walking drill bits

Maybe this has been covered before, but...

When I was drilling holes for the door hinges, I noticed my bit had slid to the left a bit. This upset me greatly. I had whacked the spot with a punch, then carefully started the hole, but still ended up drifting to the left about 1-2mm. Should I be using a better/different bit? Any suggestions here, I'm really upset with myself.

 

[Mark Worthington]

Pilot hole.

 

Pat,

I recommend:
- firstly, always use high quality drill bits (in the UK you can get Bullet which have an extra flute in the middle to cut easier, or titanium coated)
- spot punch the starting point
- use a 2-3mm pilot hole (1/16 to 1/8")
- hold the drill square to the face
- put a piece of masking tape with a cross on it to see you are maintaing the position (this works espcially well when drilling into bricks and mortar - not that you should be using any on your 40

)

Strangely I just wrote an article about fitting door hinges which actually need an oversized hole on the GTD to allow for final adjustment, however this is not the point of your question!

Good luck.

 

So...what I'm hearing is pilot hole.

Thanks guys