New Drill

 

We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known

Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Carson McClullers

Well my trusty Makita cordless drill finally gave up the ghost. The batteries died as they will and I was shocked to see the cost of OEM replacements so I bought a new drill kit. I actually went to get a new charger but ended up with a whole new Metabo kit on clearance. 

One reason I hung on so tightly to my old Makita is the small block of wood I had glued exactly in line with the drill bit. This allows me to use a pencil as a sight and in conjunction with a paper circle with concentric circles I can drill accurately thru a chair arm. 

But dead is dead so I needed to remember how I did this years ago. Turns out it isn't that hard. All that's needed is two lengths of ⅜ steel rod and a scrap of wood. 

Here you can see the view looking directly down on the pencil which will be in turn directly in line with the drill bit. 

Just take a ¾x1x1 block of wood and drill a stepped hole. The first hole only goes in a little bit maybe an ⅛ just enough to center the steel rod. Then drill a ⁵/16 thru hole for the pencil (the pencil needs a few wraps of tape to fit snugly). 

Then after cutting a couple blocks with a v groove cut in them chuck the drill rod in the drill and set the rear drill rod in the same cradle block and after putting a little construction adhesive on the block carefully push the rod onto the back of the drill. Then remove the rod and viola a perfectly centered block for a pencil bomb site. 

I actually did it to both my Hitachi drills as the new kit may end up on a job with me and it probably is a little overkill for the shop.