Drilling Finished Timber.

[fanlee]

Hi.

What's the safest techniquefor drilling holes in finished timber?

Some would be fairly small gauge holes for wood screws and some would be ~11mm dia for bushings.

I've tried putting the bushings in & masking during finishing, but this causes some problems with pooling & subsequent sanding around them.

TIA

[jmk89]

My usual technique in situations like these is to wait for the finish to harden and then put masking tape on the finish where the hole will be, and drill through the masking tape. Remove the masking tape and you should have a clean-edged hole (sometimes there is a bit of tape adhesive to clean of but that isn't hard, so long as the surface is).

The main trouble for me is waiting for the finish to be hard enough. If it isn't it can come away with the masking tape, which is not what you want!!!

[durwood]

Try clamping a piece of timber/ply/MDf on top after the finish has dried.

If you drill a fine pilot hole in both your job and the top timber you can locate the exact spot to drill. The drill should act the same as when you back up with a piece of timber to stop breakthrough when drilling.