TIP: Drill down the center of bar stock 

Great video. A simple resolution for a difficult problem.

Oh, THANK YOU. I have several projects that will use this technique. It's such a simple, but elegant solution to a common problem.

Oh man. I just finished a project (front-end loader for my kid) where I had to drill holes in the ends of dowels a dozen or more times. I tried all sorts of homemade jigs to make it work and nothing helped very much. Finally found this video the shortly after I was finished with the whole thing, and it would have made a huge difference. Thanks so much for posting this! It'll be a big help in the future. I've already tried the technique out with far better results than I expected.

This is beautiful. I was about ready to stop making an item that is making a decent profit due to wasting dowels that are not aligning right because of not being able to drill them out straight. Thank you Man this saved it!

Be warned that while spinning the work instead of the drill will make a true centered hole with the work (beacuse the axis of hole is aligned to spin of the work) the drill bit will not ensure a perfect diameter! Drill bit if sits just a tad out of aligment then the hole generated will be bigger than the drill. This is beacuse think of a boring bar in a lathe. It sits excentric to the spin axis and creates a hole big as the excentrecity to the cutting edge is applied. Same happens with a drill bit if it is excentric by 0.05mm it will generate a hole bigger with 0.1mm. Especially true for soft materials like wood, aluminium, copper, brass, plastic where the drill bit will keep it's offcentricity and force a bigger hole. In tougher materials like steel and stainless steel the drill bit will just flex and indicate the minor excentricity that you can try to correct for. Either way it will for a slightly bigger hole than the drillbit as for sure there are minute bend/excentricy in the drill bit. For such tough materials you need an acurate center punch to start with. As the initial purchase of the hole requires a lot of force and any wondering of the tip skating will flex dhe drill bit a bit and start an out of center hole. Going further will flex the bit a lot and will break. So for drilling accurate holes is best to start with a smaller drill bit that what you need (start with 4mm if you need a 6mm hole) by spinning the work (and hopefully the initial start is selfcentered.. hard to do in tough materials) drill it as long as you need. Then remove the work and go the traditional way where the right drill bit just enlarges the hole you made before. I have a tough time searching for methods of drilling an acurate 2mm hole in the center of a 10mm stainless steel rod. Ended starting the hole with an accurate center punch, used a short split point centereing bit (the short stubby pilot used in mills and lathes) then go with the drill bit (1.7mm) chucked low in the vice and slowly went. Raising the drill bit a bit each step (used a 3jaw chuck to hold the drillbit). After the ordeal was over (5 drill bits later). I've installed it normal way and went with a 2mm drill bit to enlarge the generated hole that was closer to 1.9mm. The hole eneded accurate and centered but with a lot of fussing. The hole i did had a lenght of 50mm. So this is my experience with spin the work technique. Good but hole diameter is not acurate enough and on small drillbits the flex induced can and will break a lot of bits much more the going traditional way.

Unbelievably simple..and I was battling of doing this for a much complicated with a crooked hole result...Thank You for upload

I watched this last night and put it to use this mornng, successfully drilling 4mm hole centred in 1/2 aluminium rod. I even finished the work with placing sandpaper on the press table. Worked perfectly, thanks for the vid 👍🏻

It looked too simple.....it is - but it works like a charm. I needed to drill an accurate 1/4" hole through a 3/8" bolt for a dowel jig I was making (home made Dowelmax) . It was perfect and after set up it was mass production. Thanks so much Tab.

Great tip!! Had to put a hole right in the middle of a piece of round bar stock a couple days ago, took me lots of patience and time but managed to make it perfectly. Sadly it doesn't fit on my drill press, but I'll 100% use this tip if I have to do it again in a small diameter round bar. Thanks a lot!

had a busted nylon roller on one of my kitchen drawers...this tip saved me 20 bucks on having to buy a new pair of runners...great tip...and many thanks for sharing...

This is a great tip! All-around good video work too. I sometimes use a smaller drill first to make a pilot hole for a larger bit. The larger bit will follow the pilot hole quite nicely. This is especially important if drilling into metal because the set-up is hard to control with a large bit cutting all in one pass. Keep up the good work.

I've tried this and it works perfectly on my home drill press, thank you for a great tip!

Man! That is a fantastic idea! Thank you! I've racked my mind how to drill a straight he through a rod or bar for so long. Thanks again a

Thanks, mate! Top presentation. It worked perfectly on 10mm dowel that I used to connect bowl to stem on a hobbit pipe. Cheers!

Exactly what I was after. Before finding your video, I did get a “v” inside, and I did not get it centered. Thought; there has to be a better way :) Thanks a lot for sharing and making an intuitive explanation!

Simple yet brilliant. Thanks for the video.

Thank you for showing this! This will help me out sooo mutch. I just thought one had to have a lathe to do this and therefore; I would have to make due with the double sided technique. Big help!

I wish I saw this video a week ago. Been trying different methods but nothing works as simply as your way. Can't wait to get back at it.

Really good explaining, I don't see comments saying "close enuff but not exact" here. Liked and subbed, hope you show a lot of the old techniques. I hadn't thought about the wood bending instead of the bit!

i have been thinking about this for a day and found this. Made my day! Supersmart :D

Thans I'm fabricating control rods for A/P servos in aircraft, and this is going to work just perfect! Nice vid!!

Just stumbled onto your channel. Great ideas you share. Thank you.

Excellent method without complications. Thank you for this.

Great vid. Thanks for sharing, man! I always fail at this but your video has given me renewed hope!Thanks!

Tips like this are worth their weight in Osmium. Brilliant- thanks.

thank you for taking the time to make this video, its a massive help.

Excellent informative video. Thanks for posting

Thank you for this tip. You have solved a very frustrating problem I have!💯

Perfect solution - at the perfect time. Thanks so much for sharing this!

That is so friggin clever! Amazing! I owe you one...thank you for sharing that 👍

Very unique. Loved it.

Simple but full of ingenuity. I'll give it a try. Many thanks.

Great tip. Saved my day today thank you 🙏🏼

Great tip. Thanks for posting it!

Smart. I will use this technique today. Thanks

Wow, that was a great video tip that I will definitely use. Thanks!

Same technique they use for metal on lathe. The material spins not the drill bit. Great explanations for doing it with the drill press for those that don't have a lathe .

Brilliant two-step solution!

That was a handy dandy excellent tip!

Great tip! I should have watched before try to freehand 😄 i will try it out

이렇게 좋은 방법을 알려주셔서 너무 감사합니다.

Good Video, I will try this, as I always have trouble finding the center of a round rod or dowel. Thanks.

You're a genius. I'm subscribing

you made my day with this tip. Simply perfect solution!

That's really cool, takes out a lot of guess work. Thanks!

Great idea for small diameter dowels. Thanks

Works perfect !! Great tip. Easier than the other way around ...thanks

I purchased a bell punch to center hole, then step drill with the smallest drill bit first slow. remember to walk the drill bit out of the hole many time to clean the hole 40w motor oil work great for lub

Cool tip and video. Seems that you could did the inverse as well, that is use the chuck to center the piece into the vice then put the drill into the chuck. It wouldn't be self-centering, but it would not enlarge the hole the way self-centering could.

Thanks, just what I nee for a current project.

This was I was looking for Thanks so much tom

Thank you for the video! This is just what I needed.

Great tip. Thanks for sharing.

So obvious once someone shows you :D Now where's my 35mm chuck...

Great tip! Thanks. Was very effective.

Genius idea. Thanks for the video.

Thanks so much for posting this video!!

Awesome tip!

This is a great tip! I was actually searching for a jig that will help tap into aluminum tubing. I need to tap into the ends of an aluminum tube to install 8-32 rods. Tried it by hand today just holding the aluminum tube in a vice - what a hot mess that turned out to be! First I'll drill the tubing to the correct size ( #29 bit I think), then try tapping into the tube. Think this will work for my application? Thanks again, great info!

Very cool trick. Thanks for making this video.

that's really creative, thank you

very good tip. consider clamping the vice once the drill bit has been positioned.

Awesome tip, Thanks!

i wish ive sheen that video some days ago...it would have saved me from trouble! Very clever!!! Thanks!

A great idea, thanks, solves a few problems for me.

Thank you for sharing this tip

Very useful, thanks for the short video.

+TabLeft Workshop i use the lathe as it has a 110mm travel and 1000mm travel if also moving the headstock, instead of the rubbish 50mm travel of the drill press but wether you have the bit or the dowel in the chuck the biggest issue is deflection causing the bit to wander due to wood grain, brad point wood bits instead of hss helps but still no substitute for slow feed and regular chip removal with a thinner bit for a pilot hole first.

Wow that is a great idea!

Very useful, thanks for sharing

fantastic.... thanks that's just what I need for a project ☺

This is very interesting. Thanks! What if the drill bit is from material lighter than then the work piece material? Does it still work?

I could have used this technique on Friday at work, seriously, I was making an emergency spade bit extension 1 metre long using some tube steel and small lengths of solid round stock. This would probably work better with some V jaws in the drill vise.

Thank you so much for this video Sir.

As for me I appreciate the math explanation keep it up

Brilliant ! Great stuff !

I think this would work equally well if you used the chuck to align the wood in the vice. The key thing is that you're using the same object (the chuck) to align both the cutter, and the thing you're cutting.

Great video, thank you so much, now I can drill a hole in the centre of some bar stock 😁

Ah man I drilled a hole through a steel bar stock and it came out wonky, I wish I knew this then, such a good idea!

This really saved my bacon! Thank you!

Very good tip that I will be using. Thanks.

This is great! Unfortunately the project I’m currently doing requires a hole drilled into the end of quite a long length of dowel so I don’t think this will work - but still glad I learnt this.

Too cool for school! new subscriber!

Great video

Thank you! I never would have figured that out.

This is amazing. You just earned a new subscriber 😉.

Brilliant simple yet brilliant

Cool. I see this is similar to how metal lathes work, although usually with much bigger chucks, lol.

Awesome!!! Thanks for the tip.

Excellent! Thank you!

Thanks for the video.

Clever stuff -thank you :) I was assuming I had to use a lathe to do this.

You can also make a saw cut halfway through a block of wood, clamp the block to the drill press table with the slit aprox. aligned with the drill center, drill down the slit, take the drill out of the chuck and insert the shank in the hole created, clamp the wood against the drill shank and it will be centered, ready to drill a dowel in the chuck. Described like this sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple.

That is clever, thank you!

Great video. I am looking to get something similar done, but don't have any of the tools. Do you know what type of businesses provide the service for a fee?

Brilliant. Thanks so much.

How about reversing the drill with the rod? First align the rod with the drill and vice, then release the rod from the chuck after fastening it to the vice and finally put the drill bit on chuck and start drilling. I've been trying to find a nice way to drill a center of the steel rod and tapping some thread there. You just give me some good ideas. I am not sure if I still need a drill punch in this situation.

Genius . Thanks for sharing this

Cool tip, thanks.

ive drilled dowels before but never in reverse. thank you sir