Is there any other way to drill?

[Tony Zona]

Why is it in instructional or DIY videos we are told to "pre-drill" holes. Pre-drill? Really.


And why are so many YouTubers so weak in their presentations that they are constantly saying, "I gonna go ahead and . . . ?" Gonna go ahead and? They must like to hear themselves talk. I generally stop watching at that point.


I expect a lot for free, huh.

[Bill McNiel]

Tony,
Grammar is a lost art in America, just listen to the number of times a newscaster or actor (they are paid to talk) misuses "can" instead of "may" or "would" instead of ""should". apparently we just don't place any value on articulate communication any more.

Pet peeve of mine.

[glenn bradley]

I share Bill's frustration. In a minor defense of the "talking heads", they are just reading a teleprompter and would probably have trouble going off-script for any period of time ;-) As to pre-drill? I'm sure they mean pilot hole and in any fine furniture pieces . . . yes, really ;-)

[Jim Koepke]

Why is it in instructional or DIY videos we are told to "pre-drill" holes. Pre-drill? Really.

It can depend on the context. For me drilling holes much bigger than 1/2" with a brace, pre-drilling means drilling a small hole to guide the threaded part of an auger bit. In many cases the larger bits can split the wood without a pilot hole.

For screws especially a pilot hole is "pre-drilled." Brass screws will often break without a proper hole "pre-drilled." Without the bit made and set to "pre-drill" ahead of a flat head or counter sunk head screw it can take three different bits.

For another type of bit called a spoon bit it is helpful to have a starter hole to prevent the bit from wandering.

With larger bits it helps to have a small hole "pre-drilled" to guide it.

For installing hinge screws I use a gimlet bit to "pre-drill" the screw pilot holes. The gimlet bit tends to self center in the hinge's screw hole making a guide for the screw hole drill.

In general when used as needed it makes for a more accurate and neater looking result.

Of course as others have stated it can just be a poor usage of grammar.

jtk

[Tony Zona]

Ooooo, Jim, all you say I understand. All the drilling is part of the prep work, but the "pre" part . . . ? Don't go over to the dark side.

[Duane Meadows]

Ooooo, Jim, all you say I understand. All the drilling is part of the prep work, but the "pre" part . . . ? Don't go over to the dark side.

Well... if you don't "pre-drill", the screw will "drill" the hole(or the nail will make a hole). Thus we pre-drill to prevent the screw from drilling(an possibly splitting) the wood! Makes perfect since to me. Of course, grammar isn't my best thing either.

[John TenEyck]

The quality of material that is available for free online often is worth exactly what you paid for it.

John

[pat warner]

In metal (Al. & steel e.g.), if you want the drill to hit its target without wandering, the target should be spot drilled first (pre-drill??). Typically, the hole, for a regular drill (118° ) should be preceded with a 120° spot/countersink. In wood, a sharp brad point drill will track itself, needs no pre-drilling.

[Bill White]

Kinda like everyone saying that you should use a "sharp" chisel. Why would ya use a dull chisel unless you're opening a paint can?
Yep! I'm a grammar Nazi.
Bill

[Jim Koepke]

Kinda like everyone saying that you should use a "sharp" chisel.

Maybe they had a situation like one of many encountered with fellow workers in my working life. One in particular was an assignment to find out why gate barriers weren't working at a public transit station. I knew the control wiring was at a remote location so I told my assistant to get a radio. When it came time to use the radios, his was dead. His comment was, "well you didn't say I needed to bring a working radio."

When you take it for granted that everyone knows "you should use a sharp chisel." You will encounter an endless supply of idiots who "didn't know you meant a sharp chisel."

It is bad enough that many inexperienced folks do not know what sharp actually is.

jtk

[Rod Sheridan]

Why is it in instructional or DIY videos we are told to "pre-drill" holes. Pre-drill? Really.


And why are so many YouTubers so weak in their presentations that they are constantly saying, "I gonna go ahead and . . . ?" Gonna go ahead and? They must like to hear themselves talk. I generally stop watching at that point.


I expect a lot for free, huh.

"Pre-drilling" has nothing to do with drilling holes, it's what you do before drilling a hole.

That can range from making and enjoying a mug of Earl Grey tea, to laying out and punching the center points for the hole location.

There is no such thing a pre-drilling holes, with regards to the drilling of the hole.

Regards, Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Jim, you're not pre-drilling anything.

You drill pilot holes as part of the drilling process.

You can have a pre-drilled hole, you just can't pre-drill one.........Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Well... if you don't "pre-drill", the screw will "drill" the hole(or the nail will make a hole). Thus we pre-drill to prevent the screw from drilling(an possibly splitting) the wood! Makes perfect since to me. Of course, grammar isn't my best thing either.

Duane, you aren't pre drilling anything.

You're either drilling a hole, or you're not.

To visualize this better, substitute the word sawing for drilling.

Have you ever pre-sawn a cut?

You can have pre-drilled material, or pre-sawn material however you can't pre-saw or pre-drill anything.

Regards, Rod.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Grammar is a lost art in America....

There are many misuses that make me cringe. The most common one is : "their" instead of "they're". That's my prominent grammatical error of the week. Next week it will be something else. Yes, I think we're getting stupider .. or more careless.

[Malcolm McLeod]

And here I sit, thinking this was about how to drill a proper hole.... Silly me!

[Jesse Busenitz]

I thnk it's bcz evry1 txt so mch.....

[Vince Shriver]

Doesn't irregardless mean regardless (irrespective of which one is used)? What about driveway and parkway - we drive on one and park on the other, but not where one would think. Common usage defies logic sometimes. If you're having a tough time with "pre-drill a hole", you'll probably need some assistance with the rest of those instructions.
.

[Joe Kieve]

There are many misuses that make me cringe. The most common one is : "their" instead of "they're". That's my prominent grammatical error of the week. Next week it will be something else. Yes, I think we're getting stupider .. or more careless.

Yep...that plus the use of "your" when it should be "you're".

[Bob Vavricka]

From the Collins English Dictionary:
predrill (priːˈdrɪl) Definitionsverb (transitive)

to drill holes in (something) or to drill (holes) in advance

[Tom Deutsch]

Hey look: It's a sense of humor test!

[Rod Sheridan]

Tony,
Grammar is a lost art in America, just listen to the number of times a newscaster or actor (they are paid to talk) misuses "can" instead of "may" or "would" instead of ""should". apparently we just don't place any value on articulate communication any more.

Pet peeve of mine.

I mentioned this to my wife, who is English.

Her comment was that Canadians and Americans discussing the English language, and correct usage, is like asking a man what colour something is and expecting a correct answer.........Rod.

[Dave Cullen]

There are many misuses that make me cringe. The most common one is : "their" instead of "they're". That's my prominent grammatical error of the week. Next week it will be something else. Yes, I think we're getting stupider .. or more careless.

Yup. A few of my pet peeves are "web sight" instead of site. And seen on woodworking forums (horrors!), filling the wood pours (pores). Ugh.

Adverbs are a lost art - all the beautiful words ending in "ly" are gone. "The finish went on beautiful". No. It went on "beautifully".

Even spell checkers can't correct poor grammar. An article appeared in the local newspaper a few years ago in which a reporter asked some questions of the town Mayor. What they printed in the paper was, "We axed him this question". Pitiful.

<sigh>

[Wade Lippman]

"Pre-drill", like "pre-board", is a contraction meaning preliminary drill.
That is why they say it. What don't you understand?

[Keith Weber]

I agree with Jesse. It's because of all this smart phone and social media hype. Everybody feels the need to constantly tap, tap, tap away on their little mobile devices. To make this more efficient and easier on their thumbs, they take shortcuts. It is easier for them to truncate words, use made up words, and not waste time paying attention to their grammar. Over time, it just becomes the norm for them.

I have a friend in Hong Kong who has recruited me as her English coach. Initially, her grammar and English was marginal at best (albeit, much better than my Cantonese.) I give her credit for trying. She tries hard, and hopes to one day speak like a native English speaker. Early in my coaching, I asked her to clean up her e-mails. She was using "words" like u, ur, ther, etc., and had totally eliminated capitals and periods. She claimed that it was just to save time typing, and didn't affect her goal of speaking perfect English. I told her it made it virtually impossible for me to find her legitimate errors, as they were hidden in a sea of literary garbage. I played hardball and refused to help her again until she agreed to my terms. Attempt perfect English every time, all the time. It didn't matter whether she was talking to friends, typing an e-mail, or texting. It was the only way that she was ever going to reach her goal.

Reluctantly, she agreed. Punctuation appeared, spelling improved, and I could focus on the more important things she struggled with, like the proper use of tense, plural, and sentence structure. Now, 3 years on, her English has improved greatly, and she is very grateful for my help. There has to be a will to exercise proper spelling and grammar. Unfortunately, for most, that will is not there anymore, and we are witnessing a "dumbing down" of the English language.

I swear, if I hear the "words" prolly or imma one more time.... aaaggghhhh!!!

[william watts]

"Pre-drill", like "pre-board", is a contraction meaning preliminary drill.
That is why they say it. What don't you understand?

Correct, pre-drill means a 2nd step is required. That step is usually insert a screw.

[Art Mann]

I would be very happy if using such phrases were the only problem with how-to internet videos. My problem with them is nobody seems to know how to do video editing. Consequently, most 10 minute videos have about 2 minutes worth of content and 8 minutes of useless repetition.

[Roger Feeley]

In clockmaking, drilling a hole is quite a process. W.R. Smith has a video where he marks a center and then lays out the desired perimeter of the hole. he also lays out a series of smaller circles. he starts with a very small bit and if he likes it, he moves up a size or two. If the hole is a bit off, he files it back into center with jewelers files. By the time he gets to the size he really wanted, he might have drilled 3 or 4 times. The last hole, made with a reamer, might only take of a few thousandths.

That would be pre-drilling on steroids.

Working from memory here. Feel free to correct me.

[Prashun Patel]

Grammar is a lost art in America...
Pet peeve of mine.

Love complete sentences.

[Malcolm McLeod]

In clockmaking, drilling a hole is quite a process. W.R. Smith has a video where he marks a center and then lays out the desired perimeter of the hole. he also lays out a series of smaller circles. he starts with a very small bit and if he likes it, he moves up a size or two. If the hole is a bit off, he files it back into center with jewelers files. By the time he gets to the size he really wanted, he might have drilled 3 or 4 times. The last hole, made with a reamer, might only take of a few thousandths.

That would be pre-drilling on steroids...

Roger,
Please forgive me, but you are totally WRONG! (Of course, so was I.)

This is a thread about grammar. Drilling holes is merely an irresponsible, irascible pre-conception; irregardless of title.

Please join me in the line for irrelevant grammatical pre-training.

[Chris Parks]

The apostrophe is dead.

[Ronald Blue]

[QUOTE=Dave Cullen;2467479]Yup. A few of my pet peeves are "web sight" instead of site. And seen on woodworking forums (horrors!), filling the wood pours (pores). Ugh.

Isn't a web sight when you see the spider web just before you walk into it?

[Wade Lippman]

[QUOTE=Dave Cullen;2467479]Yup. A few of my pet peeves are "web sight" instead of site. And seen on woodworking forums (horrors!),

I was skeptical of that actually happening, but did a search on SMC and found hundreds of examples. Interestingly, most of them are from 2004.

[Bob Vavricka]

This thread started in the off topic forum and was moved to the General Woodworking and Power Tools forum. I personally think it started in the right place. :-)

[Yonak Hawkins]

The apostrophe is dead.

The apostrophe is not dead. It has become cancerous.

[Dave Zellers]

Love complete sentences.
.
.
Tru Dat.

[Dave Zellers]

This thread started in the off topic forum and was moved to the General Woodworking and Power Tools forum. I personally think it started in the right place. :-)
Tru Dat.

We don't need no stinkin' moderators.

[Tony Zona]

This thread started in the off topic forum and was moved to the General Woodworking and Power Tools forum. I personally think it started in the right place. :-)

Maybe the mod pre-read the post and made a decision before fully reading it.

[fred woltersdorf]

A lot of people do not know the difference between advice and advise, such as "I need some advise, or will you advice me on this", frustrating.

[Jason Roehl]

I could care less if someone loose's a screw because they're whole they pre-drilled was too big, irregardless of what brand of drill their using.

[Kent Adams]

Why is it in instructional or DIY videos we are told to "pre-drill" holes. Pre-drill? Really.


And why are so many YouTubers so weak in their presentations that they are constantly saying, "I gonna go ahead and . . . ?" Gonna go ahead and? They must like to hear themselves talk. I generally stop watching at that point.


I expect a lot for free, huh.

Tony, don't be this guy :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM

[Chris Friesen]

Kinda like everyone saying that you should use a "sharp" chisel. Why would ya use a dull chisel unless you're opening a paint can?

If you're demolishing something or taking it apart, a somewhat dull chisel works perfectly well to split wood. My dad is a contractor and mostly his chisels are at this level of dullness. He reserves a couple in more-or-less sharp condition for more delicate jobs that actually benefit from sharpness.