Harry Bloomfield wrote:
geraldthehamster has brought this to us :

I need to drill accurately some holes for taps in a 40mm thick beech
worktop.

How might I ensure that I am drilling exactly vertically, with my hand-
held drill?


Regards
Richard


A piece of steel about an 1" or more thick, with a pre-drilled accurate
hole in it. With lots of practise it is possible to drill an hole which
is near enough with any such help.

The problem with this idea is that when you come to open the hole up to
full size, you can drift off the vertical.
My way of drilling a hole to pass an electrical cable through a double
wall failed me last year. I normally use a long drill and put a pilot
hole through both walls and then a final sized drill from the inside and
then the outside. When I did this on our son's house last year, they
didn't point in the same direction :-(

Hence I couldn't get the cable through the wall.

Can't you drill the pilot holes from the top to ensure that they are the
correct distance apart and the right size and then make any mess under
the work top where it can never be seen after course correction?

Taps do not bend easily, but copper pipe does.

Dave