The last block I did happened when my drill press was kaput and I was waiting for my new one (16 1/2" Delta, a real beauty). So I drilled the block in two passes with a hand held and was suprised at how well and even it came out. It did require a bit of concentration and I did have a drill with a bubble in a circle on the handle to get a uniform angle, but it made me wonder whether all this concern over elaborate drill press set ups was really as necessary as I had always believed. So I was wondering about others' experience in this area. The other issue I have found with two pass drilling (the only way to go I now think), is lining up the second drill with the pilot hole using a press. I've now taken to drilling the pilot hole a bit smaller than I started out--now I use 7/32 pilot rather than 1/4", this makes it easier to hit all sides of the hole when drilling the second hole without going through a lot of neck bending yoga postures. Because the second pass is very easy to line up with a hand held, I though that if there was no real drop off in torque uniformity, that hand held might not be such a bad way to go. Anyway, I just finished drilling a block today and used the press--six of one... David Love davidlovepianos@earthlink.net > [Original Message] > From: Richard Brekne <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no> > To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org> > Date: 2/8/2004 5:03:22 PM > Subject: Re: Double drilling pinblocks: Hand held versus drill press. > > Farrell wrote: > > > Try it and let us know. .....But don't do it on my piano!!! > > > > I would most certainly be surprised if you had good even torque. Use > > the drill press. > > > > Terry Farrell > > > > > > > I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. I'm refering to > > pinblock > > > drilling in two passes. If your final bit size is to be .261", then you > > > predrill at .250" and on a second pass, drill the remaining .011". > > On the > > > second pass, because so little material is taken, you don't have to > > worry > > > about feed speed and the drill heating up. My question is whether that > > > allows you to drill with a hand held and still be accurate without > > > enlarging the hole. > > > > > > David Love > > > davidlovepianos@earthlink.net <mailto:davidlovepianos@earthlink.net> > > > > > > > > I've done maybe 15 blocks through the years with hand held drills doing > a two pass drilling. Lots of techs do this both with pin blocks and with > bridge pins. Works just fine. No problems with torque in pinblocks > whatsover. Main difficulty seems to > be that of getting consistant angles. You need to practice a bit, and > a round bubble level affixed on the drill so that the bubble shows level > when you are on angle helps... probably other cute ideas to help. > > Cheers > RicB > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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