Drill Jig for vertical holes

[Michael]

Friends,

What jig do I need to buy/make to get my hand drill to make perfectly vertical holes?

Thanks,

Mike

[gandalf]

------------------------- I use one of these: Wolfcraft 4522 Tec Mobil Drill Stand/Guide

's very handy and lets you drill in a controlled way even in awkward situations. It's not a subsitute for a DP, but there again, a DP isn't a subsitute for one of these things.

There are plenty of similar offerings from other manufactures and Wolfcraft themselves offer a range.

[max]

Take a piece of 2 inch thick maple and drill a hole in it. Then you drill through it in to your work. Another option for a lot of holes is to buy a drill bushing and insert that in to the maple. It lasts longer. max

[AAvK]

I really like Max's idea, closer to "personal innovation" in the somewhat neander tradition. But, this is the other general idea, a drill guide:

are several makes out there by different companies, the one at Harbour Freight is made of plastic.

Alex

[Joe]

For a somewhat expensive but long term tool / fix... As others have said, build (or have built) a portable drill busing.

Assuming you are drilling the same size hole all the time (1/4" for example), go get a lolg length 1/4" ID drill bushing and have it permanently installed by a qualified machine shop into a machined piece of material that has a flat bottom, etc. Then, place that home mdade thing on top of any flat surface and use the busing to guide your bit into the work. Us ethe shortest bit you can whenever possible to avoid "walking" as it hits harder parts of the wood on the way in/through. Use this only for standard drill bit types, not spade, hole saw, etc. For those, you will have to be more creative.

I'm sure there are 100 ways to do this, but that's the way I'd do it if I wanted a tool in my toolbox that I'd cary around with me to guarantee that what I do is 100% vertical every time based on the surface I'm drilling.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr.

[AAvK]

[CW]

To get a vertical hole, you first have to drill a vertical hole. This makes sense.

[Michael]

Everyone,

Thanks for all your help with this. I'm good to go.

Best,

Mike

[Steve Mellenthin]

I have had a simple commercial jig for years to do that with. It consists of a flat circular ring OD of 6", ID of 4.5" and two vertical rods bolted to the base. The drill itself chucks to a carrier that rides on the rods and has it own center shaft and chuck. Even has a vee-block built in.