Thread: Please help drill 13, 13.5 and 14mm holes in 10mm steel plate near Glen Iris, 3146

Hi all,

I have a 10mm metal plate I'm trying to use as a dowel maker.

My 12.7mm hole results in super rough pine dowels and sanding down doesn't help very much.

I need a few bigger holes drilled to give me more material to clean up.

Can anyone assist or know anyone who can assist in drilling 13, 13.5 and 14mm holes in 10mm steel plate near Glen Iris, 3146 area?

Feel free to PM is you prefer.

Thank heaps and all my best,
Barry G. Sumpter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGVmEOAMiPk&t=292s
Making a Multi Size Dowel Maker

IMG_1312.jpg

Hi barry, I can help this weekend if that isn't too far away, workshop is in Moorabbin though.

Yes that would be great.

Please PM to sort the details.

Hi Barry,

Do you have a lathe ? Or for that matter a drill that can hold the largest diameter that you want to make.

I used to make custom dowelling a good number of years ago. You need a bock of hardwood, oak or whatever, drill a hole through it to support your stock material.
Drill a hole into this hole at 90 degrees to hold a cutter, I used to use a broken 3/8" drill sharpened like a flat gouge . You will need to put a screw in the side to secure the cutter.

Hold the stock in the drill, hold the cutting block in the vise and run the stock through the hole, adjusting the cutter as you need to turn the wood into a round.
I made several blocks to cut different sizes. Mostly from 3/4" diameter down to 1/4". Some where I've still got some dowel that I made.

Put your stock through the hole. Put your cutter where the blue is and fasten it with a screw where the red is.Dowel Jig.jpg

No lathe.

The metal plate is working so far as ripping the heck out of pine.
I don't have a 13mm. Or larger sizes of HSS.
They are on the expensive side.
So was hoping to get some help in just drilling some holes in soft metal.

Spent the afternoon messing with the veritas tenon jig.
So much fiddling around.
Will have blade dulling issues.
And heat issues.
it takes a lot of strength and slow feed.
.2mm oversized.
Dread adjusting it again as it slips around so easily.

So far, I'd rather use the iron plate and rip the crap out of it in seconds to oversized.
Then sand it down with low grit sand paper.
Then high grit sand paper as I get close to my size.

I'll look into mounting some stabilising holes before and after to see if it will cut down on the sanding.

Originally Posted by barrysumpter

I don't have a 13mm. Or larger sizes of HSS.
They are on the expensive side.

Barry you can buy a 13mm drill bit for $4.99 I don't think that will break the bank https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-5MM-13MM-Titanium-Coated-Straight-Shank-Electrical-Twist-HSS-Drill-Bits/131261331286?hash=item1e8fc8f756:m:m5rLGD-Cp1hN-42ua1KSYQg


I already have quite a few drills but I just paid 230 bucks for a set of 5% cobalt incremental drills 1 - 10 mm,

cheers, shed

Hi Barry,

I started making dowelling by pulling strips of wood through a hole in a metal plate ! I even used Morse taper reamers to put an edge on the hole on one side of the metal plate, so that it would more easily cut the wood. It was hard work and quite time consuming. It was after seeing a guy size some round bar on a lathe that I started experimenting with an electric drill and cutters in holes. That broken drill with the end sharpened cut many hundreds of feet of pine and beech into dowel. Admittedly sometimes the surface left a little to be desired, but using the electric drill and some sandpaper sorted that out.

I made a lot of clothes airers ! My wife still has and uses hers, its well over 40 years old now, though its getting a bit gnarly.

I used a hardwood block because I had lots of it, mostly 2" or 2.5" inches thick. I did find that with thin stuff you needed to feed it into a tube to stop it whipping and often breaking.

Barry, a couple of thoughts for you -
Pine is not a nice timber to do things with. As it is soft, tools need to be really sharp. Pushing timber through a plate with a hole in it will more than likely tear and rip at the timber. I'd try something a little harder like Australian Oak or similar
My second thought is that a torn surface does not really matter for a dowel if it is going to be buried in a joint. If anything it provides a surface for the glue to key to. If these dowels are to be exposed, I'd be going to a hardware store. They have lots of it, it is relatively cheap and has a smooth finish.

My thoughts anyway
Michael

All sorted.

Thanks to CastWarrior.
Absolute Champion!

Thanks for the work and the chat.
A great opportunity to get out of the shed.

This was my first attempt on scrap material.

https://www.facebook.com/barrysum/vi...5880023781918/

After all the research and planning and only doing as much as needed to prove the concept.
It was much easier than I had anticipated.

And thanks to all who replied.

Any and all comments are welcome.

In that vid,
the first view of the back,
you can see the dowel sandwiched between the top of the box and the (supposed to be) back of the box.

I turn it around to show the inside of the hinge and you can see the dowel still.

So making my own dowels made out of the timber I've used on the project is driving the need.
Where the dowel cuts, viewed from the back with the lid closed, would be almost completely hidden.

I've chosen three standard sizes.
This is my first experiment with this technique.
So started large and use those same material to test the smaller sizes.

I've accepted the fact that I have to dowel them larger and use sandpaper to smooth out.
And wow if I use the higher grit to finish it turns out beautiful!