Drilling Paper

Someone asked on the Etsy forums about drilling paper. I figured that it would be a good learning experience to try drilling paper with some pretty low tech methods.

A 3/8" diameter thin wall piece of tubing from the hobby store. I countersunk the end with a 82-1/2 degree countersink.

The "zero-flute" or "weldon" style countersink, but any countersink would do.

Set up in the drill press, rotating around 1200 rpm, I brought it down into a stack of paper.

Drilled 1/2" deep, a little ragged, but overall a very quick way to put holes in a bunch of paper at once.

The tube is jammed up with paper discs, it would be best to add a slot/hole in the side to allow the discs to eject. I then tried this using a hand drill and it worked fine as well. While not as good as a professional paper drill, clearly this method works well enough for short runs.

Yet another topic to address in my massively outlined, completely unwritten, guide to drilling for craftspeople.