Drilling – Pointers for the newbie

Drilling – A few pointers for the newbie

Not all of us are brought up around power tools, and some may need a few pointers on how to use certain tools. These power tools make our lives a pleasure, but use them wrong and they can turn around and bite you.
Here are a few tips on using the electric drill.

Two types of drilling
There are two types of drilling, and most electric drills will have these two settings. The slower setting is for drilling into concrete or masonry.
Masonry drilling requires special masonry drill bits. They have a larger and usually harder tip than normal drill bits, and are usually silver in color. When drilling into concrete, stone or brick, set your drill to the slower speed setting, and switch it to ‘Hammer’ action. Hammer action will cause the drill to punch the drill bit forward, as if hammering it into the wall.

For drilling wood or steel you will use the faster setting of your drill, and remember to make sure your drill is not on hammer action. Steel and wood uses the same drill bits, although there are specialized wood drill bits that should not be used on steel. Steel drill bits are usually black.
When drilling into steel, first mark the spot where you want to drill with a punch, this makes the drill bit less prone to skidding all over the place when you get going.

Drill bits tend to get hot, and this shortens their life span. Stop drilling from time to time to give your drill bits a while to cool off, and you will make them last a lot longer.

Remember to wear your safety gear, this should be, at the minimum, goggles and a sturdy pair of gloves. The drills rotate at an enormous speed, and when a drill bit breaks they tend to fly off in any direction, so a little protection is called for.

When drilling walls in your home, try to make sure that it is not a wall in which either water or electricity is embedded. If it is, make sure you are not drilling in line with the pipes. Having to open up a large part of your wall to fix a hole where you accidentally drilled into a water pipe is no fun at all.