Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid tearing maple veneer when you’re trying to countersink screws into a sheet of plywood. The countersinking is going to be filled with a wood plug and I’d like to make the overall appearance of the plug as minimal as possible after its glued and in place. The last time i did this i got a little tearing aroung the hole. I’m using a 12 volt porter cable battery drill that only works on “low.” The high gear went out on a redwood greenhouse job a while back. Maybe if I got a new, faster drill the chances of veneer tear would be less? I’ve been putting it off for a while and am starting to think its this sort of problem that may neccessitate a purchase. Maybe I need to drill through a block applied over the hole first? that seems uneccessarily labor intesive. I know there must a be good technique for this out there. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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I posted a reply to your message in the Construction Techniques folder, so please don't take this message as a sign that I hate you and wish you would go away. :) I noticed that your two messages were posted an hour apart, which leads me to believe you posted here, waited an hour, saw that no one had replied, and posted there. All very understandable, but...
A lot of posters only log in once a day. Quite a few don't log in at all on the weekends. Some don't log in every day even during the week. So no answer in an hour on Sunday afternoon really doesn't mean anything. This isn't a chat room. The point of all this, besides trying to assure you that we're not ignoring you, is that posting in more than one folder may actually reduce the quality of the answers you get.
We often see cases where it's the interplay between respondents that elicits the best information. Poster A may have the information you need but doesn't realize it because the phrasing of the question just doesn't trigger the association. Poster B may offer a second best solution, but the way he phrases is does trigger the association in A's mind, and he posts the answer you were looking for. So if you post in two different folders, and A and B each read one of them and don't even look at the other one because it's a duplicate, you miss out.
Another reason for not posting in multiple folders is that some of us old graybeards get really disoriented when we answer a question and then see the same question later that day or the next day without the answer we posted, and don't realize for a moment that it's in a different folder.
How about clamping a block of scrap wood over the hole location, then drill through them both? Pre-test and mark the proper depth (relative to the top surface of scrap material) on the countersink bit with some tape.
i think tou mean counterbore, not countersink---try a brad point or something with a cutter on the outside that cuts the veneer before the body of the hole is cut--higher rpm = cleaner cut--might be time to get a better drill motor
or a forstner bit" An example from the monkey: The higher it climbs, the more you see of its behind." Saint Bonaventure
How about a good old "Fuller" brand countersink/counter bore bit for the appropriate screw size and a "Fuller" brand plug cutter to match(they have 4 cutting edges instead of 1 or2). Best of both worlds from the same company.
Thanks, I've finished with my first full blown plugging experience just using plugs from the local ace hardware but I checked out the Fuller site and they look like the people to use if you get into plugging more seriously. Thanks so much for the advice.