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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,436

    Default Hollow drill bit !

    Hi Guys,

    How many times have you put a wood screw into something and have had the head break off ?

    I started to put a new latch plate on the kitchen door recently. Unfortunately I had not chiselled out quite enough wood from behind it, so I started to remove the two wood screws that I had used and both screw heads broke off leaving the shank in the wood frame with no way of gripping them in order to get them out !

    A little frustrated after spending 15 minutes or so trying to dig enough wood away to get a pair of grips on them, I gave up and decided to make a hollow drill bit and get them out that way. On the basis that I can always put a wooden plug into the hole, I set to and made this drill bit.

    16-03-2019-008.JPG 16-03-2019-009.JPG 16-03-2019-010.JPG
    I used a 70 mm long piece of 1/4" silver steel to make this drill.

    I drilled it using a 4 mm drill, down the centre, then slotted it for a distance of about one inch starting 6 mm from the end with a 3 mm slot drill. After I then used a 1.5 mm slot drill to cut six teeth in the end, after which I hardened it by heating with a cooks torch until the end was cherry red then plunging into a cup of water. I then tempered the end to take the glass hardness off.

    The teeth were cut by eye and are not a uniform as they could be. Setting the rod over by 20 degrees with a piece of plywood wasn't the best way either But it worked well enough.

    The idea behind the slot is so that any wood lodged in the drill can be removed with a probe. In actual use a couple of digs with the drill bit allowed both the screws to be removed without too much trouble. I filled the holes that were left with dowel, glued and tapped into the wood frame.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Murray Bridge S Aust.
    Age
    71
    Posts
    5,942

    Default

    What a brilliant idea. You should start manufacturing them, now, before the Chinese see it and start making them from wet spaghetti. You'd have no trouble selling them, everyone breaks off screw heads.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    1,656

    Default

    Interesting I have used plug cutters in the past to do that

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,436

    Default

    Hi China, Guys,

    Thanks for reminding me ! I have a set of plug cutters, in a box under my nose

    I just looked at them the smallest is 3/8" inch bore, but I doubt that they will cut more than a few MM deep.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
    Posts
    3,228

    Default

    Nice work John. What sort of wood screws are you using that break off when you un-screw them? Whenever I buy Chinese made hardware I usually throw the screws away and replace them with a quality screw of similar size.

    This guy makes a version of your saw with a piece of golf club shaft. Less elegant than yours, but very effective:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=bD6ibqWpVCM
    Chris

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    34
    Posts
    1,075

    Default

    +1 for plug cutters, done that trick several times.

    Sorry to bust your business plans, but long ones have been around for a long time as well https://www.infinitytools.com/boring...non-cutter-set

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,436

    Default

    Hi Elan,

    No plans to bust, sorry

    Now maybe twenty years ago I might have been tempted !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
    Posts
    292

    Default

    Nice job on the extractor. There are commercial versions around without the side slot ejector.

    https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/...xtractors.aspx Cheaper places to get them from if you look around.

    I remember reading a tip someplace where the gent used roll pins to make his extractors. If sized just right it would follow the screw in a little and grab it turning it out of the wood, left hand driven naturally. It made the smallest hole to plug.

    Pete

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