# Driil angle holes on Drill Press



## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

I decided its time I finish the deck railing on our new deck. The railing uses 3/4" EMT and on the straight rail no problem. Now because of the angle of the stairs I need to drill 57 degree angled holes to account for the slope of the stairs.

I have been down in my shop this morning coming up zero. My table on the drill press I think only tilts about 40 or 45 degrees. The supports that I'm making are about 34" long so as you move through and I don't tilt the table the height will increase as I move the piece through?

Any ideas?


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

How about something like this? If I understand you correctly.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

The problem is that his angle is past 45° and his table won't go that far and the angle is too steep to drill safely. As I look at the problem the best solution would be to drill in place with a self countersinking bit.

M


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

I would try 33° and see if that works.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)




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## Blackjack59 (Aug 13, 2016)

I like waho6o9s jig. Seems it would work perfectly.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

> I would try 33° and see if that works.
> 
> - distrbd


Yup. 33° is the angle you need.


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

Setting to 33 degrees will not work. if you look at the diagram you'll see why.

Regardless which side you approach from the angle still has to be 57 degrees. The opposing 33 degree angle would be off the 90 degree plane that really doesn't exist. I believe my only option is to to create a 57 degree angle guide from a piece of stock ( cut a 12 degree bevel on one side and 45 on the opposing side) and manually drill each hole. Just a visual guide to manually drill, 8 holes x 16 pieces = 128 holes. I was going to use a forstner bit but that might walk at that angle. Tomorrow I will make and test the guide jig and report back.


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## bbasiaga (Dec 8, 2012)

I took two pieces of mdf and joined them with a hinge. They were the same size as my drill press table. I can then take a narrow piece of wood and pit it between them. The farther I push it toward the hinge, the bigger the angle I get.

You could do the same I think. Use your bevel gauge to set the top table of the jig at the correct angle, and drill away with your drill press.

Brian


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## devann (Jan 11, 2011)

If available have you considered renting a bore buster?

Here's a photo of one of two of a crude version I made many years ago. It started with the 4×4 & drill press. The 4×4 was drilled then cut the specific miter angle, and then a dado centered the width of the handrail to be drilled. On the top side of the handrail is block of wood shaped for centering handrail. I's on a threaded bolt that squeezes the handrail to the 4×4.


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

Rick, I think you're getting turned around by the fact that when your drill press table is set at "zero" it drills a hole that is 90 degrees to the face of the board. Look at your diagram again. You want to drill a hole that is 33 degrees away from straight into the face of the board. Set the table at 33 degrees and drill em.

Your angle gauge shows the angle between the post and rail as 57 degrees, but if that blade (rail) were horizontal in the second to last picture in your set it would be reading 90. You'd drill that hole by setting the drill press table to zero.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

> Setting to 33 degrees will not work.


Yes it will…I just did it. Example…

One cut on the miter saw for the handrail at 33 degrees.









One hole with the drill press table set at 33 degree's.









gives you this…









The angle of both stairs and railing is typically measured on a horizontal plane, not a vertical plane. Nothing wrong with measuring on the vertical as long as you realize that you have to convert that angle (57) to a horizontal plane(33) because that's what your miter saw and drill press table are referencing.
Also, if your going to reference your angle directly off of the newel post, make sure it's plumb.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

I thought the posts were going horizontally to match the ones on the upper deck.

Oops.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

> I thought the posts were going horizontally to match the ones on the upper deck.
> 
> Oops.
> 
> - waho6o9


That would be unusual, but could be…it wasn't specified.
Normally with this type of layout/design, they would either be installed vertically, or on the same plane as the stairs and hand rail.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Thanks Tony_S


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

I think the intent is for the EMT to be going down diagonally at a 33 degree angle, parallel to the handrail.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

A radial arm drill press would make this easy.


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

Just to clairify - I want the EMT to be horizontal (at the angle, to match the pitch of the rail and stairs) not vertical.


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

Hi Rick, I don't know if you came around to recognizing that drilling at 33 degrees on the drill press is right or not. You last word on the topic was that you weren't buying it, so I'm trying again.

Here's your diagram reoriented so that it represents the post sitting on a drill press table inclined at 33 degrees from horizontal, and you're going to be drilling your EMT holes straight down. Does that help?


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## jwmalone (Jun 23, 2016)

Decorative rope rails, like on those jungle bridges.


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

> Decorative rope rails, like on those jungle bridges.
> 
> - jwmalone


Good one.


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## Racer2007 (Jan 13, 2011)

I think this is what Bob and Tony were trying to show you . Sorry about the poor editing but I don't have a real good editing program at work.
If you check the angle of you rails from a level horizontal line down to the surface of the rail you should have 33 Deg. but if you check the angle from a vertical line to the rail you will have 57 Deg. 
Your angle from the vertical post to a horizontal line is 90 Deg. so a 33 Deg. down angle leaves you with 57 Deg. more to get back to 90 Deg. straight down. Hope this makes sense.
I am guessing that you want the EMT to go the same as the top rails from the upper part of the stair to the bottom of the stair.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

Ok. Now that it's clear what we're doing….
I assume the the pieces that your trying to drill out are the same as this one, and they'll go on the inside faces of all the posts on the stairs? The only difference is the holes are angled?









Refer to Bob's and Richards posts above….it's still 33° The angle of the drill press would be the same as the angle of the handrail that I cut in the photo's I posted previously which was 33°.


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

Thank you everyone for your input. Tomorrow when I get home from work I am going to try making a set of these using the 33 degree angle on the drill press , table tilted method - I'll report the result then. Since I have to make 20 of these, I want a method to produce repetitive pieces.


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## Racer2007 (Jan 13, 2011)

> I think this is what Bob and Tony were trying to show you . Sorry about the poor editing but I don t have a real good editing program at work.
> If you check the angle of you rails from a level horizontal line down to the surface of the rail you should have 33 Deg. but if you check the angle from a vertical line to the rail you will have 57 Deg.
> Your angle from the vertical post to a horizontal line is 90 Deg. so a 33 Deg. down angle leaves you with 57 Deg. more to get back to 90 Deg. straight down. Hope this makes sense.
> I am guessing that you want the EMT to go the same as the top rails from the upper part of the stair to the bottom of the stair.
> ...


Maybe this shows it better. Again not a very good editing program.


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

Well let me start out by saying thank you to everyone's feedback. The 33 degree angle did work I just couldn't see until till I got info from all of you. So I had a successful day. I tilted the drill press table to 33 degrees, made a fence so I was always on center, created a reference mark on the fence so I just had to line up the marks on pieces. With the table tilted I had to also remove 2 of the 3 handles on the drill press or I couldn't move the bit down far enough.
By the way its 1/2" EMT.










I had to remember to drill on what I'll call the back side of each piece, or on the long face. By the way I couldn't find 4/4 cedar so all of the 16 pieces I made today were milled from leftover cedar 2×4's. They are 1" thick x 2.25 wide. I drilled 128 holes today and cut 64 pieces of EMT ! Checkout the pics of the progress and drill press setup. I hope to finish the easy landing section tomorrow. Thanks again to all for advice and help.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I think you could have avoided removing the handles if you had tilted the table to the right instead of left.


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

Rick, I'm glad the 33° worked out , great job on the drill set up , the new deck looks well made ,hope your family appreciate how much work you put into it.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Great job Rick!


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

The completed railing - except for stain,


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## Woodchuck2010 (Jan 19, 2016)

That looks amazing. Great job!!!


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## 01ntrain (Jun 21, 2015)

I second that! Awesome job!

I'm saving this thread, for sure…..


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## Racer2007 (Jan 13, 2011)

Very nice job of the stair rails Rick . Now if you really want to get messed up on angles , try making a 5 , 7 or 9 sided Box , You will really Hate Angles after that .


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## rockmolsen (Feb 3, 2014)

Just some additional update on the deck project. I had to add risers (new code requirement) and I got the railing all stained.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Good looking job. I like the Escher-like quality of the 3rd photo.


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