predrill "bit" sizes

[302yota 10+ year member]

what size drill bit do yall use when predrilling for your screws.....how far do you drill?...and do yall countersink your holes?

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[302yota 10+ year member]

also, what kind of bits do yall use on your routers to cut out the sub holes....i'm tryin to learn how to use my rotozip, so i can quit using my jigsaw.....but everytime i try to cut with the bits they gave me, it just make the tool jump away....so i think i'm using the wrong bit.....i've also got a regular router i can use.

 

[SPY 5,000+ posts]

I use 3/32" predrill with countersink.

As for the holes I use a router with spiral up cutting bit and a jasper jig.

 

[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

When predrilling I usually would go just barely deeper than the screw will go. Always countersink your screws. As for the size of the bit a 3/32 or 1/8" will work fine, just hold it up next to the screw and see that the bit size is smaller than the shank of the screw by just a very very tiny bit.

If you are cutting a hole with a rotozip i would imagine you need to make many passes that are not very deep since the bits are only 1/8" diameter. If you are using a router I would go with 3 or 4 passes ~1/4" deep each using preferably a spiral up cut bit or a straight bit if you dont have the spiral.

Which bit are you using in the rotozip?

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

3/32" for the wodd the screw is going into. the piece the screw is going threw should be at least .201, #7 with a 82 degree countersink. you want a little bigger than the od of the threads so you can position it good...

 

[MrSwiss 10+ year member]

3/32" for the wodd the screw is going into. the piece the screw is going threw should be at least .201, #7 with a 82 degree countersink. you want a little bigger than the od of the threads so you can position it good...

im sure he is more confused now! lol

 

[302yota 10+ year member]

nah, i understand completely what splaudio said....so i need to get a spriral up cutting bit, a 3/32" drill bit, and a 82degree countersink.....what exactly is a jasper jig????....and btw the only bit that i've been using on my rotozip is a roundover bit...and man is that not one of the coolest tools to use...lol

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

what you want to do is go to a lowes or a woodworking store. get the bit that dose the 82degree cs and drills the hole at the same time. make SURE it has a stop so it hits the same depth on every hole if not when the countersink hits its gonna pull and make the cs deep VERY quickly. get the spiral flute not the cheap flat bits...

 

[orangecounty1 10+ year member]

for mdf i use 3/32 but i dont like mdf so i usually dont work with it

but for my whole wall which is birch, i used a 5/64 bit, and it worked fine. i like birch becuase the screw countersinks itself in it and i dont even use a countersink bit

 

[kush-divinity 10+ year member]

I use 5/64 on MDF and Ply as well, seems to hold the screws better than 7/64 or 1/8. I don't put many screws in, as they are a PITA to get out when glue sets and I'm going to roundover the edges.

As far as your router goes, keep on using a jigsaw, just be careful and take your time. I bought a router and thought I would love it to cut holes.

I was wrong.

I have a nice circle cutter/edge guide, but it just seems more trouble to cut 1/4, then reset router for another pass. And cutting the entire thickness of MDF in one pass is a bad idea....

 

[SPY 5,000+ posts]

A Jasper jig is a circle cutting jig for your router. There are 2 versions and PE sells them as a package if you want both.

and I have to disagree with ^^^, I love cutting circles with my router, I will never go back to using a jigsaw again.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

5/64" is .012 bigger than 3/32. i still use my jigsaw nothing beats a bosch. routers are nice but cant do as much with them...

 

[kush-divinity 10+ year member]

5/64" is .012 bigger than 3/32. i still use my jigsaw nothing beats a bosch. routers are nice but cant do as much with them...

3/32 = 6/64.........//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

5/64 is .012 SMALLER... therefore holding a RCH more.