Wood boring Safety

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Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Some cordless drills even have enough torque to do more injury then some may realize.

the new stuff, with the 18 volt ass whooping batteries need to be treated
with all the respect of a corded drill.

when i'm drilling, and don't want to play "spin the sparky" i use a
Milwaukee auger with replaceable cutting blade. it's a single cutting edge,
so it's not quite as bad as something with three flukes hanging up. you
can usually just bull thru, chunking up the offending nail as you go.

i use a 6" extension, with quick release chuck in the drill, and have two
24" extensions i can add to it. i drill from the floor. it's faster. i'll usually
run with the 6" extension, and the 24" extension for most holes. i can pull
the 24" out of the plan when it gets in the way, or add the second 24" when
i'm doing plates. i really don't drill much off a ladder if i don't have to.

i use a 18 volt festool battery drill, and with half a dozen batteries and two
chargers, i can drill continuously. the festool doesn't have a side handle,
and it should, but it's brushless, uses a VFD and a 3 phase motor, and is
indestructible. the chuck is a quick release, so you can have two or three
different things chucked up, and change them in a second, including a
right angle attachment that is super small.

i've got a Milwaukee super hawg, and it's really too much to drill with,
unless you are a plumber putting in 4" drain pipe. it's got a clutch on the
low speed setting, honestly for safety's sake, not to make it more controllable.
it's not controllable. what it came with was my maxxis tugger, and it works fine
there.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
We don't do a lot of houses any more but back when I did buy an extension for my 1/2 inch rt angle that put the chuck out another couple feet from the end. It is angled somewhat so you can get between the studs and long enough to reach floor joists from the floor below. It has an extra handle that clamps to the extension. Works great for homes.

Hole Hawgs were killers. Even braced they would rip the stud from the wall. Only took once to learn where not to put your hand.
 

Shawn pavich

Member
Location
Fresno ca
1/2 inch hole hawg drill 300/1200 rpm ,don't do too much houses anymore but when I did the hole hawg was a must,on low gear it could get away from you, but on high it is easy to control if it Boggs up on you, I noticed that us electricians always used the hole hawg and the plumers had the dewalt right angle drill. Both are easy to control
 

George Stolz

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
It usually only takes one strike to keep your head away from the drill. I'm special, though, it took me two hits - but it was on the same trip up the ladder. I'm a hole hawg guy.
 

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Hole Hawg, high speed.

Straddle the top of a ladder and drill 7 joists from one spot. I use it one-handed like that. Drill through top plate with left hand on back handle

I've never liked a handle on the side, just gets in the way.


Best advice I can give is to develop cat-like reflexes - learn how to let go fast.
 

norcal

Senior Member
Years ago was using a 3 5/8" hole saw chucked in a Milwaukee Magnum right angle drill, what was the problem is that had the trigger locked and had the 4 'ladder leaning against the garage door opening, the saw bound up the drill came around & smacked me in the teeth resulting in a loose tooth, it hurt for a bit, & the tooth problem cleared up quickly, was glad it was not worse, if it had been a Hawg the damage would have been a lot worse & a lot more careful about locking triggers.




Someone here said "Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment".
 

templdl

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
Years ago was using a 3 5/8" hole saw chucked in a Milwaukee Magnum right angle drill, what was the problem is that had the trigger locked and had the 4 'ladder leaning against the garage door opening, the saw bound up the drill came around & smacked me in the teeth resulting in a loose tooth, it hurt for a bit, & the tooth problem cleared up quickly, was glad it was not worse, if it had been a Hawg the damage would have been a lot worse & a lot more careful about locking triggers.




Someone here said "Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment".
That reminds me of an incident that happened to me while using my conventional 1/2" Milwaukee magnum. I had been using it all along w/O the side hand thinking that it was a larger version of the 3/8" drill. WRONG!! I got religion whern a bit hung up and started to twint the drill a rt ound winding the cord around my wrist to the point that it was aslwast an impossibility to release the trigger. It has0ened in as blink of an eye as you see your life flashing before you.
Install the side handle and use the drill with both hands.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Hole Hawg, high speed.

Straddle the top of a ladder and drill 7 joists from one spot. I use it one-handed like that. Drill through top plate with left hand on back handle

I've never liked a handle on the side, just gets in the way.


Best advice I can give is to develop cat-like reflexes - learn how to let go fast.

Interesting advice for a thread named 'Wood Boring Safety'.
 

fmtjfw

Senior Member
Years ago, When I was a teenager (OK, many decades ago) we were building a room in the basement. My father borrowed a 3/4 inch power drill from work. It had two 18 inch pipe handles. He was drilling some holes in the concrete floor for rawl anchors. The bit hit a piece of aggregate. The drill and my father rotated in circles until the cord wound around him and pulled from the receptacle. If I only had had the super-8 movie camera with me! (It would have made up for the time I got stuck climbing a tree and they wouldn't help me until they got the camera out to document my plight.
 

rt66electric

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
Knot-on-the-head Theory of education

Knot-on-the-head Theory of education

The best teaching tool is a "Knot-on-the-head"

everytime I got a "Knot-on-the-head" I learned not to do that.........
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
"Not a personal safety issue, but always check the other side of what you're drilling, just in case there is a FA pull box conduit inline with your drill path, or something."

Always! My Dad taught me to always run your hand on the other side of what you're getting ready to drill. Bits don't care, they just keep churning away!

So true. and that is a true story, was the first job I ever pulled comm cable on. Had to drill a few blocks walls. The last, I *did* check the other side where I was drilling, nothing there, so I fire 'er up. About 30 seconds later I hear an odd noise, so I power down the drill. The fire alarm system is going off. I look into the hole, and see lots of mangled shiny copper. Oops. There was a pull station about 4' below where I was drilling, and ofc it's in pvc conduit so no match for the drill bit. The bright side was that we found several problems with their FA system, not the least of which was that its dedicated phone line had been abandoned/reappropriated, so the FD never came.

I dont know whether to cringe or laugh at some of the posts in this thread... probably just be glad it wasnt me.
 

johnmeto

Banned
Location
US
Remaining on a stepping stool one time with a 4" opening saw penetrating a ship-lap roof for some light apparatuses.
 
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