Drill Bits for Plastic
Plastic drill bits were designed to deal with such materials as Plexiglas® and Acrylite® along with other plastics.
It’s entirely possible that by looking at the title of this article you may be inclined to think that a new drill bit has been developed using plastic as the primary component of construction. However, when referring to plastic drill bits we are actually referring to a drill bit specifically designed to bore through a variety of plastics while producing a smooth hole.
Many have mistakenly tried to use a standard wood bit to achieve this goal and wound up with cracks and jagged edges in their plastic (we’ll talk more about this later).
If you are using a plastic drill bit for the first time it is important to make sure that when you drill as a guide for an attaching screw that you make the hole size slightly larger than the screw to allow for any contractions in the plastic.
While a standard drill can be used to drill holes in plastic, a drill bit specifically for plastics may have best results when a drill press is used. The primary reason this is true has to do with the slow even pressure needed to achieve the smoothest desired result. If you do need to use a hand drill, be sure to ask which plastic drill bit may be best to use with this type of drill.
There are nearly 90 separate drill bits for applications involving plastic – all an inch or smaller.
Some experienced handy folk have found that regular wood drill bits can be used for this application, but require modification to the existing drill bit. Small flats must be ground on each side of the edges that will cut into the plastic. The speed of the drill must be reduced to supply gentle, continuous pressure to the plastic material.
If you’d rather purchase the plastic drill bit you need simply visit your favorite hardware store or shop online for the greatest variety and information.
