Drilling plywood without splinters

mrcheez · 02-10-2013 11:52am #1

I'm drilling around 100 8mm holes into a 6mm piece of plywood using a Bosch point bit like this one.

The entrance looks fine, but the other side looks like a war-zone with splinters shooting out that I need to pull off (or trim with a scissors after)... can't seem to sand them down as this just rips the splinters even more!

I have to do this on another sheet, is there any way to avoid the splinters? Do I need to drill faster/slower?

GreeBo · 02-10-2013 11:54am

Try taping the areas with masking tape.
Plywood is basically splinters glued together with a laminate on top, and you are essentially pushing through it so it will splinter.

You could try:
1) the tape
2) drilling much slower
3) drill into a waste block underneath to support the plywood

fergal.b · 02-10-2013 12:13pm

Clamping a bit of waste wood top and bottom works well, you could also put a bit of tape around the drill bit so you can stop just before the bit goes all the way through but the needle point has and then drill from the other side.

.

mrcheez · 02-10-2013 12:29pm

I'll try the waste wood suggestion thanks, also will go a bit slower, I may have rushed doing 100 holes in about 30 mins!

Incidentally should the drill be at max speed, or should I lay off the trigger?

fergal.b · 02-10-2013 12:38pm

mrcheez wrote: »

I'll try the waste wood suggestion thanks, also will go a bit slower, I may have rushed doing 100 holes in about 30 mins!

Incidentally should the drill be at max speed, or should I lay off the trigger?

Keep her lit

.

jack of all · 02-10-2013 9:07pm

Keep her lit as Fergal says! As an extra measure it can help if you run the drill bit in reverse before you start drilling proper- this scores the wood fibres before cutting and can help, but this may not be practical when you have a lot of holes to bore.

GreeBo · 02-10-2013 10:49pm

fergal.b wrote: »

Keep her lit

.

in my experience its not the speed of the drill, but the amount of pressure you are using that causes you to break through rather than drill through the far side.

When I said drill much slower, I didnt mean RPM, I mean use less pressure, the drill itself (if using hand held) if using a bench press then press slowly

whizbang · 02-10-2013 11:04pm

Clamp as hard as you can, ideally using a smooth piece of hardwood on the back.

maybe make up a pre-drilled top piece if its possible in your situation.

and of course less pressure on the drill.

dodzy · 03-10-2013 7:11am

whizbang wrote: »

Clamp as hard as you can, ideally using a smooth piece of hardwood on the back.

maybe make up a pre-drilled top piece if its possible in your situation.

and of course less pressure on the drill.

This is yer only man. As the ply is multilayered, you will usually break the outer membrane on the opposite side without a securing surface, as the layers are so thin.

mrcheez · 03-10-2013 9:44am

GreeBo wrote: »

When I said drill much slower, I didnt mean RPM, I mean use less pressure, the drill itself (if using hand held) if using a bench press then press slowly

I found that the higher RPM resulted in less damage on the otherside, but I also tried it with less pressure and that worked too.

Putting the scrap wood underneath seemed to have most improvement though, who'da thunk it.

Cheers!

GreeBo · 03-10-2013 10:05am

mrcheez wrote: »

I found that the higher RPM resulted in less damage on the otherside, but I also tried it with less pressure and that worked too.

Putting the scrap wood underneath seemed to have most improvement though, who'da thunk it.

Cheers!

Makes sense when you think about it...the problem is breaking through the surface, if there is something underneath then you arent breaking through, you are drilling through.

Enjoy the drilling!

Drilling plywood without splinters

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