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Split while drilling

Posted by Paul Cezanne on December 25, 2017 at 6:06pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

I'm working on my first amp and while drilling the 3/8" hole for the amp knob (and one for the effects knob) I split my lid!

I can fix this with glue and clamps, but I'm wondering if this was common and how to prevent it. I know one mistake was drilling the lid just supported by the box, I should have opened it and supported with a junk wood underneath. I was also using a spade bit, not a round one. (I was also having trouble getting the center one to bite so I was pressing down a bit.)

Just bad technique here?

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Replies

  • JL January 2, 2018 at 8:03am

    Hole saws also work better than spade bits, again as long as you have some scrap underneath to support it.

    • Paul Cezanne > JL January 2, 2018 at 8:05am

      I had just cut a 3" hole with a hole saw and it went fine! The good news is I got my father-in-law's forstner bits this weekend.

      • MadGomer > Paul Cezanne January 2, 2018 at 9:10am

        The forstner bits will make a nice clean hole.  Use a backup board, don't spin the bits too fast, and take your time.

        • Paul Cezanne > MadGomer January 4, 2018 at 7:22pm

          Drilled my first holes today, not on this amp, but on a maple headstock. Sweet bits!

  • MadGomer December 31, 2017 at 11:35am

    Yeah, mostly technique I'm afraid.  Fear not, I'm sure you can salvage the lid, but once you get it back together, absolutely use a backing board and a sharp bit, go light on the pressure, can't wait to see pictures of your end result!

  • Paul Cezanne December 28, 2017 at 5:48pm

    Today is gluing day!

    It's way too cold in the basement for me even with the hat and fingerless gloves. So I used our kitchen side table. Now the cool thing about the table is that it used to be my mother's father's workbench in his basement. (I told me wife that this is what we grab if the house burns down and she agreed, as long as we go back for her grandmother's rocking chair.)

    So I get this great connection to the man I never met. (He died when my mom was 13...)

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    Now I'll never clamp like this again. The warped table and the warped lid meant it was a nasty fit. Basically I got lucky on my third attempt.

    Next time I'll just use a similar sized board and clamp all four corners. I do feel a slight rise. I can't sand it down because of the lettering but I'm not to worried, as somebody said above, "It will be a good story."

    • Richard Dean > Paul Cezanne December 28, 2017 at 5:56pm

      The lid is obviously old and brittle, even if the bit was the biggest contributor to it's demise, after repairing it, hang it as a memento, piece of art, make a new lid from scratch add whatever design you wish. Just a suggestion, even after repair, it may not hold up well to other work on it, or use after the fact with string tension etc.

      • Paul Cezanne > Richard Dean December 28, 2017 at 6:39pm

        This is for the amp, not a guitar, so there shouldn't be any tension... 

        Still need to drill more holes, but I think I just might not drill through the crack. The knobs can go anywhere. Maybe I'll just put a hubris-bolt in the hole that caused the split...

  • John Sawyer December 28, 2017 at 1:23am

    Older boxes might be one piece of wood, where a lot of modern ones are ply or MDF.  Glue it back together and throw that paddle away... paddle bits are rough service tools...  I had some of the same ones... I threw them away and that is HARD for me to do... Those are good for drilling through a 2x4, not much else.  That's a beautiful antique box!

  • Titch the Clown December 27, 2017 at 2:16am

    The step drill bits aka Devo hat drill bits are great on thin materials 

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