# drilling straight hole



## mymodeltrain (May 14, 2013)

I want to drill needle size hole into a thick piece of teflon or PTFE board as straight as possible. Unfortunately, I don't have a mill machine, but I have a normal drill and a Foredom; please let me know if there is any trick to do this.


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Something like this works nicely for me...

http://www.micromark.com/toolmakers-bench-block,7597.html


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

You can lay the hand piece down and slide the work onto the drill. Laying it down puts the drill parallel to the surface, secure a straight edge beside the hand piece and you now have two controlled axis. Use blocks to determine off set from surface and straight edge to locate your hole.
Me I eyeball them but that's me.
John
ps; I assumed a #30 hand piece.


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

First and foremost! Make a pilot hole using a small nail or very fine pinch otherwise a bit, particularly a very small bit, will wobble or walk particularly on a slick material like PTFE (Teflon). 

Drill Press Stand available from a variety of makers, quality/precision and prices. Recognize that the smaller the drill bit any small amount of movement in the guide mechanism will magnify the lack of precision to alignment of the drill to the object being drilled - (from experience using a substitute to the right and quality tool.) Proves the adage; "the most expensive tool you will ever buy is a cheap (or poor substitute) tool." 

Recommended alternative; find someone with a drill press you could use for this one task. You will probably need a mini chuck for very small bits to use with the drill press chuck. 

This one $55 from source link. Price range $35+. Available at HD, Lowes or most any tool store.









http://www.ebay.com/bhp/drill-press-stand

https://www.google.com/search?q=power+drill+drill+press&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS578US578&espv=2&biw=1455&bih=715&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CGMQsARqFQoTCKenvrSttccCFVY2iAoddKIDGA#imgrc=_

If you ha have a Dremel they also make the same type of drill guide.


Alternative although less control and precision, Portable Drill Guide; definitely and option but I would not recommend it particularly for very small drill bits unless absolutely your only option:









Last:
You could use a short pieces of brass or stainless steel tube/pipe from K&S as a drill guide. Use the telescoping nature of their sizes (combine several dia. ) to achieve stability to the guide. (hope that explanation makes some sense.)

Not familiar with Foredom but they appear to make a drill guide similar to Dremel's but (searching) the one I found was relative expensive.
http://www.foredom.net/handpiecescontrolsmore.aspx


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

When I was in the tool and die trade, we used EDM machines to burn very deep and narrow rib cavities into die steel. This was accomplished by using very thin graphite edm carbon....down to as small as .020 thick. We also had to drill very deep and very small flushing holes into the electrode to remove debris from the cavity during the burning process. The smallest drills I used were .010" in diameter. The machine of choice for this drilling process was a Westhoff super-sensitive drill machine. This video shows the machine. The workpiece lays flat on the sliding table. The drills in put into the Albrecht precision chuck and the speed can be dialed into the motor. We drilled .010 holes into electrodes as deep as 4-5 inches with NO WANDERING. These machines were NOT cheap however. 30 years ago, they were around $2000. But for a precision shop doing EDM work, it was the only way to do this.






https://www.westhoffinc.com/files/2012/09/MicroFlush.pdf

This is very similar to what John was describing. You can do this at home with a drill laying on its side and slide the teflon into the drill............just be very careful doing this.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Along the lines of Michael's idea, here's another block. Probably not as precise, but cheaper and more holes.

http://www.amazon.com/Hexagonal-Riv...qid=1440031680&sr=8-4&keywords=DRILLING+BLOCK


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## mymodeltrain (May 14, 2013)

Thanks all for the information, very useful advice.


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