of the hole...

If you cannot drill a reasonably straight hole in a piece of wood then try gardening, birdwatching or the like . You certainly do not need to involved with anything requiring any skill whatsoever,you will pose a danger to yourself and waste the time of a bunch of people who do have some skills. mjh

Mike,

How did you learn to drill straight holes? I haven't learned yet after years of trying.

The BS answer of the day.

Likely his definition of strait is pretty loose.

Dont tell me you all belong to the same birwatching group.....mjh

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 00:21:19 -0400, "Ollie" calmly ranted:

Practice. Use a pair of short engineer's squares to help if you can't eye 90 degrees well. You'll learn.

Some drills, like my cheapo Ryobi, come with bullseye levels on their ends. The batteries are shot after two years, but new ones are $25. The entire kit (drill motor, circular saw,

Q: To the group, are there any 14.4v gel cell packs around which I could adapt to a belt-held power supply?

- Better Living Through Denial ------------

You can buy a "good" battery pack (actually, have yours rebuilt) for $40 + shipping. Mine are nearing dead a little more very week. I'll probably get a better drill. Already replaced the switch for $25. I do find the saw handy at times though. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

There are drill guides that attach to your hand held drill. They work exceptionally well. Another (less precise) is to hold a square against the material while drilling with the other hand.

If you want a gel cell to last for lots of recharge cycles, they can't be fully discharged. In fact, some only allow 20%-50% discharge if you want it to last more than a couple of hundred cycles. Hence, they aren't "efficient" in a weight and capacity sense. If you want, say 4Ah of usable power, you need an 8Ah battery to allow 50% discharge on each cycle.

I'd recommend NiMH. If you want lots of capacity, find a dozen C or D size cells and put them in series (up to 6.5Ah in D last I checked, though even AA will give you more than 2Ah nowadays). That'll give you 14.4V and will allow you over 90% discharge. Just make sure that you keep all 12 batteries at the same state of charge - ie, never mix fully charged and partially charged batteries in the same pack.

Mike

Exactly , you do it by eye. If you cannot drill a reasonably straight hole how can do a simple cutoff with a handsaw ,cut a mortice ,cut dovetails etc ,etc....mjh