The drill, pilot holes, and not splitting your board
Okay. We've spent all this time on saws, hand and table, and now we're moving to the drill. Compared to the saw talks this one's going to feel short. That's fine. The drill is a friendlier tool. But there's one mistake that ruins more boards than anything else in this class, and it's the thing we're covering today, so don't tune out just because it seems simple.
The drill itself
Your drill has two settings that matter right now: drill mode and driver mode, usually a little symbol of a drill bit and a little symbol of a screw. Some drills have a collar with numbers on it too, that's the clutch, and we'll get to that in a second.
For today we're just drilling holes, so drill mode, no clutch settings to worry about yet.
Hold the drill like you'd hold a hose, not like you're trying to strangle it. Your grip only needs to be firm enough to keep it steady. People clamp down white-knuckled and then wonder why their arm's tired after four holes.
Why we're doing this at all
Here's the thing. If you drive a screw straight into pine without drilling a hole first, especially near the end of a board, the wood splits. Not always, but often enough that I don't let people skip it. The screw acts like a wedge shoved into a piece of wood that has nowhere to go, and pine's soft enough that it just gives up and cracks along the grain.
A pilot hole is a hole you drill first, slightly smaller than the screw, so the screw has somewhere to go without forcing the wood apart. It sounds like an extra step you don't need. I feel like everyone thinks that the first time, right up until they split their first board, and then they never skip it again.
Picking your bit
You want a drill bit a little smaller than the screw's shank, not the threads, the solid center part. If you look at the screw and the bit side by side, the bit should look like it'd disappear inside the screw's threads but not swallow the whole thing. There are charts for this, matching screw sizes to bit sizes, and I'd rather you use a chart than guess if this is your first time. Ours is on the wall by the drill station.
For the shelf project we're using pretty small screws, so you're probably in the 1/8 inch range for your pilot bit. Check with me before you drill if you're not sure. I'd genuinely rather answer that question four times in one class than have you split a board in front of me and feel bad about it.
Actually drilling the hole
- Mark where you want the screw with a pencil, a little X or dot.
- Set the bit right on that mark.
- Hold the drill so it's going in straight, ninety degrees to the board. This is the part people rush.
- Squeeze the trigger and let the bit do the work. Don't shove down hard, the weight of the drill plus a little pressure is enough.
- Drill until you're through, or until you hit the depth you need if you're not going all the way through.
That's it. It's a genuinely simple process. The part that takes practice is the straight part, keeping the drill at ninety degrees the whole way down. I'll come around and stand next to you with a scrap piece and show you what that angle looks and feels like, because it's a lot easier to feel than to explain in words.
A story on this, since we're talking about ruining wood
I'll tell you about the time I tried to get fancy with a router, since this is the same flavor of mistake even though it's a different tool. Years back, early on, I decided a plain shelf edge was boring and I wanted a nice routed edge, one of those rounded-over profiles that looks storebought. I did not check my feed direction, I did not take a light pass first, I just ran the router down the board like I knew what I was doing. It caught the grain wrong and tore a chunk right out of the edge. Not a little chip, a real gouge, right in the front of a board I'd already spent an hour on.
I was so embarrassed I didn't touch the router again for two years. Not because anyone said anything, nobody was even in the garage, just me and the ruined board. But I think about that every time I rush a step because I want the finished thing more than I want to actually do the process right. The pilot hole is the same idea, smaller stakes, same lesson. Slow down before the tool takes over.
Driving the screw
Once your pilot holes are drilled, switch the drill to driver mode. Set the screw in the hole, keep the drill straight again, same as before, and drive it in slow. You'll feel it seat when the head meets the wood. Don't keep cranking after that, you'll strip the pilot hole out or crack the wood anyway, just from the other direction this time.
If your drill has a clutch collar, a lower number means it'll stop turning sooner, before you overdrive the screw. I'll set yours for you today so you get a feel for what a properly seated screw feels like versus a stripped one.
One caution, plainly
Drill bits get warm and pine dust gets everywhere, into your eyes if you're leaning close. Safety glasses on for this part too, same as the saw. And if your drill bit ever binds up hard in the wood, let go of the trigger before you fight it, don't try to muscle it out while it's still spinning.
Before next time
Bring your shelf pieces back with you, dry fit and all, we'll be drilling and driving for real next class. If you want to practice pilot holes on a scrap piece at home first, I'd encourage it, that's exactly what scrap wood is for.