Drills and Drill Presses is part of The Missing Shop Manual Series from Skills Institute Press, LLC. It lives up to the series subtitle which promises "the tool information you need at your fingertips." This book may be small in size (about 4 inches x 6 inches and 99 pages plus index), but the information it contains is presented in a practical and reader-friendly way. Old shop hands and do-it-yourself newbies alike will find something they can use in Drills and Drill Presses.
All About Drills
The book is organized into nine chapters that outline drilling basics, operations, and project-specific techniques. The beginning chapters discuss how to choose a drill for a particular job, the different kinds of bits that are available, and the basic parts of drills and available accessories. Need to sharpen just about any kind of drill bit? No problem. Instructions for using both grinding wheels and hand files to sharpen bits are included.
Practical Tips for Hand Drills and Drill Presses
Drills and Drill Presses includes a chapter on basic drilling techniques that will get an inexperienced user off to a good start in using and getting the most out of their tools. Illustrated examples explain how to use drills for boring straight holes of various sizes, enlarging preexisting holes, making dowels, and driving screws. Other sections describe how to use templates to make jobs requiring the alignment of multiple holes easier.
Illustrated instructions show how to make useful devices such as a dowel drilling jig, depth guides and gauges, a pocket hole jig, a spacing jig, a drill press sanding table, and a number of other things. The book does not go into a great deal of detail on anything, but the simple explanations and pictures should be enough to help just about anyone figure out how to get things done with an electric hand drill or drill press.
Specific Drill Techniques
The book includes instructions for how best to employ a drill for accomplishing a number of common home repair and maintenance tasks. Such tasks include installing locksets and handrails, and the making of mortise and tenon joints. A final chapter goes into greater detail on the specific drill techniques needed for quality cabinet making.
In combination with the other books in the series, which includes Circular Saws and Jig Saws, Table Saw, Glue and Clamps, and Lathe, would make part of an excellent compact library of reference works that would be a welcome addition to any shop library.
References
Drills and Drill Presses; Skills Institute Press; East Petersburg, PA: 2010
Philip McIntosh - The author holds a B.Sc. in Botany and Chemistry and an M.A in Biology and he has thirty + years of experience in science and industry.
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