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Drilling For Jack?


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Thats true. I got my drill press at harbor freight and then replaced the chuck with a better one. If I remember my press will go to 1800 RPM. I've used drills to drill the hole but when doing square plate LP style jacks I use the router bit.

Can't remember exactly what I paid for the press but it was around $200.00 on sale. Not bad for a production drill press.

I used to use a hand drill and had way to many issues with it over the years. Guess my hand isnt steady enough!

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Just get a decent forstner bit set. The majority of the jacks fit in a 3/4" hole, but I've seen a few that needed a 7/8" and if you ever decide to do a telecaster style jack, you definitely will need a larger on. Plus there are plenty of times that the larger forstner bits come in handy for bulk removal of wood.

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Suggestion 1; always wait until you get the hardware before drilling. Guessing is generally a bad idea. Sure you can ask around, but what if the jack you ordered is bigger or smaller than what we think it is? You should be ok with 1/2", but...

Suggestion 2; Don't try to 'enlarge' a hole with a handdrill/forster bit. It will tear up the wood around the hole and that will ruin your day. You will also have a hard time drilling deadcenter. You can do it with a press drill. Just make sure your alignment is ok.

Remember forstner bits are usually used for fast wood removal. They are not 'precise' drilling tools. I'm not saying it can't be used to drill holes (I do it sometimes), but it's not the best tool for this purpose. It's like trying to eat soup with a fork... It will work, but it's definitely not the best way to eat soup :D

Edited by MescaBug
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Fostner bit with teeth not a straight face.

I would tend to believe a router bit would tear up the wood at such slow speeds.

A fostner bit with teeth is like a hole saw, much more efficient at removing wood.

My 2 1/2 cents worth

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I used a uni-bit stepped drill on my last build, because it was all I had at the time. (too scared to used a spade bit, and the forstners I had in the shop were too big.) I have a bunch of those for drilling holes in metal. Worked quite well as it slowly sized up to the appropriate size. (Which fortunetly happened to be the size of the last step.) Didn't go all the way through though, but left just enough material that I could carefully kiss it off with a round file.

I don't generally use the uni-bits for wood working, but I have used them in places where I'm drilling large holes and have accidently under-sized my hole - no matter what sort of drill bit I use, trying to go "one size up" with larger holes doesn't really work for me. I generally drill a small pilot hole and then go at it with brad points or forstner bits of the size needed.

EDIT: This is a unibit. the one I used stepped up to 3/4", and had larger "steps", but same idea.

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hmm.. I think you will have a hard time finding a 3/4" drill bit... 1/2" is the biggest 'commonly' used bit. You will have to look into industrial grade bits. I might be wrong. It's not everyday you need such a huge drillbit.

I'm curious about why you need a 3/4" hole for a jack? I've never seen a jack hole bigger than 1/2".. The jack you want to use needs a 3/8" hole..

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...tput_Jacks.html

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hmm.. I think you will have a hard time finding a 3/4" drill bit... 1/2" is the biggest 'commonly' used bit. You will have to look into industrial grade bits. I might be wrong. It's not everyday you need such a huge drillbit.

I'm curious about why you need a 3/4" hole for a jack? I've never seen a jack hole bigger than 1/2".. The jack you want to use needs a 3/8" hole..

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...tput_Jacks.html

The reason I need the big hole is that I don't have the inside cavity routed in such a way that there's space for the body of the jack. I need to drill a big enough hole that the jack body will fit inside it.

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hmm.. I think you will have a hard time finding a 3/4" drill bit... 1/2" is the biggest 'commonly' used bit. You will have to look into industrial grade bits. I might be wrong. It's not everyday you need such a huge drillbit.

I'm curious about why you need a 3/4" hole for a jack? I've never seen a jack hole bigger than 1/2".. The jack you want to use needs a 3/8" hole..

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...tput_Jacks.html

The mounting hole is 3/8" the body of the jack is well over 3/8". You need a 3/8" hole in the plate that you attach the jack to. You need a 3/4" (usually) hole in the body for the jack to fit into.

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