5KidsRacing said:
I wasn't trying to direct my comment directly at you lightninboy... I bought that stuff too... I am just trying to help other people not to make the same mistakes I made..
I know you weren't directing it at me. I tend to describe things in terms of my personal experience, that's all.
To others that for some reason felt the need to tell everyone how great and helpful 5Kids has been just because I disagreed with something he said:
5Kids made two points and I whole-heartedly agree with the first one - which is don't buy a PBJ just to locate the holes. Note that, like myself, the original poster already had the PBJ.
But 5Kids second point was really a "guess" that in my direct personal experience is not true. So I felt compelled to share my personal experience. Not to show anyone up, but to add to the discussion. That's what we do here right? Share personal experience so others don't have to speculate as to what works or doesn't work? If I guessed that using a treadmill to align cars would be an effective technique, I would hope others here would correct me and share their personal experience with how it was not effective and sometimes even harmful. And I would hope for that reaction regardless of how helpful I had been in the past.
In my direct personal experience - in other words I'm not speculating or guessing here, I've done it - using the PBJ to mark the holes or drill a shallow straight starter hole does not result in a high scrap rate. Understand that by shallow I mean 1/16" tops - just a little more than an indentation. This is, in fact, a common woodworking technique which is intended to prevent the drill bit from walking when drilling the angled hole. As I mentioned before, I think the actual benefit of the technique in this application is dubious given the super sharp, super hard carbide bits most of us are using, the softness of the material, and the small angle.
Regarding centering the hole, one reason I stopped making shallow straight starter holes with the PBJ (and now just use it just to mark locations) was because I've started using brad point bits. These bits are sometimes called "self centering" bits because the tips are designed to center and stay centered without walking. These bits also have the added benefit of not being deflected when crossing the wood grain. So given:
* A self centering tip designed to prevent walking and
* a sharp bit made up of one of the hardest and stiffest substances known to man (tungsten carbide) and
* the bit chucked up as high as possible and
* drilling into a relatively soft wood and
* drilling a relative shallow angle (3 degrees) and
* using good drill press technique (slowwwwwww)
all of this made a technique (drilling a straight shallow hole) with already dubious benefit completely useless. I've only recently started using these brad point bits so I've only drilled a couple blocks. They've all been dead on with a pristinely clean entry.
As an aside ... its
holes people not "wholes"! I'm not usually so pedantic, but I've endured that over at DT. Understand that 5Kids writes "wholes" just to poke fun at someone.
