Drilling a few holes then cutting, rinse and repeat?

[new2woodwrk]

In another thread, @wombatie/Marge mentioned she drills a few holes then cuts, then drills then cuts etc. rinse and repeat.

I think this is a smart technique I want to try. However the question I have is...

Should I drill the very small ones and cut them first, or just pick a spot, drill and cut rinse and repeat as I go along?

Up to now, I've been drilling all the holes then cutting the smallest/most difficult frets first just in case they break

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Edited April 15, 2018 by new2woodwrk

[meflick]

I am definitely no expert and I readily admit I do not do large fretwork patterns with 100's if not 1000's of holes to drill.  I also suspect that the answer is really what you want to do, decide works for you.  Everybody approaches things differently.  What I have learned here from the experts is to start in the middle and work your way out.  Definitely do the small difficult fragile areas first for just the reason you stated, if it breaks and is ruined, you are not out the time and effort on the whole project.  I myself prefer to drill all the holes first and then start cutting.  (However, that said - I can't tell you how many times in projects, (even in those Animal Puzzles Iggy addicted us to) that I THOUGHT I had all the holes drilled first only to discover while cutting that I had missed one or two! 

Edited April 20, 2018 by meflick
typos (but probably still missed some!)

[spirithorse]

Greetings!
I prefer to drill all the holes at once so that I am not drilling into an area where I have already made cuts

and weakened the work-piece. Just my thoughts. As far as which cuts to make first, you and Melanie both gave good
thought to making the hardest cuts first or starting in the middle and working out but, I also look into what areas are going to
be severely weakened once material is removed and try to make those cuts last so that the weak areas of small fret aren't getting
bounced on the table during hole changes or if the blade grabs the wood during a turn or something.

We all have our own thought processes and we can all get the same results from the pattern so do what is comfortable for you and
Enjoy the hobby!
God Bless! Spirithorse

[wombatie]

A wise man once told me to start with the hardest part no matter where it is on the pattern and if that turns out ok carry on from there.

Marg

[JimErn]

For me it depends on the complexity of the pattern.  Too many holes and it gets hard for me to be sure which one should be next, just my eyes I am sure.  The majority of the time I drill about half of them, rinse and repeat, that kind of forces me to take a break too.

[lew]

I used to drill all the holes first....then start on the outside larger cuts.....BIG MISTAKE!..but OK when first starting out with no one to advise!

Now....I just drill the 5-10 holes that I will work on first...the cuts in the middle and the smallest weakest ones. Then work usually from the middle on out. 

The reason I stopped drilling all the holes first is because I may decide while working, that this particular part of the pattern is one that I may not want to include....for various reasons.

But now I have a hole in the wood and have to cut it.....

 

[Chunkthekid]

I start with the smallest of the small, drill, cut, sand the back a bit, then repeat. Once the tiny holes are all done I start near the middle and progress out multiple times, each time cutting larger holes, leaving the very large ones for last, no matter where they are.

[Chunkthekid]

4 minutes ago, Chunkthekid said:

I start with the smallest of the small, drill, cut, sand the back a bit, then repeat. Once the tiny holes are all done I start near the middle and progress out multiple times, each time cutting larger holes, leaving the very large ones for last, no matter where they are.

I usually drill around 20 holes at a time. Sometimes a lot more if I get into a "groove" with my little dremel drill press and kinda space off. If I try to drill them all at once, I will ALWAYS miss one. And this way I take better care to cut smarter.

 

I don't know why I quoted myself

Edited April 16, 2018 by Chunkthekid

[Bill WIlson]

Whatever works for you.  I usually drill all the entry holes first.  Occasionally I'll miss a couple, but I prefer having the holes all drilled before I start cutting and weakening the wood. 

[lawson56]

I drill all my holes.then work from the inside  to the outside. But I agree with Bill Whatever works for you.

[Scrolling Steve]

32 minutes ago, lawson56 said:

I drill all my holes.then work from the inside  to the outside. But I agree with Bill Whatever works for you.

What Bobby said !

[OCtoolguy]

I'm basically a lazy person who enjoys sitting. So, if I have to be forced to get up every once in a while to drill more holes, that is a good thing. A person can get pretty transfixed while cutting and forget to get up and move around. Ya gotta let the blood flow get back to your feet and legs every once in a while. I read that somewhere.

Ray

 

[new2woodwrk]

2 hours ago, octoolguy said:

I'm basically a lazy person who enjoys sitting. So, if I have to be forced to get up every once in a while to drill more holes, that is a good thing. A person can get pretty transfixed while cutting and forget to get up and move around. Ya gotta let the blood flow get back to your feet and legs every once in a while. I read that somewhere.

Ray

 

Since I started cutting puzzles, I refuse to move until they're finish LOL

By that time, my legs are asleep

[OCtoolguy]

19 hours ago, new2woodwrk said:

Since I started cutting puzzles, I refuse to move until they're finish LOL

By that time, my legs are asleep

Not good. Sort of like flying in an airplane. gotta get up and move around every once in a while. We were on a 12 hour flight coming back from Europe and we forced ourselves to get up and walk the length of the plane both ways every couple of hours. That also took us away from the screaming kids who were in the seats a couple of rows behind us. They really DO need to put seats out on the wings for kids.

Ray

 

[new2woodwrk]

1 hour ago, octoolguy said:

Not good. Sort of like flying in an airplane. gotta get up and move around every once in a while. We were on a 12 hour flight coming back from Europe and we forced ourselves to get up and walk the length of the plane both ways every couple of hours. That also took us away from the screaming kids who were in the seats a couple of rows behind us. They really DO need to put seats out on the wings for kids.

Ray

 

Oh, I feel that pain - can't stand screaming children anywhere!

If I ever did that when I was a kid I got the One two real quick

[GPscroller]

I used to drill all the holes first, no matter the size.  When I was getting ready (psyching myself up) to cut the Viking Warrior pattern, Scrappile told me it's only one cut at a time.  Since then I drill 20 holes starting center and working out on everything I cut.  Like Ray said above, it gets me up and out of the chair and the total number of cuts doesn't scare me  Works for me.

Jeff

[crupiea]

It depends on how small the holes are.  I use a #73 bit so the holes are very small and can easily get sort of filled back in with sawdust if I do a bunch at a time.  For a long time I did one hole at a time, sawed it out, drilled another and so on,

Just recently i now do maybe 6 or so at a time.  Mainly i got sick of breaking tiny bits which I did when i did it one at a time so it was more a cheapskate thing then anything else.

[bcdennis]

Just food for thought.  I like to drill a portion of what I am cutting, then cut it, repeat.  I was cutting a Sue Mey Cross design out of Purple Heart.  I had drilled and cut out the Upper and Left side of the cross.  As I started to drill the right side the wood broke in half.  Now I don't know if it was brittle wood, a dull drill bit or what that caused  the break but it ruined the project.  Since then I drill all of the holes at once and then start cutting. 

[Wichman]

I have always drilled all the holes first, just personal preference, do what works for you.

One thing I learned, I always stop cutting for the day with a few cuts left for the next day. if I try to force myself to finnish- that's when I mess up and destroy a good piece. This really bothers my CDO (Compulsive Disorder, Obsessive...I spell it that way because it puts the letters in alphabetical order AS THEY SHOULD BE...I'm only halfway kidding about that) but it's the price i have to pay.

Once I drill "all" the holes I have my son check to see if I got them all :), he marks the skipped ones with a fine tip red marker and I go back and get the skips

[Kepy]

I prefer to drill all the holes at the same time and of course, I almost always find one I missed so I keep a Dremel in the routing attachment close by and can simply drill the needed hole without getting up.

[Goat]

What type of drill bit do you guys use and what size?  I only have a hand drill and my first attempt I had allot of chips on the finish side.  I was stack cutting and drilled them stacked.  I'm using 1/4 Baltic birch.

 

Thanks

[Rockytime]

When there is room I use a 1/16" drill because they are readily available in any hardware or box store. For finer work I use a #68 drill and if necessary I use down to a #72 drill although I don't like to. Too hard to thread blades.

[Bill WIlson]

17 hours ago, Goat said:

What type of drill bit do you guys use and what size?  I only have a hand drill and my first attempt I had allot of chips on the finish side.  I was stack cutting and drilled them stacked.  I'm using 1/4 Baltic birch.

 

Thanks

I use whatever size drill bit the pattern requires.  Sometimes you need to hide the hole, so a very small, numbered drill is called for.  Apart from that, I use the largest drill bit that will fit within all or most of the frets.  I generally use 1/16" or maybe 1/8" at largest for general fret hole drilling. 

I think, but best results, some sort of stationary drilling apparatus is necessary.  This could be anything from a full size drill press, to a Dremel, mounted in either the drill press or plunge router fixture, or the Seyco Scrollers drill.  I don't like using hand drills, because I want to ensure my holes are perfectly perpendicular.  It can make a huge difference when drilling holes in stacked material or thick stock.

[Phantom Scroller]

I drill them all and look for the weakest points first and cut them. Roly

[Goat]

10 hours ago, Bill WIlson said:

I use whatever size drill bit the pattern requires.  Sometimes you need to hide the hole, so a very small, numbered drill is called for.  Apart from that, I use the largest drill bit that will fit within all or most of the frets.  I generally use 1/16" or maybe 1/8" at largest for general fret hole drilling. 

I think, but best results, some sort of stationary drilling apparatus is necessary.  This could be anything from a full size drill press, to a Dremel, mounted in either the drill press or plunge router fixture, or the Seyco Scrollers drill.  I don't like using hand drills, because I want to ensure my holes are perfectly perpendicular.  It can make a huge difference when drilling holes in stacked material or thick stock.

Maybe I'll just make the holes on each piece before stacking them.  I'd assume if I use the same pattern to drill each piece I should be able to get them all pretty close to the same without the holes getting too far off.  I'm just trying to think of some other way without using the hand drill and without going out and buying more equipment.  I do have a dremel, maybe it would be easier to keep level.