Need help drilling in a tight corner

[Tom Bender]

I need to drill a few small screw holes in tight corners. Even my smaller hand drill has a too fat chuck and the handle is too long. Suggestions?

[Lon Crosby]

A drill bit with 1/4” hex end maybe with an hex extender, or a long shank drill bit, or a flexible shaft hex extender.

[John Kananis]

As long as it's not an unreasonable amount of holes, how about a gimlet?

[Paul F Franklin]

Dewalt makes a small right angle adapter that has no chuck, just a hex drive. Couple it with a hex drive drill bit of the right size and you can get in pretty tight spaces. Especially if you use stubby hex drive drill bits. The adapter costs $20-25 but has come in handy for tight spots.

Another handy option is a flexible drive shaft, again hex drive only, again coupled with hex drive drill bits.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tom,

Would something like this work? https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-11-in-Flexible-Shaft-Bit-Holder-A10FB1G/205193137#overlay

[Bill Dufour]

Pancake AKA Porkchop drill adapter. No need for the full pancake pneumatic drill. You will have to buy some threaded drills to math. I assume 1/4-28.
Bill D.

https://www.browntool.com/Listview/tabid/344/CategoryID/60/Level/a/Default.aspx

ARO and Jiffy are big names in the aircraft drill industry

[John K Jordan]

I need to drill a few small screw holes in tight corners. Even my smaller hand drill has a too fat chuck and the handle is too long. Suggestions?

For starting wood screws or thru-holes? It might help to know the diameter and depth of the holes, how close to the corners. and the clearance above and below.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dewalt makes a small right angle adapter that has no chuck, just a hex drive. Couple it with a hex drive drill bit of the right size and you can get in pretty tight spaces. Especially if you use stubby hex drive drill bits. The adapter costs $20-25 but has come in handy for tight spots.+1 to the DeWalt right angle drive.

[Gary Thinglum]

Tom, I just purchased one of these flexible drill shafts. It only takes the hex drive drill bits. I used to get into a tight spot on my golf cart drilling metal. It worked great.

https://www.amazon.com/Maexus-Flexible-Drill-Bit-Extension (you will need to copy and paste the link)

[Jim Becker]

Some drill/driver systems come with an attachment specifically designed to place a hole or drive very close to the edge/corner. Mine is Festool, but Bosch and I believe Milwaukee have similar solutions.

The alternative manual method is a pin-vice and bit for drilling and a manual screwdriver.

[Bill Dufour]

Pancake drill picture. takes threaded drills. I have seen small threaded chucks to fit. This photo appears to show a chuck as well as the pancake attachment. I use mine to drill inside electrical boxes for pilot holes into 50 year old studs. Then I screw the box to the stud with hex head screws designed for metal roofing.
Bill D

[Jamie Buxton]

If you're going to be doing this a lot, Bosch has a drill which includes an offset chuck among several other things. https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-Power-Tools-Combo-GSR12V-140FCB22/dp/B074GYX6XG/ref=asc_df_B074GYX6XG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242037806074&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1653043082370057881&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031928&hvtargid=pla-433942177656&psc=1 At $150, it is pretty affordable. To drill holes, you'll need a set of hex-shank bits.

[Tom Bender]

Ok lots of good advice here.

The task is 4 holes 9/64" ID x 3/4" deep in hard wood, about 1/4" from an inside corner with 6" of overhead space. The corner is not deep on one side. Thinking about a pin vise seems like a lot of fingertip work. So maybe I'll try a bow drill. A few wraps of blue tape around the bit and a top block may do it, if it doesn't start a fire first.

[Jim Dwight]

Tom, for an inexpensive option the hex drills will fit in a normal driver bit (or several) if that gets you up and above the obstruction. I like having them around. My favorite cordless drill is a Bosch with multiple heads. The one that Jim Becker mentioned takes hex bits, I believe. But if you can get around the tight fit by making, in effect, a really long bit you can just use whatever your favorite drill is. I do not use these hex bits all the time but I like them for many tasks where I want to switch between drilling and driving quickly. Handy to have around in general.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for bringing up the hex shank bits, Jim. Spot on comment about what's used for these close-quarters attachments.