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?
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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?
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.
As long as it's not an unreasonable amount of holes, how about a gimlet?
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.
Tom,
Would something like this work? https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-11...193137#overlay
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/t...a/Default.aspx
ARO and Jiffy are big names in the aircraft drill industry
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Bender
+1 to the DeWalt right angle drive.Quote:
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.
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-Flexib...-Bit-Extension (you will need to copy and paste the link)
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.
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
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-T...42177656&psc=1 At $150, it is pretty affordable. To drill holes, you'll need a set of hex-shank bits.
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.
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.
Thanks for bringing up the hex shank bits, Jim. Spot on comment about what's used for these close-quarters attachments.