Well, last week I bought a shiny new electric drill (yay). Now I need advice on how to use it without losing a finger.

Okay, it's not as bad as it sounds. I've used drills in college. My problem now is that I want to drill fairly large holes (about 8 mm) in small pieces of wood (about 4 cm square), and I don't know how to keep them still. I've tried taping them down onto a wooden box, but half the time the tape breaks and I end up with a piece of wood spinning round and round on my drill bit.

I don't have any C-clamps, I don't have a workbench, and I certainly don't have a vise. Anyone got a great idea? Or know of a clamp I can buy that's ideally suited to small pieces?

*added difficulty: If you can recommend a piece of equipment, please show me a picture because there is no way in heck I'll know what it's called in Chinese.

Suggestions:

1. Solder the block down onto something. I don't know if solder will stick to wood or if the soldering iron will burn the block, though.

2. Superglue. Enough said.

3. Place a heavy weight (kitchen table? bookcase? house?) on top and trap it between the weight and the floor. Sortof like a vise.

4. Instead of using the drill, find a sufficiently powerful acid and drop a drop right through the wood. (What? People can always find acids that powerful on TV...)

Of course, all of these can destroy the wood for your chosen purpose in one way or another...

The most important rule to remember when attempting to avoid drilling your finger is not to operate the drill when the apex of the bit is placed against your finger. Doing so will invariably cause you to shout "Aargh!" (as well as a variety of other expletives) and produce a small aperture in the aforementioned finger. While this aperture may sound a charming ornament, its formation tends to cause extreme stimulation of the nociceptors, which tends to result in unpleasant sensations. The aperture is also quite detrmental to the manipulation of objects, and renders the finger far more susceptible to invasion by foreign bodies (and we all know who xenophobic fingers are). I would not recommend producing one unless the interior of your finger is under extreme pressure, and liable to burst without some sort of ventilation. Be forewarned, however, that a similar practice was used to treat cranial ailments in the past, with a less-than-admirable rate of success.

Once you've got that down, it should be a breeze.

Certainly don't try taping it or gluing! Why can't you buy a vise, it is not that expensive and is useful for all sorts of jobs.

Idea: take a plank, position it 4.5 cm from wall, put block in (on another piece of wood preferably), drill. The block won't be able to rotate.
Hold the plank in the place, far enough from the drill, with your legs.

...mainly because I'd have to lug the thing home on foot, I suppose. Plus a vise isn't that useful for irregularly shaped objects.

Do they make something like a bit strong pair of tongs I could grip things with?

One thing I miss about America: Home Depot. You won't believe how hard it is to hunt down a piece of scrap wood around here.

Your description sounds like your main problem is that the wooden pieces start to spin, not keeping the drill in the correct place of the piece.

Would you have a problem if your wooden box (or something equivalent) is damaged during the process?

If not instead of taping your pieces you might fix them with nails around them.

If you have something suiteable you can put something heavy right next to the corner of your wooden peice maybee thats enough.

I'm with Arcosh on this.

Find something that you can nail into - even temporarily, as a nail hole is not quite as destructive as a nail left sticking out. The base you are nailing to has to be large enough to stay put by itself or for you to be able to hold it firmly.

Eight nails - two on each side, close to the corners of your block.

The 'nest' thus created can be used for each block.

That'd be how I'd do it, but as you say, you might not be able to find a scrap piece of wood as easily as I can.

Would it be possible to jam the block in a drawer - then lean on the drawer to hold it whilst you drill? Even if you have to chock it up from beneath to stop it dropping into the drawer... hmmm.

Could you jam all the blocks into a square tin of some kind?

Perhaps get a new piece of wood, mark it up, drill the holes, then cut it into blocks?

Do you have a friend who would stand with a foot on a block whilst you drilled it horizontally beneath their sole?

Anyway, good luck!

Sounds like what you need isn't a vice, but something like quick-gripsor pony clamps. They're light-weight, but they can be tightened hard enough to break every bone in your hand if you so desired (weirdo). They have worked for me a number of times in a number of places, even for oddly shaped pieces.

As far as gluing, if it's small enough, Elmer's glue should hold it... and that's water-soluble, if you dont mind your wood getting wet.

DD's suggestion will work just fine. Glue is just unnecessarily messy.

I would use super glue on wood. I'd use wood glue. But I have limited experience in these things.

Superglue would be a pain to get off, if you dont want it permanently fixed. I assume the same is true of wood glue? (I don't know)

Elmer's glue, I know for a fact is water-soluble, so it's a good *temporary* option.

I would prefer not to use glue at all, because I'm actually making wooden chew toys for my parrot, and I wouldn't want to poison him. On second thoughts, maybe gluing his beak shut wouldn't be such a bad idea....

Drummer dude, you're a genius. I shall print that picture out and show it to the hardware store guys. Yeah, I know it's a lot of trouble to go through just for some chew toys, but you should see how much they charge for them in the pet store.

I used to drive hardware store guys nuts. I'd go in and say something like "I want to wire 21 refrigerator lightbulbs together in parallel without blowing myself up, how do I do it?" or "How would you fix these steel springs between two wooden boards so they go boingy boingy boingy?" and they'd scratch their heads and say "What the heck do you want to do that for?" and I'd say "Art project" and then they'd all roll their eyes... Heh heh.

Drill the holes in larger pieces of wood, then use a saw to cut them to size around the hole.

Alternatively, get a vice or something similar. Doing this work without one is sure to cause injury.

Oh, and wear eye protection!

Since we're all working blind -- When you're done, can you post a pic for us, Kea? :)